According to the GHB, the number of residential projects launched last year totalled 1,357 units, up from 1,071 in 1998. With housing prices unchanged or down slightly, and banks busy chasing retail business, consumers in a position to buy homes stand to be winners. The entry on the market of new office space has almost ground to a halt, with just 87,720 square metres forecast for this year, a sharp fall from 202,216 sq m last year and 455,920 sq m in 1998, according to the real-estate consultancy FPDSavills. But the company said the market was bottoming out, with 102,229 sq m due to come online next year, and a surprising 800,000 sq m in 2002, because many partly built office blocks will be revived. Bangkok now has a total office stock about eight million square metres.
Demand is still weak as many companies are still downsizing.
According to Sansiri Plc, discount stores continued to pursue growth amid high competition. Tesco-Lotus, Carrefour and Makro led the way in developing new locations to capture more shoppers. The most closely-watched battle is between Lotus and Carrefour, which opened complexes opposite each other on Rama IV Road near Klong Toey. New retail space supply this year is expected to top 147,300 square metres, nearly double the 76,858 sq m created last year, said Sansiri. The total stock of retail space in Bangkok was 3.71 million sq m at the end of last year, and it is estimated to reach 3.87 million by 2001.