Thai Luxury Developer Says Hong Kong Protests Are Good for Sales

Two months of increasingly chaotic protests in Hong Kong are driving investment money out of the city and into Thailand’s ultra-luxury condominiums, according to one of the biggest developers in the Southeast Asian country. Some 40% of the condos in a 52-story Bangkok tower that opened last week have already been sold to buyers from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, according to Keerin Chutumstid, an executive at Bangkok-based Magnolia Quality Development Corp., which owns a quarter of the property. Investors from China and Hong Kong have been the top foreign customers, he said. In Hong Kong, where pro-democracy demonstrators have filled the streets since June, development and high-end investment are on hold. Last week, CK Asset Holdings Ltd. and Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. decided to postpone sales of new multi-billion-dollar projects, and transactions in the secondary market are down sharply, especially for luxury homes.