By and large the last few months leading up to the start of high season have been indifferent for the real estate professionals in Pattaya. An unsettled government, whiffs of scandal and uncertainties about how the land office will view applications all combined to affect some – not all – areas of the market. So how do real estate agents view the coming of the high season? Do they anticipate and upturn or more of the same? John Davids spoke to half a dozen of them just days after the season got underway…

Perhaps not surprisingly the coming of the high season is being greeted with a mood of optimism among the agents I spoke to. Pessimism in business is no good whatever your line of work. It couldn’t be more true of the property business.

But is the optimism well founded and based on sound reasoning?

Based on my chats with the six I believe the answer is yes. But I would qualify that by saying that the picture is looking brighter in some areas than others.

For example, interest in new condo developments remains high. The opportunity for “own name” ownership while the first 49 per cent of the apartments remain on the market is undiminished. Remember, up to 49 per cent of any condominium block can be owned by foreigners without needing to resort to other, more convoluted ownership routes.

"It's difficult in the second-hand resale market at present," said Heiner Moessing of Siam Properties. “I’m finding that buyers are prepared to spend 20 or 30 percent more on new condominium developments to secure an ‘own-name’ property.”

Heiner says he is definitely noticing an increased interest in new properties. “The tendency is toward newer projects even if they are at higher prices,” he added.

Heiner continued: “Our website is bringing in a lot of enquiries, but we are well established and known within the market. We see our success as a combination of experience and knowledge of the Pattaya property market, a perceptive understanding of our customers’ requirements and above all … integrity.”

“We had a sleepy October but you get a couple of months like that each year. Now things are looking quite nice and I believe interest will go up over the next few months,” Heiner concluded.

Heiner’s thoughts on the prospects for the high season are shared by Julian Stanley of Pattaya Dream Homes. “I’m absolutely, positively optimistic about the high season,” said Julian who can point to the statistics of ‘hits’ on his web site as the reason for this.

Hits on the site for condo searches were a little under the 2,000 mark on the day I spoke to him. “I would say that about 80 per cent of the enquiries I’m getting, web hits, emails or telephone calls are to do with condos,” he said.

“We have many potential foreign buyers arriving here over the next three-four months. I don’t know if this is a natural upturn based on the season or not.” Julian’s company only started in January this year so he has not previously experienced the low to high season transition. “I’m optimistic, but I’m not ordering the Mercedes just yet,” he joked.

On a more serious note, what did he think of other areas of the market? “The market in stand-alone houses is stagnant at present. Major developers have stopped pre-building and are just trying to sell from plans which doesn’t make our job easy. Much better for us are developments like The Meadows from Town & Country where they have built many of the units. That’s the class way to go in my book. People can see what they are buying.”