Every fortnight we get the same question, phrased twenty different ways: what would you do with a million dollars in Phuket today? The honest answer changes more slowly than the market chatter suggests. Below is how we currently think about it.
Yield-led: branded condominiums
Branded condominium residences along the west coast — Layan, Bang Tao, Surin — are producing 5–7% net yields when run through hotel rental pools, and 7–9% gross for owner-managed short-let units. The premium developers (we won't list them in writing, but ask us by name) are returning these numbers consistently.
Capital-led: scarce-land villas
If your horizon is 7–10 years and your priority is value retention, you want freehold-leasehold-structured villas on the few remaining elevated west-coast plots, or estate land on Cape Yamu. These don't move in price the way condos do — they hold and slowly compound.
What we're cautious on
Off-plan from unfamiliar developers, no matter how good the renderings look. Schemes that rely on aggressive guaranteed-rental promises (the maths rarely survives a downturn). And anywhere the title isn't unequivocally clean.
