The property market on Koh Samui showed signs of gradual improvement in the fourth quarter, says Aliwassa Pathnadabutr, managing director of leading real-estate firm CB Richard    Ellis (Thailand). Aliwassa said demand for residence on Koh  Samui had been showing significant signs of recovery since the third quarter, and as a result most large property developers had rushed to launch new residential projects.

However, continuing concern about the country’s political problems suggests the property-market recovery will be gradual, she said, adding that although the political situation seemed stable at the moment, she was unsure about undercurrents that could lead to further instability.

CBRE Thailand predicts demand for luxury residences, villas and resort properties in tourist destinations like Phuket and Samui will continue to drop next year, because of the slow pace of recovery in the global economy.

This is because the purchasing power of foreign target customers is hindered by the slow global recovery.

Many foreign investors have suspended property investments in Thailand, affecting both residential-and commercial-property sales and development.

Serviced apartments in Samui are also reporting occupancy of only 80 per cent, lower than last year’s.

Demand from foreign tenants fell when their companies cut back on support costs for expast staff.

The company has also advised its customer who are developing luxury-home pro-jects to suspend their sales but continue building.

In this way, they will be able to increase their prices after the projects are complete and when the economic recovery is further advanced, next year and in 2011.