New luxury condo to open

Outside of Bangkok, she plans detached-housing projects priced at around five million baht and worth a combined 300 million baht in Si Saket, Sakhon Nakhon and Udon Thani provinces by the end of the year. Many of the prospective buyers would be foreigners looking for homes in the five-million-baht range, she said

only 5 mill baht to buy an condo/apartment, hope they have nice pool and clubhouse. i think i can spend that much in america if i want a condo/apartment in the middle of nowhere. let's face it, there is no beach/river/mountains to play in, no cultural/arts, no sports/activities, unless you consider monthly meetins cultural, lol.

that's just shy of 14000 baht a month for 30 yrs, not including interest. wonder if i could rent something for that, and then not worry about selling if i change my mind about living here, especially if circumstances changed my desire to be here.

either they don't offer something, or expect farangs to be really stupid in their decision making. unfortunitely, there seem to be enough ready to bite the hook when dangled in front of them.

bkk post article, mainly about siam sq. w/upcountry as small mention. the siam sq prices are amazing.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/Business/11Sep2006_biz17.php

Totally agree LA. Prices over here now are getting "Ting Tong" - crazy. If I want to pay that much for somewhere to live I'd buy in my home country where there was better infrastructure and places to go etc. In Issan there is no beach, sea, mountains.

One of the main reasons for coming here was that it was cheaper to live here, if that ceases to be the case, then maybe I will look somewhere else. Somewhere cheaper and with more scenery and maybe even a beach. Why should we be paying Phuket prices in Udon?

Much the same goes for house sale and rentals. The market in Udon for rentals now is becoming very two tier. A higher tier for less informed or less discriminating farangs. Why should one 3 bedroom house be rented out at 4000 baht a month, yet people are asking 8-10000 baht for another similar one? Why should I pay as much as Phuket to rent a house here, simply because there is an on-going demand from farangs?

The rules of economics will eventually come into play. Prices get too high due to high demand or excessive greed and people will soon find somewhere else and suddenly the demand will drop and the market will crumble/drop.

Sorry that's my rant for the day!

Very good rant and to the point. I am saying that in the debate thread also.

You know,if its a small project then there will be a big enough supply of farangs daft enough to pay UK/US prices.

A retired American has just purchased two rai over the road from my village for TWO MILLION BAHT.Now this is a piece of land 100 km from Udon out in the wilderness of Nong Khai.Two hundred thousand at a push maybe due to a good road.All he had to do was go down the land office and see the recent transactions or ask any locals.Hmmm and yes the seller was a relative of his very young wife. Chock dee nor nor.

I would say they saw that retired American coming, all they saw in him was Mr. Super ATM......nice family he has there.......glad it him and not me.

Pop's

You know,Pop pop,some good does come out of such horror stories as it makes me really appreciate my own wife.It's a real mine field out there for the "green" guys just off the plane. Lambs to the slaughter is the analogy that springs quickly to mind.

I know a thai that has returned after 30 years in the USA.His brothers wife turned him on to a friend that had 1 rai for sale behind the Grand hotel.1 Mil baht!Granted ,there are new other very nice homes across from him,but the value of the land surrounding him has been selling for 1/4-1/2 of that price!He paid the same price as builting sites on the Mekong River ,go for.He's happy,so I guess that is really whats important!

Whoever said knowledge comes with age had not been to Udon. Maybe with age they will get knowledge.

What if, also like so many other things here - the government of the time decide to change the rules again for foreigners owning land or to close the existing loopholes like they are begining to do. Was there not a story recently that the government have halted all future AND PRESENT constructions of superstores. Why ? Coz they can

Still wanna sink 5 million into a condo which at the end of the day sits on someone elses land ?

Paul wrote:What if, also like so many other things here - the government of the time decide to change the rules again for foreigners owning land or to close the existing loopholes like they are begining to do. Was there not a story recently that the government have halted all future AND PRESENT constructions of superstores. Why ? Coz they can

Still wanna sink 5 million into a condo which at the end of the day sits on someone elses land ?

All investments should be based on good business principles.Yes there are some people that have been lucky with there investments here!But if you are going to rely on luck,you have a very good chance of suffering a loss!
I could have gotten lucky if I would have bought my condo, in Bangkok,when it was offered to me.It has since doubled in price after 4 years,a reasonable investment return!I chose not to purchase because to many basic principals were missing and I would be in a legal system that I had no faith in!Oh well,if I had wanted to invest ,when I came to Thailand,I would have done it in the States,where the return was much greater and much safer!
Invest $200,000 in Thailand R.E.,why,when you could make 50% on the same money in 1 year in American R.E.,renting the property equal to financing payments!

Stan said:

It has since doubled in price after 4 years,a reasonable investment return

- Doubled in "value"...... And that is of no consequence, of course, if you can't easily realise (sell) your investment, and I see that as a big potential downside over here.

So many things can happen or go wrong that might mean you want to sell, and the chances are that at that time no one else will want to buy, for maybe similar reasons.

It's interesting I paid 1.4 for a nice house, four years ago it would have been easy to get at 800K, by the way I paid well under the market for it. But. I had been 2 & 1/2 years before I did that. I got past it is so much more expensive at home stage. The problem is you get a guy new to the area he makes those comparisons with our very really looking around and finding out what the real market is boom he drops the cash.

The prices in first homes are advancing steadily and they are selling, not anywhere near what is being talked about here.

An american guy contacted me because he was selling his 4 mil, he will probably will eventually sell it to someone. I think Udon is way over priced these days, but I guess that is not a bad deal for me if I choose to sell. I wouldn't want to be buying these days.

Beyond the condo that we are talking about and the government saying get off the land it is not yours. Do any of us have a guarentee the next visa renewal that it will be granted? Now to me that is what is scary about retiring here. Stop granting those visas and there is going to be a huge fire sale in this country. What would those million baht cars go for if you had a week to sale them? What you think you would get out of all that wonderful furniture you have purchased 10% of purchase price.

Lets face it guy this is great leap of faith to build a life here, me I don't 5 million worth of faith

and how do you know that the 800,000 in the bank for a retirees visa will stay the same? they are sure to keep on raising the threshold year after year .
and do you need all this hassle in your advancing age when your faculties will be getting dimmer and you cant be assed to comply with the changing rules.
Malaysia sounds a lot safer for an ageing farang .

izzix wrote:and how do you know that the 800,000 in the bank for a retirees visa will stay the same? they are sure to keep on raising the threshold year after year .
and do you need all this hassle in your advancing age when your faculties will be getting dimmer and you cant be assed to comply with the changing rules.
Malaysia sounds a lot safer for an ageing farang .

In truth as most of us are on retirement income based on dollars or pounds, the threshhold is being raised already by the increasing strengh of the baht.
The thinking behind raising the marriage financial requirement is simply, why should it be considered a married man can survive on half a retired persons income. Seems reasonable to me