Chinese Capital Pushes EEC Industrial Land Prices Up 20-30% in Chonburi and Rayong

Industrial land values across the Eastern Economic Corridor — the belt covering Chonburi, Rayong, and Chachoengsao — have risen by 20-30% over the past year, largely on the back of Chinese manufacturers racing to lock down factory sites. Chonburi now commands the highest average price of the three provinces, at roughly 9.5 million baht per rai, with Rayong not far behind at about 7.5 million baht.

The scale of Chinese capital behind that move is notable: its share of investment into Thai industrial estates has grown from around 6% in 2019 to more than 17% in early 2026, trailing only Japan. That money is chasing land both inside formally zoned industrial estates and on private plots outside them, sometimes structured through local nominee arrangements to get around foreign land-ownership restrictions.

Nowhere is the shift more visible than Pluak Daeng district in Rayong, which local reporting has taken to calling “Little Guangzhou” — roadside plots there are now said to fetch at least 40 million baht per rai. Provincial authorities are reportedly looking at tighter controls on how such land can be used, a sign that the pace of buying has outrun existing planning rules.

Strong demand has its own risks. Vacancy across EEC industrial estates has already fallen to about 6.2%, leaving little slack if the current investment pace continues, while scrutiny is growing over so-called “zero-dollar” projects — operations that import their own Chinese labor and supply chains and generate comparatively little business for Thai firms nearby. The corridor’s land boom, in other words, is now drawing as much regulatory attention as investment capital.