Words: Ashley Rigg
Published: 26th October 2009
Thai’s scared off by fractional
Fractional ownership may not appeal to buyers in Thailand, due to their unfamiliarity with the concept and the lack of regulation, experts warn.
New laws are needed to support the development of a fractional property market so there is an adequate legal infrastructure to settle potential disputes. Phanom Kanjanathiemthao, managing director of Knight Frank Chartered (Thailand) comments:
“If a customer or share owner breaks a promise or does not pay a common area expense, the project will be in a mess,” said Mr Phanom. “It would be pointless for a share owner who had spent just one million baht to buy a share in a unit to spend up to 500,000 baht on lawyers’ fees to sue over a disagreement”, he said.
Attracting local buyers
As the foreign market for Thai properties has shrunk due to the downturn, developers are looking at new ways to make property affordable to the local population. Fractionalizing developments is one of the strategies being considered by developers to broaden their target market and was the subject of a
recent conference in Phuket .
Thailand faces similar issues to other countries adopting fractional ownership schemes. It is a great idea in principle but the
evidence so far suggests that a lack of awareness, a negative perception of timeshare and a limited supply of quality product is hampering sales.
More coverage on
Thailand Real Estate Magazine.
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