2. Real Estate Markets in Thailand
2.1 The boom (1986 - 1996)
        After the bust period during 1980 to 1984, the situation got better. Prior to 1986, Thailand as a developing country with cheap labour and natural resources became an attractive investment destination for foreign investors particularly Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and others. It can be observed that at that time, most major industrialists in Japan had a manufacturing plant in Thailand. This led to the overall economic boom of the country.
        It is worthwhile to notice that the economy was strengthened by direct foreign in the real sector, namely, manufacturing activities. These helped boost other economic activities such as supporting industries by local industrialists and other tertiary activities resulting from the growth of the real sector. As mentioned earlier in Chapter 1, the contribution of the manufacturing sector to the GDP is significantly greater than that of the agricultural sector since 1986.
        Housing and other real estate became booming. Land particularly in the fringe area which formerly possessed a potential for agricultural uses, then had higher value because of other alternative uses as factory sites and the like. Similarily, inner-city land which was formerly rented out for low-income housing plots resulting in slum formation, could enjoy higher profitable uses. This is the reasons why there were few new slum formations in Bangkok. The boom was associated by low interest rates particularly for housing loans. The decreases in oil prices and electricity costs also helped decrease the prices of cement and other construction materials. All these paved way for the boom.
        Prior to 1986, most detached houses and townhouses were catered to middle and higher income groups. But since 1986, there was a down market trend to build cheaper housing units particularly in the form of low-income townhouses. For example, a one-storeyed townhouse unit of 16 sq.wah (64 sq.metres) was offered at Baht 105,000 (at that time Baht 25 = US$ 1). Due to the economic growth and cheaper housing offers, people had relatively higher affordability.
        During 1987 to 1990, a lot of symptoms of the boom emerged. A 24-sq.metre low-cost condominium unit was offered at approximately Baht 105,000. Off-the-plan projects were sold very quickly. Offered prices of housing units were increased even on weekly or monthly basis. Many projects could close the sales within one day, one week or one month or a few months. In some quality projects, buyers queued to book a house since 05:00 am in the morning.
        Other real estate products apart from housing were also boomed. These included hobby farm land subdivisions, golf courses, office buildings and the like. Speculations prevailed on nationwide basis. As observed, a lot of foreigners came to speculate in properties in Thailand; whereas, real estate were not allowed to be owned by them. Many of them just came to book a units in off-the-plan projects and paid booking fee and downpayment. At the date of the completion and transfer, they could find another buyer to buy their units at a lot higher price than they originally booked.
        During 1991-1993, there appeared a paradox namely while many new developments were ceased due to the Gulf War, two big public companies launched their new projects offered tens of thousand of low-cost and middle-income housing units. They were Bangkok Land Plc and Thanayong Plc. While other developers felt uncertain in launching new projects, there was a room for these two big companies to launch their projects with few competitors. While land and other luxurious projects became less popular for speculation due to the drops in prices, people centred on speculating housing particularly low-income condominiums. During 1993-1995, interest rates were relatively low as well. Then, many new developers followed these two big companies to launch their projects.
        Due to massive speculation on housing, in 1995, it was later found that half of the 300,000 unoccupied housing units in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region were condominium units (Agency for Real Estate Affairs, 1995: 65). Although the figure of 300,000 unoccupied housing units were disclosed in 1995, some 297,347 new housing units were launched during 1995 to 1997. This further exacerbated the situation in the market and helped accelerate the crisis of the real estate market in Bangkok as a whole.

2.2 The Bust (1997 - 2001)
        In 1997, due to the floating of the Baht currency, Baht was significantly devalued. A US Dollar which was stably exchanged at Baht 25 during 1983 to 1997, became almost Baht 60 in 1998. It is currently Baht 42. As a result of economic bust, the real estate market in Thailand was crashed. Most developers could not run their ongoing projects anymore. They became NPL (non-performing loans) of financial institutions. In 1998, some 350,000 unoccupied housing units were then found to confirm the validity of the 1995 finding of the 300,000 unoccupied housing units.
        The following photographs illustrate the situation of housing markets in Bangkok after the disaster:

3. Review of Selected Real Estate Information Centres
        The summary information on each centres is shown at Table 1. There are altogether 9 centres.
3.1 The U.S. Census Bureau
        This is one of the best information provider where there is a lot of information on housing for beneficiaries involved. This is a government free service for the public and hence, it is an ideal centre on nationwide basis. However, in the case of red-tape bureaucratic nature of the authorities, this would be a disadvantage.

