Fur baby boom: Can Bangkok be deemed as a pet-friendly city?
Pet-friendly developments may be on the rise, but are there enough to cater to all fur parents
The pandemic has prompted a complete 360 of users’ lifestyles and preferences, and although the love for furry friends already existed before the outbreak, the need to have their comforting company throughout a trying time has led to a fur baby boom.
Pet adoptions have surged substantially worldwide during the Covid period. From 2015 to 2020, a study conducted by the Frontiers in Veterinary Science uncovered that the Google search for dog and cat adoptions reached new heights in April 2020, the early epidemic period of Covid.
User searches for cat adoption alone peaked in May 2020 – the highest in the past five years including those for dogs – and maintained its volume until December 2020.
In Thailand, ThaiPBSWorld reported that more than one-third of households have at least one pet.
Duangrat Udomsomporn, the acting general manager of NCC Exhibition Organiser Co, organiser of Pet Expo 2021 held in late November, said that the work from home set up has given people more time to care for their pets.
More: Pet friendly developments emerge to cater to pandemic lifestyle
“The millennials with adequate purchasing power bought pets to be their friends which helped grow the pet market by one to five percent. The overall pet market is estimated to increase to THB38.5 billion this year from THB36.7 billion baht in 2020,” he added.
Thus, pets have now impacted the purchasing and renting decisions of residents – and developers are quick to take note.
Among the developers that have embraced this trend is MQDC, run by its Chairman of Executive Committee Thippaporn Ahriyavraromp (Chearavanont), which garnered the highly anticipated PropertyGuru Icon Award accolade at the 2020 PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards Grand Final.
Under her leadership, the firm has introduced a series of pet-friendly residential developments that all come with distinct amenities, such as pet parks and pet washing stations.
Luxury hotels have kept up with this demand by allowing pet parents to bring their animals with minimal charge and offering extra services such as dog walking or pet sitting. Some shopping centres have even started renovations to include a pet community zone with a pet shop, hospital, playground, and pool.
The local awards series, the 17th PropertyGuru Thailand Property Awards, will also be recognising this growing trend, as well as the innovative features and designs that each developer and designer will implement, through the introduction of the Best Pet-Friendly Residential Development category at this year’s gala presentation.
Although pet-friendly developments are not quite yet a mainstream product in Thailand, the growing number of pet parents in the kingdom will soon encourage more developers to address this demand.
To find out who will nab the prestigious titles and represent their country at the Grand Final, visit AsiaPropertyAwards.com/Award/Thailand/ when we announce the winners on 25 November 2022.
Gynen Kyra Toriano, Digital Content Manager at PropertyGuru, wrote this article. For more information, email: [email protected].
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