Investment Property: Apartment or Serviced Apartment Buildings

Investment Property: Apartment or Serviced Apartment for Sale

Apartment buildings vary in style and scale from small low-rise developments compromising up to 30 units (often with the owners also living in the building), to medium-sized buildings of around 80 to 100 units, usually with mostly one or two bedrooms to larger high-rise buildings, typically catering to larger family groups. See apartment building listings.

These apartment buildings cater to the residential needs of long-term expatriates, and the units are usually leased on annual contracts. The buildings have the potential to provide a stable source of long-term recurring income and generally require less investment than a hotel, or office building and can be constructed on smaller plots of land.

There are a number of apartment buildings for sale or rent located in popular expatriate neighbourhoods in Bangkok, such as Asoke, Phrom Phong and Thonglor in Sukhumvit as well as the neighbourhoods of Silom and Sathon. These areas generally cater for expatriates with higher budgets. Larger apartment buildings for sale or rent often have extensive facilities, such as a swimming pool, gym, garden and a children’s play area. In some instances, more target facilities, particularly for the Japanese expatriate community, such as onsen and golf simulators are also provided. The emphasis is to create an environment which is as familiar as possible in order to retain tenants as long as possible.

There are also apartment buildings for sale or rent located in other densely populated areas of Bangkok catering mostly to limited-earnings expatriates, international school teachers, and some Thais who work in Bangkok but come from other regions of Thailand and don’t have the means to buy their own home. These apartment buildings tend to have a large number of small, one-bedroom units with very limited facilities.

In recent years, some of best-located buildings have been upgraded to become serviced apartments and, in some cases, the owners have bought in third-party management companies to add higher levels of service.

This trend has continued with developers building new serviced apartment buildings catering for both long- and short-stay guests. These are usually managed by international management companies and allow the owner to generate income from expatriates, frequent and short-term visitors who are looking for larger rooms rather than hotel rooms with facilities for longer stays (such as a kitchenette and laundry facilities in the room) as well to benefit from services normally associated with hotel stays.

These types of properties have also been developed in other locations outside of Bangkok, such as Chonburi and Rayong provinces, to cater for expatriates working in the Eastern Seaboard areas, usually in industrial complexes. Popular locations include Pattaya, Sriracha, Rayong and Phuket.

Often these new serviced apartment buildings for sale or rent are constructed on land that is leased long-term rather than owned. As land values have increased in Bangkok, it is usually only financially viable to develop serviced apartments on leasehold land. See our section on land for rent in Bangkok.

It is rare for income-producing serviced apartments to be available for sale and interested investors can contact the Investment team for more details.