3.2 HUD Research, USA
        This HUD Research (Policy Development and Research's Information Service) is under the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department (www.hud.gov). Apart from data provision, this organization also plays a vital role as an analyst or intelligent unit for policy decision making. This role is something a successful information centre should perform. It is a value-added function apart from data provision alone.
        Actually, in the US, the Meyers Group (www.meyersgroup.com), a private firm, the Urban Land Institute (www.uli.org), a non-profit education and research institute and the Appraisal Institute (www.appraisalinstitute.com), a professional association and many other private and non-profit organization also play very vital role in data and information provision for the public and the industries in particular.

3.3 Rating and Valuation Department, Hong Kong
        The Hong Kong Rating and Valuation Department is very active in data provision on residential, office, retail and industrial properties in terms of rents and prices on monthly basis. Actually, the information provision function has been developed from the main and supporting function on assessment, rating and valuation for the government and the private sector. In addition, there is another vital role on providing advisory and mediatory services to the authorities and investors.

3.4 Korea Real Estate Information Centre (KREIC)
        On the front page of the KREIC's home page, it is stated that the KREIC is "established for the purpose of providing real estate information of Korea to the overseas investors in more convenient and prompt fashion". It is operated under the Ministry of Construction and Transportation, Republic of Korea. Major information provided are real estate prices, trends, and news, properties for sales as well as economic overview, investment opportunities and acquisition systems and taxes.

3.5 Urban Redevelopment Authority, Singapore
        In general, this Authority controls all land in Singapore!. Its primary function is to conduct the national and local plans as well as coordinate and material all these plans on land uses and conservation issues. Major data provided are residential property transactions, uncompleted residential projects, projects in the pipeline, land sales and the like. It is considered a planner and plan executor; therefore, land in Singapore is carefully planned. This helps monitor the real estate markets as well.

3.6 Land and Property Information, NSW, Australia
        This authority in New South Wales is similar to the Hong Kong Rating and Valuation Department. Its original services are mainly on land title issues, mapping, land surveying and land valuation for public and private uses. Data provided by this authority include real estate values and records on property rents and sales of all types of properties. People can easily get access to the data. Property professionals also uses this data on subscription basis.

3.7 Property Value Australia
        This is an independent information service that offers affordable, valuable, and objective reports for buyers and sellers of residential property. Its main services are to provide on-line valuation and on-line property information in Australia. In their property information services, post code sale history and profiles of properties are among major provision. On-line payment by American Express, VISA, MasterCard and Diner Club is available as well.

3.8 Land Information, New Zealand
        This is a government apparatus related to land which is similar to the Hong Kong Rating and Valuation Department and the Australian Land and Property Information of NSW. It provides data on properties for the government, contractors, property professionals, property owners, researchers, and the general public. However, major information provided by this authority is related to land and maps.

3.9 Agency for Real Estate Affairs - AREA, Thailand
        Similar to the Property Value Australia and the Meyers Groups of U.S.A., AREA is an independent information centre in Thailand. Unlike Korea and Malaysia, Thailand has not had any fully equipped government arms to act as a public real estate information centre. Therefore, AREA is considered the largest centre with most frequently updated field information on real estate project launching, sales, and construction.

4. Property Information Centre Needed
4.1 Warnings Ignored
        During the boom period, when beneficiaries were enjoying the enormous and seemingly endless increases in the value of their properties, there were warnings from time to time that this situation was not normal. However, few beneficiaries or officers involved paid much attention to these warnings. Few measures and policies were established in time to cope with the coming bust in the market.
        These warnings appeared on almost an annual basis. The below reviews some studies related to the warnings on the overheating or fever of speculation which led to the bust. This demonstrates that, during the boom period, Thailand has had certain information for predicting the forthcoming bust. However, few paid serious attention to it. Some could hypothesize that even the authorities involved were not knowledgeable nor prepared to tackle the potential bust in the real estate industries.
        To be fair, it can be said that the boom and bust cycle in real estate industries seems inevitable. It should be noted that in the United States of America where housing starts have been employed as a major industry indicator since the 1970s, several booms and busts still happened in the past few decades. In the United Kingdom, property professionals have been widely trained for years. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) was established in 1863. However, a lot of real estate cyclical phenomena still emerged. In Singapore where the government via the Urban Redevelopment Authority rigidly controls and carefully plans for its city state, there are still oversupplies in residential and commercial properties. They cannot escape from the boom and bust of the industry either.
        It can be said that apart from having ample and reliable information, all beneficiaries or parties involved need to be well educated on the nature of property development. They include developers, home owners, related national and local government authorities, real estate educators, real estate professionals so that they could help examine and be alert to the future potential booms and busts.

