Myanmar nationals resume buying up condominiums in Thailand

Investments in Thai real estate by Myanmar citizens have continued to grow amid inflation, violent conflict, and economic deterioration in their home country, Bangkok realtors said. People from Myanmar resumed buying condominiums in Bangkok as early as the third week of April, immediately following the annual Buddhist New Year’s festival and a few weeks after the 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck Myanmar’s capital and major central cities on March 28. The quake also damaged some structures in Thailand, including the collapse of an uncompleted multistorey building in Bangkok that killed 90 Myanmar nationals who were present on the construction site. Buyers from Myanmar have started investing in Bangkok properties again despite these damages, according to a real estate agent from Myanmar who sells condominiums in the Thai capital. “Real estate purchases halted when the quake happened, but sales resumed shortly after that,” he told Myanmar Now. However, the Myanmar investors’ purchasing pattern had changed slightly since the earthquake, he noted. Where they previously sought out high-end condos priced at between 3 and 5 million Thai baht (US $93,000 to $155,000), they began buying more modest condos at prices of around 1 million baht (US $31,000) each. Citing data from Thailand’s Real Estate Information Center (REIC), Thai media outlets have reported that the amounts spent by Myanmar buyers on real estate in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and other Thai cities have increased every year since Myanmar’s 2021 military coup. According to the same data, Myanmar surpassed Russia as the second-largest source of buyers for Thai condominiums and real estate after China. Buyers from China purchased 5,670 condominium units worth 26.6 billion baht (US $816 million) throughout Thailand in that year, according to the REIC data, as compared with 1,388 condominiums and properties worth 7 billion baht (US $216 million) purchased by Myanmar buyers. Thai contractors and agents are now offering more low-interest installment payment systems for new condo developments and other building projects, which may incentivise further investment from Myanmar in Thai properties this year, said a woman in an executive role at a Myanmar-based real estate company in Bangkok. Thai companies previously charged five percent interest at minimum in their installment plans but have now started offering interest-free payments for the first year and reduced rates over the longer term, she told Myanmar Now. “People from Myanmar used to buy in the new condominium market, but now because of budget constraints they’re turning more to the secondhand market,” the real estate executive said. Myanmar’s military junta, which has imposed limits on the outflow of United States dollars from the country to maintain its currency reserves, carried out a series of arrests in June 2024 targeting Myanmar nationals investing in real estate in Thailand. Theim Wai, also known as Serge Pun, a business tycoon and chair of FMI and Yoma Business Group, was among those arrested after allegedly using his Yoma Bank connections to facilitate Myanmar nationals’ purchases of houses and apartments in Bangkok. Myanmar nationals’ involvement in Thai real estate transactions ceased around that time, but resumed after the Thai contractors and agents began to guarantee the confidentiality of their investors’ identities. Business sources claimed that, although some investors at ordinary income levels participate in real estate transactions in Thailand, the biggest investors are those within the junta’s tight network of wealthy cronies, military-owned businesses, and high-ranking officers’ families. Thai authorities seized assets worth 1.8 billion baht (US $55 million) from Dr. Tun Min Latt, an arms dealer close to Myanmar junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, when they arrested and charged him with drug trafficking, money laundering, and other transnational crimes. The assets confiscated included high-end real estate as well as cars and other luxury goods. Among them was a unit in the Belle Rama IX luxury condo building owned by junta chief Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing’s son Aung Pyae Sone, and a Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) account opened in the name of Khin Thiri Thant Mon, the junta chief’s daughter. Myanmar investors have begun resituating their families’ healthcare and educational affairs to Thailand to avoid losses from the precipitous, continuing depreciation of the Myanmar kyat, according to one businessman who recently bought a two million-baht (US $62,000) condo in Bangkok. Wealthy cronies involved in banking, construction, real estate, and other sectors are also investing heavily in Thai housing and condo construction projects, he added. Condominium purchases have become so common, the businessman said, because foreigners do not have the right to direct ownership of real estate in their own names in Thailand, and often make use of a loophole allowing them to own newly constructed buildings on leased land through agreements with the legal landlords.

Myanmar nationals resume buying up condominiums in Thailand

Amounts spent by Myanmar buyers on real estate in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and other Thai cities have increased every year since Myanmar’s 2021 military coup

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