Wantanee Khamkongkaew

About 25% of the city's population is expatriates. Many of them are working, while some are retired or tourists on a long term vacation. Majority of the expats in Bangkok are westerners including Americans, British, and Germans. Most of them primarily work in foreign-owned and managed companies.

The steady downfall of the American housing market has forced the investors to think about the large global market. Among the global investments the Asian property market will continue to prosper for the next few years. Asia is becoming more and more investor friendly

In the recent past the Asian market has become more and more biased towards foreign investment. Lot of countries in the region have completely removed their unnecessary restrictions on foreign investors. This attracted more investment in the property market as well. As a result there was a real boom in the property section of the market in 2007.

The year of 2007 has been an unprecedented year for the industrial property market. The rentals and occupancy rates for all kinds of industrial space indicate the extreme demand which was present. A number of business park sites were sanctioned, a fourth industrial REIT began functioning and 10 industrial sites were allotted in 2007.

2007 represents a unique year for the Hong Kong economy. The year witnessed a proportional increase in growth as the year moved forward. The major reason behind the economic reversal is the domestic demand as private consumption and investment expenditure continued to increase.