Wider World by CS

Property prices shoot up in Rangoon

Wednesday, 10 October 2012 13:22 Mizzima News

Choice property values in Rangoon have soared, rising 39 per cent in the first nine months of this year, according to a survey by an investment bank in Rangoon.

Downtown Rangoon Photo: Wikipedia

Speculators have pushed up the prices for prime residential, office and factory space, as investors line up to enter Burma’s developing  economy.

Officials said the survey, called the Silk Road Yangon Property Index (Sypix), measured the average price per square foot of residential property in Rangoon, the country’s largest city.

It said it was priced at US$ 85 per one square foot, according to a Reuters article on Tuesday.

The index was compiled by a unit of Silk Road Finance, an investment bank company operating in frontier markets, which recently set up a branch in Rangoon.

The Silk Road survey said hotel rates in Rangoon had risen 65 per cent this year, the biggest increase in the global hospitality industry and a trend that prompted the government to try to introduce a cap on room rates in foreign-owned hotels in June.

Office rental rates have risen 50 per cent this year, said Silk Road, with prices in downtown Rangoon in excess of $50 per square metre a month in some locations.

The total office space available in Rangoon – 63,000 square metres – is less than 1 percent of that available in the Thai capital of Bangkok, said the survey.