PHUKET: The Phuket property market needs to work harder to tap the early-retired market in Bangkok where people were keener than ever after the floods to find second homes, says an economics professor.

Associate Professor Manop Pongsatad, of the well-regarded Chalulangkorn University, told a Phuket seminar at the weekend that more people with money were looking at buying real estate beyond Bangkok than ever before.

Although property was expensive on Phuket, he said there were people in Bangkok who were as keen to buy as those in international markets.

He also questioned the expansion of Phuket International Airport with Phuket so developed and said that it made more sense to look at fresh options in Phang Nga and Krabi.

Keawalin Wangpitchayasuk of the Kasikorn Research Centre said that, because Europe was having economic problems, developers needed to be more measured in Thailand.

The seminar, at Royal Phuket City Hotel in Phuket City, was organised by the Phuket Real Estate Association and chaired by Vice Governor Somkiet Sangkaosutthirak.