Thanks for your comments, most appreciated. It is certainly food for thought. What would you rate as the top most location in Pattaya?

^
Before I can answer your question, you need to define what you mean by Pattaya, for some it can mean anywhere between Sri Racha and Ban Chang.
Are you talking about houses or apartments?
Are you talking about, a property to rent and live in, a bought property to live in all year round, a bought property to use as a holiday home, a property to buy as an investment or property to rent out and use as a source of local income.
You may have to decide what is your core business and concentrate on that.

Thanks again. Ok, let me specify then. From North to South Pattaya beach side of the Sukhumvit Road. What do you think is the best location for Houses? Condos? Let's say to buy as an investment purely.

When you buy real estate in Pattaya (and surrounding areas) which area do you think is the best to buy condos/houses? Why?

Flaming and personal attacks are not warranted. Posts deleted and further infractions will result in warnings being issued.

This is a public forum with rules. Moderators do not necessarily have the expertise or time to look into 'cases'. Let's keep in mind that situations vary greatly and often the specifics aren't posted in the forum.

Defamatory posts and the answers to them have been deleted.
The Defamation and Libel laws are a lot more strict in Thailand than in the west.

I would say the obvious Central for investment and resale reasons. Surrounding areas i would personally give Jomtien a wide berth just doesn't do it for me over there, but would defiantly invest in Naklua if the right opportunity came along.

I bought off plan in Central 18 months ago 122 square meter corner unit for 3.5 and sold 3 week's ago for 4.3, it was on the market for 2 days and I got a deposit and now fully paid.

There are plenty of buyers out there but only if you have something a bit special for sale, many condo developments in Pattaya I wouldn't buy if they offered me a 50% discount, you need to look hard for the good ones.

I totally agree with you. It seems like Central Pattaya is the best area for returns at the moment. Your return for the investment sounds extremely good. Yes, you are also correct about the product that stands out from the rest. Jomtien and also Pratumnak are hot locations to invest for both houses and condos alike. I personally think this is a good time to buy real estate in Pattaya because if you have the cash in hand you have the upper hand in negotiations because it is a buyer's market. Don't you think so?

I would say Jomtien is one of the best areas around, much better roads (or at least will be when complete), less traffic congestion, better beach, easy access to Sukhumvit, Tesco, Big C and soon the new Makro.
And if you need your Pattaya fix it's just a short hop over the hill!

'Never ask a barber if you need a haircut'

Translation: A real estate broker in Pattaya (or anywhere) is the last person any newbie should be looking to for advice. There are rare-exceptions, just as there are with financial planners, but 99% of real estate brokers (as with financial planners) are sharks out to take advantage of people and earn a quick buck. The very good ones are usually so overwhelmed with referrals and clients that they wont have the time to walk a n00b through the process - but if you can find one (through referral-not an advertisement or spam forum post) this would be one way to learn about a market. The best way though is to ask others who are investing in it or have invested in it, particularly those who have done so for a long period of time.

In short, I'd trust the collective opinions of TV over any random real estate broker every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

This post has been edited by DegenFarang: 2009-11-04 16:45:53

Wow this thread is a bunch of spam, I hadn't even read it all the way through before making the above post.

The opinions of real estate brokers are next to worthless on this topic in my view and have ruined this thread.

Do any expat condo investors want to weigh in on whether or not now would be a good time to invest in Pattaya? What a good area to buy would be in, possibly a particular (finished) development? (Benchmark I have no interest in your opinion, thanks).

Aahh so that was you? If i'm correct i think you're talking about #201 overlooking the pool? You did well on that deal. I got a call from Noy the day before you signed as i was very keen on that unit. I ended up buying 2 in Apus up the road with a 17% discount off list price. I'm hoping to flip one of them come settlement time.

All done and dusted now Transit. Sounds like you got yourself a good deal anyway. This is the thing you have to ask for discount, if you don't ask you don't get, that's where a % of your profit is.

All the best with your new purchases.

Since you bought something recently I am asking you, what made you think of buying now? In other words are you buying now because you think this is the right time to buy real estate in Pattaya?

When you buy a condo in Pattaya what communal facilities would you expect to have?

Good morning Benchmark
I have been following your recent threads with great interest.

I hope that you don't mind me joining this one...

In this day and age I would expect all new condo projects to have communal facilities that at least include:
Free Wifi Internet zone
Coffee shop
Swimming pool
Pool / sun deck
24 hour security
Fitness facility (optional due to the competitiveness of the fitness market)

The following would be great buying / selling factors:
concierge service
shuttle service from (say) the depths of Pratumnak to the Baht bus route.

