Gaybutton wrote:I'm wondering if . . . they are falling for some sorts of scams, convincing them that if they buy these condos as an investment, they'll make a good profit and make it quickly.
I suppose some may be, but I suspect most are buying them for more genuine reasons. As the article points out, each Chinese can export around $50,000 per year. Housing in China's main cities is now horribly expensive. The stock markets have been performing miserably and there is a lack of other safe-ish investment opportunities.
Real estate prices in preferred destinations overseas like Australia and the USA have risen dramatically and apartment units tend to be quite large. Here in Thailand it is easy for a Chinese to buy a 30 or 40 sq m apartment. It can then be used for vacations, for friends taking vacations and - I guess they hope - rented.
As for that investment being guaranteed to go up, I also expect that some are looking at Hong Kong in the early 1990s when hot money from China started flowing into the local property market and prices soared for years, increasing at around 30%-40% per year. Even though that is not going to happen here, I suppose with so many in China's massive middle class looking for investment opportunities and as word continues to get out about Thailand real estate, there should at least be a market amongst themselves.