Best real estate Koh Samui

Before becoming a popular destination, attracting up to a million tourists a year, Samui was once the country's major coconut-growing area.

Samui, discovered by backpackers in the 70’s, has developed into an up-market holiday destination renowned throughout the world as a lush tropical paradise. Voted as one of the top five islands in the world to live on, by MSNBC 2005, the real estate market in Samui is booming, both for raw land, villas, and apartments. Real estate prices continue to rise rapidly offering exciting investment opportunities in an idyllic setting.

Since the 80's, high-end tourists started arriving after foreign magazines began to promote Samui as an island paradise, pushing up demand for luxury hotels and resorts. The resorts began to spread along beaches, particularly Chaweng and Lamai. The Tourism Association of Koh Samui says the island now has 400 hotels and resorts with 13,000 rooms.

The number of visitors from Asian countries is increasing due to improved air links. You can now fly direct to Samui from Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. This transformation is reflected in the real estate market where prices have risen dramatically, and at an increasing rate, over the last few years. Real estate prices continue to rise rapidly offering exciting investment opportunities in an idyllic setting.

Historically, buyers wanted to be as close to the sea as possible, typically seeking good beach front property. However, the focus on the type of land sought has shifted from beach property to sea view. This is mainly due to supply shortages of quality beach land. Most seaside land is already occupied by hotels and resorts, forcing new developers to look to farmland for their projects.

Any quality beach land now on the market, with good sand and year round deep water, is extremely expensive. Consequently, the turnover of land associated with private homes now consists primarily of sea view as opposed to beach property. Buyers now generally seek low density developments, offering fine sea views along with safe access roads and full management services.
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On this island resort, officials and residents are concerned that rising demand for land by foreign real estate developers would accelerate the change of land use on the island at the expense of local livelihoods and the natural environment. So, environmental zoning is being introduced to limit the amount of land development and protect Samui's natural environment. This will decrease the supply of fresh land and further increase real estate prices.
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Smaller than its sister island, Koh Phangan is reminiscent of Samui 15 years ago. Quieter and less developed, it offers an idyllic desert island life, whilst still providing all essential services and easy links to the mainland and to Koh Samui, making it practically unique in South East Asia. The untapped potential of Koh Phangan as a major tourist destination has not gone unnoticed by the Thai government which has recently invested heavily in improving its infrastructure and accessibility. The good news for investors is that prices are still low and the choices wide. It is not expected that this will continue for long and investment interest is on the increase. Koh Phangan offers by far one of the best values locations in Southern Thailand.
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Located on the northeast coast of Southern Thailand, just 15 kilometres off the southern tip of Koh Samui, Khnanom is rapidly becoming a new hotspot for land and real estate investment. Miraculously, it has missed out on the worst aspects of over-development that have blighted other locations in the region and enjoys the best beaches and natural attractions to be found anywhere in Thailand. Local restaurants and hotels are just beginning to appear. This really is an exceptional real estate investment opportunity, in terms of capital growth from land acquisition and prime real estate for up-market resort and villa development.
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It is no secret that the Koh Samui property market is experiencing good times. The one event which threw this into doubt was the September 11th outrages in the US which saw a softening of prices over the following twelve months. Interestingly however this was most prevalent in the less prime areas while truly prime sites and properties still received interest and transacted in appreciable numbers.

Despite checks to the tourist industry caused by SARS and the Bird Flu scares, both sales and rental transactions have increased dramatically over the last two years. The number of new real estate agencies, along with developments bear witness to this. All these factors together indicate that the real estate market will continue to boom over the coming years.
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