Phuket, located in the southern part of Thailand, is the largest island in the country, including its own province. It also has a capital city of the same name. Its old name, Thalang, is derived from the Malay word meaning “Cape”. Its modern name is derived from the word for “Mountain”. The island has it all, from nice beaches to mountain areas and rainforests found in the center of the island.

Geography of Phuket

The island topography is mostly covered in mountain ranges. These mountain areas are covered in forests, totaling about seventy percent of the land area in the island. The western end of the island has the more desirable beaches, which are sandy as compared to the east, having more mud than sand in it. There are more than twenty square kilometers in the island covered in rainforest. This area is zoned as a non-hunting area, and there is also a marine environment protected as a reserve, called Sirinat National Park. Sea turtles lay their eggs each year on the sandy beaches there.

Patong Beach is also the most developed area in the island, as it has become the most popular area for tourists because of its long beach area. Patong hosts the most number of establishments in the city, catering to the tourists who are going on vacation and staying in the area. Most bars, night establishments, and shopping areas are located here in Patong. There’s no forgetting the beach areas on the southern portion of Patong as well, as they have more of the undiscovered feel and much less people are crowding the region. If a secluded beach with minimal people is what you’re looking for, it’s probably best to skip Patong beach, although it’s the place to go when you’re looking for a party and a good time.

Demographics in the Island

Most of the population in Phuket is believers of the Buddhist Faith, around seventy percent of the entire population in the island practice this religion. Most of these are also of Chinese descent, from workers who migrated to the country to work in the tin mines. Muslims make up the remainder of the religious background, mostly Malay descendants and those who are in the lineage of the original sea-dwellers in the country. There are but a few minority religions in Phuket. Thus, the population in the capital of Phuket numbers at seventy-five thousand people at current.

Phuket’s Economy

Before the current background of tourism, being the main supporting industry in Phuket, tin mining was the industry that is doing the heavy lifting for Phuket’s economy. Starting from the sixteenth century, miners in Phuket made their living working down in the mines, and amongst the number of immigrant workers, they had a significant impact on the culture of Phuket, even up to the modern times. However, tin prices got lower and lower, lessening the interest in the activities in the mines.

Hence, the current industries that support the economy in Phuket are mostly from the plantations of rubber trees, which give Thailand the title of the country having the highest amount of rubber exports. The second industry would be tourism, and with the number of tourists out in Phuket for their vacation, it’s no surprise as to why Phuket has become heavily dependent on the money that these tourists bring in to the island.

Thus, the 1980s brought on the start of the evolution of the island as a tourist haven, and with the rise in tourists, the development of the island grew to a feverish pace. The Tsunami in 2004 brought down many of the beach resorts in Phuket, but they’ve gotten back on track, and now many have resumed operations and are open for business. To protect the interests of businesses in the area that are dependent on tourism as well as the local residents themselves, the government installed a deep-sea buoy out in the ocean satellite linked to provide protective information for scientist to give advance warning of seismic activity, approximately on the halfway mark between Thailand’s boundary and that of Sri Lanka.

Phuket Investments

When it comes to investment opportunities in Phuket, there are lots of choices to choose from, and depending on which angle you want to make money with in Phuket’s available properties, you can have different property types having their own unique advantages in the market. From traditional residential properties to bustling real estate developments of commercial resorts, Phuket is complete. The best way to find out what suits you is to define what your purpose in buying a property in Phuket is. You could also start from relatively untouched properties that you can develop on your own, or go for properties that have already been developed and are just waiting for their new owners.

Thus, Tourism is one of the biggest draws to Phuket’s real estate market, and with all those visitors coming into the island, they all need somewhere to go to, and you can have a property up for rent during their (or your) stay in Phuket. Residential offerings can range from bare-bones houses going for the least amount of rent, or luxury villas like the Luna Phuket, villas grouped together to form a single neighborhood. Yield for these properties can go as high as twenty percent, or even higher if you’re shrewd at finding properties that go for far less than what they’re really worth as tourist-rich properties.

For foreign investors, buying properties outright in Thailand isn’t as straightforward a process as one would like, but still, it’s possible to buy and own land in Thailand, particularly in Phuket. But then, you could also go for property leasing, which is a much easier process to go through, and you can always increase the value of your leased property to gain higher yields, offsetting the cost of leasing the land. With Phuket’s rich tourism market, your investment could pay for itself in a relatively short amount of time.