Most of us believe that the Bangkok property market has reached the bottom and that now the industry is working its way to recovery.

In most of the property sectors, Thailand has a unique position and potential to develop, with a strong demand for Thai residential properties, its status as a tourist hub in the region, and offering a quality lifestyle at a low cost. However, Thailand is lagging behind other nations in terms of the evolution of the real estate industry. There has been very limited institutional investment in real estate over the past 20 years.

Real estate has not been a major issue on the national agenda for any government. Stimulus packages or short-term measures have been taken during the economic downturn but there has never been a long-term strategic plan to direct the property business to maximise the benefit for the country's economy.

The real estate sectors which include offices, retail property, hotels, resorts, villas, housing, condominiums, industrial property, apartments and serviced apartments all have a tremendous impact on the country's key development indicators such as employment, construction industry, tourism industry and foreign investment.

We should at least know what is the country's positioning and have a master plan and key policies for the country, identifying which areas are suitable for different types of development that will best match the economic and social goals and to focus on promoting investment in these sectors.

If we look at the way forward for each real estate sector, Thailand has been well positioned as a tourist destination.

However, little has been done to promote new tourist destinations in Thailand. For example, rather than having a designed plan to promote certain areas as special economic zones for tourism, most of the budget has been spent on advertising and organisation events and exhibitions.

There should be a master plan for promoting tourism zoning and to provide incentives for both local and foreign investors to invest in developments in that zone. In the residential sector, the lack of proper long leases for foreign buyers also does not help to promote villas and resort-home developments in tourist destinations such as Phuket where almost 100 per cent of buyers are foreigners.

There needs to be a compromise in the arguments about whether Thailand should grant longer lease terms to allow clear and competitive terms such as 70-90 years or even freehold ownership for certain zones that we want to promote.

In comparison, other Asian countries whether emerging markets like China, Dubai or Vietnam, or mature markets such as Singapore, have undertaken a great deal of planning and policy making for the real estate sector and how to attract foreign inbound investment by using tax incentives and zoning.

One good example is Marina Bay in Singapore, an extension of the CBD to support its continuing growth as a commercial and financial hub in the region.

We cannot deny that, in other countries that have established themselves as a popular place for real estate investment, the government has played an important role in controlling the property industry.

After the 1997 crisis, Thailand learned a valuable lession, especially in the private sector, and we have seen that many developers are now much stronger. We hope to see positive changes in the Thai real estate industry in the new property cycle with strong support by the government.