New real property assessments to be notified starting next year will be based on market price data as well as projections of economic evolution and inflation rates.
The target is to ensure that values describe as closely as practicable true market stipulations, according to Amnuay Preemanawong, the deputy director-general of the Treasury Department.
Property assessments set by the Treasury Department and the Land Department are used as a baseline not only for market businesses, but also for tax purposes and collateral assessments by local financial institutions.
Assessments are revised every four years on a nationwide foundation, with the newest values to take come into force from 2008 through 2011.
The Treasury Department, which directs public lands on behalf of the government, is liable for carrying out the assessment survey.
For the new survey, the department has separated its work into three phases.
First it will emend values for land plots that are already in official databases, based on the most current transaction data for near properties as well as economic information over the prior three years.
Second, it will allocate assessments for 400,000 plots for the first time, mostly representing sites in Surin, Chiang Rai and Buri Ram provinces. The third phase will entangle assessing values based on wholesale blocks.
In the end, the department hopes to assemble a nationwide database with price and geographic report both for several plots as well as broader blocks.
The opening survey is expected to be accomplished in July, after which the department will meet with topical working groups to finalize the observations starting from August.
Mr Amnuay said the new assessments would not perforce result in augmentations in all jurisdictions, especially in provincial territories.
The department tracks 28 million property plots nationwide, of which two million are located in Bangkok.
All property in Bangkok has already been classified on a plot basis, meanwhile most provinces still have assessments based on block zones.
Assessments in some areas, such as Silom and Yaowarat roads in Bangkok, principally post little swap from one survey to the next, due in part to the relatively few transactions registered in the market.
In consequence, official assessments in some of the most worthy areas of Bangkok are listed at around 600,000 baht per square wah, even though private valuers would allocate values of up to one million baht for the same plot.
For sections with relatively few market transactions to serve as a baseline, the Treasury Department will turn to other indices to estimate land values, such as rental and lease rates for a zone and values attached to comparable plots in the ground.
Under the current assessment schedule, first used in 2004 and set to expire this year, the highest values have been assigned to lands along Silom Road, at 340,000 to 600,000 ฿ per square wah.
Yaowarat Road in Chinatown is valued at 260,000 to 510,000 baht per square wah, and Thaniya Road off Rama IV is valued at 340,000 to 510,000 ฿.
The public can receive information on the assessment method, including data for individual plots, on the Treasury Department website: http://www.treasury.go.th