        After the mid-year 1995 warning on the 300,000 units of unoccupied housing, still some new 227,208 units of new housing units launched. Many of them were then cancelled resulting in the increasing number of 350,000 unoccupied units. This implies that the developers and financiers did not recognize the information on the oversupplies and over-building of the products.

4.2 Need for the Centre
        Recently, the author conducted a survey on property developers and found that beneficiaries or actors in the industry perceived some external factors as the causes for the housing market crisis such as speculation and subsequent oversupplies of the markets as well as economic recession. Although mortgage competition of financial institutions is the fourth in the priority, it was still far behind those external factors. Considering some internal factors of the beneficiaries themselves such as the lack of professionalism of developers, proper controls of the industry and project feasibility studies, they became minor factors then. These facts reflect some prejudice among active beneficiaries involved.
        In order to help solve the problem of housing market crisis, possible adjustments to escape from the crisis are the controls of the supplies or developers, the controls of loan provision controls, the establishment of property information centre and careful research and studies of the developers themselves. This implies that the importance of data is increasingly recognized.

4.3 Materialzing the Centre
        4.3.1 There is clearly a possibility / feasibility to establish a real estate information centre. In the boom period, the value of the real estate development each year is over Baht 150 billion or US$ 3,600 million. When the author was a consultant to the establishment of the Real Estate Information centre was Baht 96 million or US$ 2.29 million (National Real Estate Information Centre, 2001) or only 0.064% of a one-year development value.
        4.3.2 One weakness of Thailand is that the transaction prices and the assessed value are different. Some people even do not want to declare the exact price because they do not want to pay higher taxes. In addition, transaction value and details are considered private information and cannot be released. Therefore, limited sources of reliable information cannot be perceived.
        4.3.3 Strong government commitment is needed. For already 5 years after the bust of the economy and real estate in Thailand, there is still no public real estate information centre. This would also help overcome the inertia and bureaucratic nature of the public sector. Otherwise, it would become on a one-time-do-and-die basis.
        4.3.4 Actually, the sustainable existence of the Centre is its fruitful function. If it is proved to be useful, it would last long and could be constructive to the industries.
        4.3.5 Considering the case of the Malaysian Property Information Centre, it started small and expanded over time. According to a direct interview with Mr. Abdullah Thalith Md. Thani (atmthani@jpph.gov.my) in late May 2002, he said that the annual budget for the Malaysian Centre is 3 million ringkit (US$ 1.24 million) per year with 100 staff members. However, in end 2003, there will be 257 staff members with the budget of 7 million ringkit (US$ 2.9 million)
        4.3.6 Critical functions of the Centre is directly property market information and more importantly and intelligent unit. This will help the government to construct proper, timely and effective plans and policies to tackle with property markets for the benefit of the general public.
        4.3.7 The assignments of the Centre are mainly on routine / continuing data collection and processing. However, ad hoc research and economic/statistical modelling to help close watch to the market are among inevitable functions as well. Training and seminars are also among major tasks.
        4.3.6 Considering the budget, the national Centre must be paid and directly controlled by the government so that it can be linked to the direct decision makers. Experience in U.S.A., Malaysia and many other countries indicated so.
        4.3.8 The role of the private information providers can be complementary. However, data must be re-examined due to the fact that there are quite a few brokers companies who may exploit the data with bias. This is because of role conflicting between brokers / agents and information providers.
        4.3.9 Target groups of the Centres are the government, the private investors / developers, financiers, property professionals and the general public. If its data and analysis proves to be valuable, it can be sold or provided on fee subscription basis.

5. Conclusion
        Thailand has a land area of 514,000 sq.kilometres or slightly more than twice the size of Wyoming with a total population of 62.6 million. Formerly, it was an agricultural-based country and developed to be an industrialized countries for the last two decades. Bangkok is a primate city of administrative, economic and social centre of the country. One unique feature of Thailand is that its urban population is as small as only one-third of the total.
        Real estate markets in Bangkok and Thailand as a whole enjoyed a big boom during 1986 to 1996. However, in 1997, the bust came. The current situation seems somewhat recovered. The disaster of the bust is gigantic and let us learn some experience to help better prepared for the industries.
        According to a study of existing real estate information centres, it is found that they are mostly government apparatuses which should both provide data and analysis for the government and the general public. Interesting Centres include the U.S. Census Bureau, the Korea Real Estate Information Centre, the Malaysian Property Information Centre and the Land and Property Information, NSW. Private Centres can have some roles in the provision of data and analysis as well.
        The essence of the Centre is based on the fact that it must be valuable for the government, investors, property owners, bankers and financiers, home buyers and the general public. The role of the Centre can help provide both data and analysis as an intelligence unit. In practice, ad hoc research, modelling and training can also be conducted by the centres.