Progress in preparing the draft regulations under the Thailand Condominium Act amended in 2009 with the purchase and sale agreement is almost completed and will be presented to the meeting of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet) in August 2011. The essence of the contract will be to declare the act as another measure to protect consumers, which requires that any project or condominium units which will be open to the public for sale must be certified or approved by the Environment Impact Assessment Committee (EIA) and must have a valid license for construction.

The framework of this contract will provide fairness for the buyer. Many previous condominium projects were sold or booked but without passing the EIA assessment first which meant that there were many legal cases being brought against developers.

The legislation drafting committee has now approved Condominium Act law. Preliminary determination of the initial height from three stories up and the height of the building will be based on the building control act which regulates the rules or details already. Room sizes, for example, must have a minimum usage area of 20 square meters and a bathroom included. However, the editing of the various definitions will take a year to complete and make enforceable.

The new combined Bangkok city plans to include FAR (Floor Area Ratio) for land use along the metro system includes both open-for-business and under-construction projects and investment projects in the planning stages.

According to the combined Bangkok city plan which is considering updating and prepare to announced a new city plan enacted for 2012. By taking lessons and shortcomings of the previous land use plan for revision as well as the growth rate of both residential and commercial development including the number of people using the area as a key element in determining the future layout of urban development.

The consideration of the new Bangkok city plan will increase the use of land along the entire metro route which is currently in service and currently under construction according to master plan and investment plan.

This is because the demand for land along metro lines is high from both investors interested in investing in all types of commercial ventures including shopping centers and low-rise housing and high-rise housing especially in the inner city and central areas and the demand of living near working areas and shopping centers. The city of Bangkok will increase the FAR ratio or total building area per land area to be able to construct more on the same piece of land as 1-2 times.

Apart from that, areas in Bangkok inner city and Bangkok middle areas that have the overhead train can be able to develop more high-rises with land high prices and are likely to be considered worth the investment of further rail systems including Bangkok’s outer areas stations.

However, BMA has planned to raise the ceiling of a maximum FAR10: 1 to FAR 15:1 especially in some of the red zone area such as some part of Silom will also increase In descending order according to their suitability and land use. increasing the FAR to 11:1, FAR 12:1, FAR 13:1, FAR 14:1 and FAR15: 1. However, it must depend on the city planning committee for approval.