Over the past few years you, the reader, will have seen numerous articles in the property trade magazines covering every aspect of the real estate market. Stories on topics like Boom or Bust, The Next Boom, Recession Forecasting and Crystal Ball Gazing, and all of them having some basis in truth but coloured by the thoughts and predictions of the writer.
These articles were written by some of the most knowledgeable people in our industry and it is not my place to criticise or contradict what has been written in the past. What I would like to do is to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and talk about how change is inevitable and how nothing stands still in the marketplace.
When I first came here as a tourist in the early1990s, my impression of the property market was that buying property in Thailand – and especially Pattaya – was like playing Russian roulette with a gun that had a bullet in every chamber. Not so much a risky business but more like certain suicide.
Some 10 years after my first visit, I decided to settle in Pattaya and was fortunate enough to join the ranks of a long-establish real estate company. Back in the UK, double glazing salesmen and real estate agents were considered the lowest form of life, but, keen to survive in fun city, I thought I would give it a go and learn as much as I could about the business I was in.
I listened keenly to my then boss who had come to Pattaya some 15 years earlier when he told endless stories about the property market during the ’80s and ’90s. Some of these stories made me laugh and some of them filled me with a sense of despair at the misfortune of the unwary purchaser in a marketplace where there were no rules and no legislation to back up the landlord, tenant, seller or buyer.
In the 10 years I have been in real estate here, I, too, have seen some terrible things happen to the uneducated customer. It soon became clear to me that the job of educating the customer who was looking to rent or buy fell squarely in the lap of the real estate broker.
Prior to the military coup in 2006, Pattaya’s real estate market seemed unstoppable. Property prices in some areas were going up by 25 per cent per year. Land was being bought and developed at an incredible rate and we saw a huge increase in the number of low-rise condominiums being built. The currency exchange rates were favourable for most foreigners who brought their hard earned cash to Thailand and, with a booming tourist industry, life just got better every day.
However, there was still this underlying feeling among some foreigners that Pattaya was still a Wild West town and that buying property was a dangerous venture to undertake.
Then some of the major companies in Pattaya took the gigantic step of actually getting together to try to bring some order to the chaos that was the real estate market. Forward-thinking professionals who wanted to promote good trading practices and make sure that our industry started to conform to a code of ethics.
It took several meetings by this group of real estate broker companies before the basic principles were laid down. Each member company of REBA-ES (Real Estate Broker Association – Eastern Seaboard) as it has now become, agreed to abide by a code of ethics designed to ensure that member companies stuck to the highest professional standards in our industry.
But, like all new organisations that want to bring change, REBA-ES met opposition from some real estate companies who did not want to comply with the high standards or who didn’t understand the objectives that REBA-ES stands for.
Undaunted by the reaction from some quarters, REBA-ES continues to try to break down the barriers between competing real estate broker companies with member companies starting to share information, ideas, listings, and customers. Sub-committees were formed to try to standardise lease agreements and sales contracts so customers would be treated the same by all member companies.
REBA-ES has an arbitration system in place should there be a dispute between buyer and seller or tenant and landlord.
Member companies meet once a month to share ideas and to discuss ways of making our industry better for everyone involved in the property marketplace.
In recent years our industry has had to endure bird flu, tsunami, SARS, a coup, red shirts, yellow shirts, blue shirts and now swine flu. On top of this we have seen a world financial melt down unlike anything we have seen in our lifetime. We have seen currency exchange rates change making the foreign investors’ money worth a lot less here in Thailand. But, as I said at the start of this article, change is inevitable, and we will see our industry bounce back. The good times turned into the bad times and they will turn back into the good times again and we won’t have to wait too long for it to happen.
Our real estate industry will come out of this political/financial depression and be stronger and better for it. We are already seeing signs of political change with more help coming for the foreign investor. My friends in the financial markets are predicting an upward surge in share prices by the end of this year.
One thing that will continue to change – and for the better – is the professionalism and quality of service offered by your chosen real estate broker here on the Eastern Seaboard of Thailand. Ω