🗓️ Sunday, November 3, 2025
📍 Bangkok, Thailand

🏚️ Thailand’s 1.64 Million Empty Homes: A Hidden Housing Crisis

Thailand is sitting on a massive housing pile-up: around 1.64 million homes are totally empty, and their value? A staggering 3.45 trillion baht 💸—about the same as the country’s annual budget.

📍 Where and Why the Ghost Homes?

Most of these vacant homes are in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR)—over 730,000 units alone. The main culprit: over-speculation, especially in the condo market.

Here are the shockers:

• Condos make up about 58% of all empty homes in the BMR
• The vacancy rate for new condos: a jaw-dropping 24.8%—that’s almost 1 in 4 units unused.
• Condo units priced under 500,000 baht are especially vulnerable, with about a 21.1% vacancy rate and often poor maintenance.

💥 Why It Matters

Empty homes aren’t just sad to look at—they’re a ticking time-bomb for the economy:

• Lost earnings: 3.45 trillion baht of idle property means less money flowing into renovations, rents or sales.
• Financial risk: Too many unsold homes can strain banks and developers who borrowed big to build them.
• Housing affordability: With loads of unused homes, fewer units are available for real buyers—keeping prices high.

🤔 What’s Behind the Boom and Bust?

A few things are going on:

• Speculators buying condos hoping for big gains, not to live in them.
• New builds continuing despite demand not matching supply—especially cheap units or out-of-the-way locations.
• Low occupancy = low electricity use = official “vacant” label. The Agency for Real Estate Affairs (AREA) uses this to measure empty homes.

✅ What Can Be Done?

Experts are calling for a game-changer: a new tax on empty properties to push owners to sell or rent them. Some ideas:

• Targeted Land & Building Tax on unused homes to light a fire under owners.
• Incentives to rent/sell—empty units back in use = more homes for people, more action for the economy.
• Support for second-hand homes instead of nonstop new builds—smart reuse over endless supply.

🕵️ Quick Facts

• Total empty homes in Thailand: ~1.64 million units
• Value: ~3.45 trillion baht
• Vacancy rate (condos in BMR): ~24.8%

🏁 Final Word

The numbers aren’t just big—they’re a wake-up call. Thailand’s housing market is full of shiny new places… that nobody lives in. This "ghost homes" problem could drag down prices, hit banks, and keep real buyers stuck on the sidelines. A smart tax or incentive scheme could be the move that changes everything.