DON'T BELIEVE ALL YOU READ

I don't like to indulge in Nation bashing however some "facts" which appeared in one of their stories earlier this week about Bangkok's property sector are wildly inaccurate.

The story claims Bangkok and its suburbs has supply of some 459,240 units which will take three years to be absorbed without any further property coming to market. If that were true Bangkok would be in some serious property bubble trouble.

I asked one of my colleagues to check with the person who was quoted as providing this information, and the truth is that the figure of 459,240 is the value in millions of Thai baht of all low-rise housing projects being planned in Bangkok and its surrounds - both sold and unsold.

The story also noted that 49 projects with 20,116 units worth more than 50 billion baht have been launched in Greater Bangkok during the first four months of this year. The truth is that 49 is the number of low-rise housing projects launched in Bangkok and perimeter provinces by listed companies during first four months of this year. The figure of 20,116 is the number of units in low-rise housing projects launched in Bangkok and perimeter provinces by both listed and non-listed developers combined. The total number of projects launched is 107 and not 49 as quoted.

What's equally interesting is how this story has been copied word-for-word by several cut-and-paste property news websites who have chosen to believe that everything published elsewhere is true and not worth questioning.