Thailand is one emerging market where the concepts of lifestyle buying and investment seem to have become conflated to a relatively high degree. This country of some 65 million people has traditionall marketed itself to the West, to tourists and homebuyers alike, on the strength of its exoticism and its myriad natural assets. Thailand's property market is also experiencing a recovery; following a steep decline in sales after the tsunami, the market now seems increasingly buoyant.

The lure of the mysterious, in the form of Thailand's culture, its stunning Buddhist architecture and art and its often equally beautiful inhabitants has been combined with the familiar pleasures of sun, sea and sand to create one of the Far East's most successful tourist brands.