......Remember the old adage: ‘When the going gets tough ... the tough get going’! Well folks, things are getting pretty darn tough out there these days.
Just like the rest of the world, our Eastern Seaboard real estate industry is being rocked and hammered like so many other industries – and yes, it’s getting tough!
You cannot help but notice some of the many signs out there in the real estate market of just how tough things are getting here in Pattaya and throughout the Eastern Seaboard of Thailand.
Just as in the terrible mortgage and banking fiascos all over the world, we have to ask ourselves if we in real estate did not create these problem ourselves.
We have just come out of the biggest property boom in Thailand’s history. Unlike the last Thai property boom during the ’90s, the most recent ‘property purchasing bubble’ brought with it unprecedented amounts of foreign money.
It would have been wonderful to see a proactive business environment developed here in Pattaya during those ‘good ole days’ that are quickly fading into the past, but are we not going to do anything about what is so obviously wrong with our real estate industry today?
Pattaya and Thailand’s entire Eastern Seaboard needs an immediate ‘facelift’ – cosmetic surgery – and fast!
Speaking of face, just how are we showing ourselves to the rest of the world?
As if things are not tough enough, a recent (October 2008) Financial Times article with the title, Pattaya: Re-Invention in Progress began with a single page of reports featuring local Pattaya news items, such as “a one-legged Finnish lawyer was stabbed with a knife when he caught his mistress’s real boyfriend robbing his apartment” followed by “a scantily-clad Thai woman, with an Englishman riding pillion, was knocked off a motorbike by a gang of youths who stole cash and a mobile phone” and finally, a third news item in the same publication and on the same page “a German bar owner was stabbed by the owner of a neighbouring bar in a row over a clothes line”.
Yes, pretty grim reading isn’t it? Doesn’t sound like the ‘Five Star Luxury Property Heaven’ we read about in so many of the property brochures does it?
And how about we real estate professionals here in Pattaya ... how are we looking these days?
That same Financial Times article went on to say “Welcome to Pattaya, the sprawling, snarling, raucous sex capital of Thailand and – oddly – booming residential market, if estate agents and developers are to be believed.
That writer didn’t present a very positive impression of Eastern Seaboard real estate agents (or developers!), as we, too, need an immediate face-lift as the signs of ‘over indulgence’ are just beginning to take their toll and very soon we are going to need every possible ounce of credibility we can muster.
Yes, things are getting real tough and they are going to get a lot tougher, making this the time for the tough to get going!
I was reading one of our local magazines published and on the streets in October and was astonished to read that “property developers in Thailand will spend more on marketing and advertising to boost sales and market share while launching many new projects” ... many new projects!
It wasn’t until I read a bit further and noticed a reference and industry projection from 2004 to 2006 that the ‘recent article’ was a reprint from a first quarter 2004 Business News Thailand publication. Are we completely out of good news?
The real estate publishing industry needs to regulate itself and begin its forward thinking and become a proactive industry instead of living (and printing!) in the past.Those days are over – long gone!
Publishers have to start being ‘accountable’ for what they allow themselves to publish as some of them make a mockery of our real estate industry.
If an advertiser completely copies another advertiser’s color scheme, layout and graphic presentation you simply do not allow it in your publication. It’s against the law and there are civil codes that protect advertisers that have created their own (private) trade identities. Besides, it’s absolutely pathetic!
If you have an columnist who is known to claim that he has graduated from a particular educational institution and it is easily disproved, you simply do not allow them to appear in your publication.
If someone has been involved in numerous police and court cases where foreigners have lost millions of baht – we in the industry all know who they are and what they have done – you simply do not allow them to advertise in your publication.
If an advertiser submits information about themselves as having held a senior role in another real estate company and you and everyone else knows they were not – you simply do not allow such blatantly false information in your publication.
For some reason (human nature?) it seems difficult to get individuals and companies in Pattaya to realise that we in the real estate industry are a team – a business team and we can make decisions together to make
our industry better – or we can just sit back and watch it all crumble from corruption
and greed.
Which Pattaya do you want to see in the future? Is it Pattaya, the sprawling, snarling, raucous sex capital of Thailand or that magical destination of sunshine, beautiful beaches and the nicest people in the world?
Yes, things are real tough. Many of us are experiencing the toughest times in our companies’ histories and things look to be getting even more challenging.
It’s time for the ‘good to gather’ and the ‘bad apples’ to close up shop!
Just take a good look at several of the largest and most successful developers in our area. Whether it’s the best condominium developers or the best housing developers, the quality developers ... the successful developers all have industrial integrity, marketing savvy and tremendous team work as their trademark.
They are leading our industry in development. Why can’t we lead our industry in publishing, marketing, and brokering expertise in just the same manner and high calibre?
I say we can – and it’s really not that tough!
l The views of our columnists are not necessarily those of REm.

A little more about our new columnist.
Our thanks to Clayton Wade, managing director of Premier Homes Real Estate for preparing this ‘Eye On Pattaya’ report.
Clayton Wade has been running Premier Homes with his wife, Khun Supap for more than 12 years.
He has been in the industry for 22 years, having started his real estate career in the United States, where he was licensed to practise both real estate sales and property management in Seattle.
He was responsible for bringing in the first 53 General Motors executives for the ‘start up phase’ of Thailand’s General Motors manufacturing facility and had a three year exclusive deal with the company. Following that he placed most of the ‘start up’ executives for the Eastern Seaboard’s BMW manufacturing facility.
Clayton is known throughout the Asia-Pacific region for his writing, public speaking and television presentations.
His accomplishments in promoting Thailand’s Eastern Seaboard real estate industry include having been a guest speaker with several of Thailand’s top political and business figures on CNBC’s Managing Asia programme.
You can visit Premier Homes’ website at: www.premierinternational.com
Clayton Wade may be contacted by telephone at +(66) (81) 634-2915 or by email at: clayton@premierinternational.com