The period from the early ’90s until the floating of the Baht in 1997 was a period of phenomenal growth.
The first round of major infrastructure projects had been completed, leaving the Eastern Seaboard more accessible from Bangkok than ever before. Not only had the roads been improved but Laem Chabang was now an international port giving business in the area a much quicker and easier export route.
Both of these factors combined to make the Eastern Seaboard a very attractive area to invest in, especially for foreign companies looking for a cheaper manufacturing center.
With this in mind the Thai government went all out to make to make Thailand as easy as possible for the foreign companies with attractive taxation and investment packages for companies looking to invest their hard currencies in Thailand.
However, it was the foresight of two Thai companies looking to cash in on these investment incentives that played a major role in the growth of the property market in the area.
These two companies are Amata Corporation and Hemaraj Land and Development. Both companies were formed to provide international standard industrial sites where foreign companies would feel comfortable spending millions of dollars building state-of-the-art factories.

Amata’s start
Amata Corporation started with Amata Nakorn just outside of Chonburi. Phase 1 of this estate was less than 1,000 (about 600 if my memory serves me right) Rai but anyone going there now will see a phenomenal 12,000 Rai of ultra modern manufacturing.
This was followed by Amata City in an area that we call “Eastern Seaboard” but should probably really be called “Bo Win” as it is in this area of Chonburi / Rayong just over the Highway 331 from Pattaya (at this point Highway 331 runs almost alongside the Chonburi/Rayong border line).
Amata City is a further 10,000 Rai so a total of 22,000 Rai or around 5,000 acres of factories are all within 90 minutes drive of Pattaya.
Hemaraj Land and Development invested in and developed three industrial estates close to Pattaya. These are Hemaraj Chonburi, Hemaraj Rayong and Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate (ESIE).

Centre for oil
Both Hemaraj Chonburi and ESIE are in the same “Bo Win” area on the Highway 331. Hemaraj Rayong is in Map Ta Phut which has become the major centre for the oil and petrochemical industries in this region.
These three estates total around 19,000 Rai so once again there was potential for massive foreign investment in the area.
Now some of you may be thinking, “what has this got to do with property in Pattaya?” That is easy. The answer is ...
– a rental market.
Prior to the influx of these foreign companies the rental market in Pattaya was driven purely by holidaymakers or long-term residents not wanting to buy their own property.
This kept the market small and, to be quite honest, pretty cheap! There was no real demand for large, luxurious houses so there had not been any need for a large housing development.
All of a sudden there was an influx of foreign residents that were in Pattaya for a fixed-term contract and they demanded a certain standard of accommodation. Further to this, there was a company picking up the tab and they had a housing allowance to spend.
True to human nature, these employees were going to get the maximum out of their allowance and would do their utmost to spend every penny, dollar or baht that was made available to them by their companies.

The author, Kevin Pullen, is a long-term resident of Pattaya who due to his love of all water sports started his career here in the windsurfing industry. He was involved in some of the first waterfront housing developments before getting involved in property and expatriate management. He now runs a small real estate company providing advice on investment as well as providing property management and rental services. Kevin is pictured in the Chiang Mai in 1996. He can be contacted through REm.

Local knowledge
Spending this allowance required some local knowledge and, of course, these new renters had no idea of what they could get for their money. So now there was a need for a local source of information with a ready supply of properties for rent.
Until this time, real estate agents in Pattaya (of which there were very few) were multi-functional and what business they did selling property was mostly to unwary foreigners. Most of their time was spent selling small businesses like bars and then reselling them again the next high season.
All of a sudden they had customers walking in their doors asking for a house or condo for which they could sign a long-term contract and they had guaranteed cash from a company to pay the rental.
The first thing that happened in Pattaya was that the rental prices of all houses doubled almost overnight as there was finally a demand. The second was that a couple of the real estate agents actually started going out and looking for properties to rent to these new customers and the modern day Pattaya real estate agent was born.
Coming almost at the same time as this new market was a supply of condominium units that for the first time targeted the growing number of foreign residents of Pattaya.
These buildings were supplying small inexpensive studio apartments that were ideal for a person wishing to own a property that could be used for part of the year and then locked up and left until the following year. Probably the best known of all of these units was View Talay 1 but others of the same era were Ruamchoke, Nirun, Jomtien Beach Condo and Thepthip.

Ready supply
Remember though that this was prior to the floating of the baht in 1997 so, even cheap as they were then, a unit in View Talay 1 would cost around 12,000 pounds sterling or 18,000 US dollars so sales were not exactly flowing but it had given the budding real estate agent a ready supply of property that they could show to customers.
It would be foolish, however, to put aside the Thai market and it was this period that saw the building of a few of the area’s most famous buildings.
Two of these stand out above all of the others. The first is Saranchol on Wong-Amat. Completed in 1994 this building is probably still the most sought-after condominium in Pattaya.
A lot of the owners are the original ones who bought from new and these are mostly very well connected Thais who are unlikely to ever sell their units.
The second is Royal Cliff Garden. These four buildings were finished in 1997 and stand on the point between Pattaya and Jomtien. They will always have the best views available in Pattaya and are the place to be for the annual New Year fireworks.
Therefore in the period running up to a huge devaluation of the Thai baht against most Western currencies there was a new supply of affordable condo units and a new demand for foreign expatriate housing ...we have making of a boom here and guess what happened? Ω