Top Thailand Property News Of The Week - 22 March 2021

The top residential and commercial real estate news of the week - 22 March 2021

CBRE’s weekly property news snapshot features the latest residential and commercial real estate stories in Thailand and elsewhere that you cannot afford to miss - be it regarding residential, industrial, retail, office, hotel, land, or investment property.

Retailers and Landlords Clash Over What Counts as a Sale
Bangkok Post
Stores are reopening and customers are streaming back in, which means retailers that withheld rent during Covid-19 shutdowns are now able to pay. But first they have to agree with their landlords on how to define a sale.

CPN unveils 3 new mixed-use projects
Bangkok Post
SET-listed Central Pattana Plc (CPN), a property and retail developer, plans to focus on extending its mixed-use portfolio by opening three new projects in the second half this year and 2022. The expansion is projected to happen in parallel with a recovery of Thailand's 3.6-trillion-baht retail business.

Mall Group allots B1bn to overhaul Gourmet Market
Bangkok Post
The Mall Group plans to allocate 1 billion baht to overhaul all Gourmet Market branches over three years in response to changing lifestyle trends and to revitalise competitiveness.

Lazada, Shopee duke it out
Bangkok Post
E-commerce giants Lazada and Shopee are locked in a fierce battle to stimulate online shopping demand and attract new buyers embarking on the platforms amid an economic stalemate while the season of festive sales is just around the corner.

Govt ups E-car drive
Bangkok Post
The government now wants every electric vehicle sold in Thailand to have been produced locally by 2035, five years earlier than its original plan, as it burnishes its clean green credentials.

Singha Estate secures exclusive rights for 30 per cent shareholding in three major co-generation power plants
The Nation
Singha Estate PCL (S), a leading Thai property investment and development company, today, announced that it has secured the exclusive rights to acquire a 30% shareholding in three major co-generation power plants with total capacity of 400 megawatts, at par value, and with a total investment of Bht 1,392 million.

Budget rentals for those stricken by Covid
Bangkok Post
The National Housing Authority has launched two projects offering low rental fees to help relieve people of financial problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Thaweepong Wichaidit, National Housing Authority governor, said 572 houses had so far been constructed targeting hard-up people, offering them low monthly rents, from 1,500 to 3,000 baht.

Hoteliers urge state to utilise decree to speed up vaccines
Bangkok Post
Hoteliers are pressing the government to speed up the sluggish Covid-19 vaccination programme by using an emergency decree to put the entry process in the fast track and setting July as the earliest date to reopen.

Bridge Group eyes provincial buyers
Bangkok Post
Property brokerage firm Bridge Group (Thailand) Co, a subsidiary of SET-listed developer SC Asset Corporation Plc, will tap high-end condo buyers in the provinces, starting with Nakhon Si Thammarat, to capture rising demand.

Billionaire's workaday clothing firm becomes a sportswear sensation
The Nation
When it comes to Japanese retail billionaires, the first name that springs to mind might be Tadashi Yanai, the entrepreneur behind the Uniqlo brand and the nation's richest man. But there's another founder who's drawing attention as one of his biggest companies transforms in the country.

CapitaLand to split into two, leaving property investment business as listed company
Reuters
Singapore’s CapitaLand Ltd plans to split into two, with its revamped real estate investment management business becoming the world’s third largest as a new listed entity while its property development business will be taken private.