Property developers will ask the Bank of Thailand to reduce the blacklist period for credit card holders from the usual three years to one year, with the aim to enable homebuyers to get better access to mortgages.
Atip Bijanonda, president of the Housing Business Association, said there were over 100,000 people who used to be blacklisted by the National Credit Bureau, but have now cleared the debt they incurred on credit cards.
"Despite clearing their debts, their track records or history remain in the credit bureau's blacklist," he said. "This prevents them from getting mortgages. These people have strong purchasing power, and they are prospective homebuyers."
Three groups -- the Housing Business Association, the Thai Condominium Association and the Thai Real Estate Association -- are scheduled to meet central bank officials this month to submit an official document to press their case.
Mr Atip said there would be a large number of residences launched for sale in the fourth quarter, but demand remains weak as purchasing power is still low and household debt is fairly high.
Prasert Taedullayasatit, president of the Thai Condominium Association, said total presales from large developers are predicted to be 100-150 billion baht in the fourth quarter, which will comprise equal proportions of existing supply and new supply.
Sales in the final quarter will improve from 80 billion baht in the third quarter, which was a fall from 85 billion baht in both the first and second quarters.
Mr Prasert, also president of SET-listed Pruksa Real Estate Plc, said the company plans to launch 20-30 new projects worth combined 30 billion baht in the fourth quarter, with the aim of 15 billion baht in presales.
Kittipol Pramoj Na Ayudhya, managing director of SET-listed developer Sammakorn Plc, said the property market in the fourth quarter would fare better than the third quarter, but the performance is unlikely to be as good as that recorded in the same quarter in previous years.
The three property associations yesterday opened the House & Condo Expo, which runs until this Sunday where over 1,000 projects from 200 developers are being introduced. They expect to have 4 billion baht in sales at the fair and an additional 7 billion baht after the fair.
"After the property tax incentives ended, the market should have been sluggish for about one or two months," Mr Kittipol said. "But this time the sluggish period lasted three to four months. The market just recovered in September."
Samma Kitsin, director-general of the Real Estate Information Center, said there would be 54,000-56,000 condo units newly launched in Greater Bangkok this year, which would be the lowest since 2011, when most of the country faced dire floods. Only 44,000 condominiums were launched in 2011.