You going to tell me the important ones that I've missed?
Regards
Rob

When's the right time to do anything? I don't know if it's the right time or not, some will say yes, some no. People need to think for themselves and weigh things up. If someone needs to ask the question "is it the right time to buy" then to me, that person is the sort that needs to be lead and can't think for themselves. If I can buy something and sell it on for a profit whether the property market is doing well or not then I will do. Likewise, If i was looking for a home to live in and I found something that was a good price compared to what else is available then I would buy it, again whether the property market was doing well or not.

Just use some common sense and get out there and get a feel of things. I tell you one thing though, you have to either live here or be here on a long stay to have any chance of finding yourself a bargain.

Looking at a website and booking a flight for a view then not wanting to go home without buying something (as many do) will end in tears. Spain is a prime example, there are hundreds and thousands of empty homes that people can't give away, many flown out there by an agent and driven from one development to another until they finally buy something out of desperation because they can't wait then regretted it later.

Supply and demand... its been saturated in Spain with to many properties and not enough buyers, that could happen here with the amount of new builds going up all over the place, not saying it will but there's only so many buyers you can sell to.

Back to now...good old fashion footwork is the way to go, get out there amongst it all, think for yourself and find yourself a deal, they're out there you just have to work hard to find them.

Hi Fivestar, I highly appreciate your feedback. I think all points you mentioned are quite important for a good condominium project. In addition to that to have rental management service would be a plus, don't you think so? I am looking forward to discuss about some good condo projects to buy in Pattaya, in this thread soon. I would appreciate your input. Thanks again.

You are absolutely correct. Doing your home work before buying and doing it in the "real world" is importnant before buying a condo. Certainly in Pattaya there is a very good choice to select from in many different locations. For a new comer I think it's good to work with a reputed agent to look at different choices they can buy for their money. Honestly as a real estate agent I am satisfied when we can find what the buyer is exactly looking for. Commission to me is not a priority and customer satisfaction comes first. I have been in the market long enough to know the benefits of customer satisfaction and how it helps to have repeat business. If a potential buyer consults us before you buy your next condo we are confident that we can find a good condo which comes with excellent value for your money whether it is a new condo or off the plan. I will discuss more about the best condo projects to buy in this market in this thread soon. Citizen Smith highly appreciate your input as a experienced buyer.

This post has been edited by benchmark: 2009-11-07 18:56:58

Things to consider:

Thai neighbours who dont maintain their properties or turn their house into a buisiness.

Future resale value - as property is generaly overpriced and building of new condos and houses continues at breakneck speed.

Foreigneirs can not own a house in any secure or reasonable way ( lawyers and agents will tell you different). Government are currently looking into property held in nominee company structure.

Poor currency exchange rates. Eg. if you bought a property using UK pounds today you would be paying considerably more than you would have 18 months ago (30%) and if the baht weakens you stand to make a big loss.

If house bought using illeagal nominee company structure then you ave to piss on every year doing accounts.

So many rental properties availabel with rents falling.

On the plus side -

Certainly good points. Majority of foreigners prefer to buy condos because they can own it in their own name. Have foreigners stopped buying houses in company names? I know they are still buying. I agree that is not the ideal way to own a property but we must not forget that many owners have accepted company ownership as an option. It will be good if the government can make foreigners feel more welcome in terms of the land ownership laws.

Which is why i'm about to rent in Pattaya not buy even though I have a company structure that would easily let me do so.

But more importantly the thing that amazes me day in day out is the stupidity of people who buy villas off plan in Pattaya. With the best will in the World it's a terrible idea, you simply have no idea what the final product will turn out like despite what the brouchures say, and 9 times out of 10 you're going to look at several aspects of it and think "That wasn't supposed to be like that". I have been looking at "high end" villas in Pattaya on and off for several years now and almost none of the villas that are really good quality will ever come back on the market as resale properties - when you find a good one you hang on to it or sell it to a friend if you really need to let it go.

Get your feet on the ground, let the agents you've approached know you're not desperate but have cash waiting for the right property and use a well established Bangkok law firm to handle the deal if you wish to put it in a company name. Anything else is simply too risky considering the money involved and the odds are still stacked against you finding anything worth the time and effort.

And don't listen to property agents unless you're very brave or very stupid, they need to sell properties at the end of the day and you will always be just another punter.

Tom.

Thanks Tom, you have a valid point. These days buyers are much more cautious before they invest their hard earned money on a property purchase. Obviously Pattaya property market has a lot to offer but like you said buyer or the property agent needs to be selective to buy in a project that delivers what they promise. But however if you have cash in hand in my own opinion this is a right time to start looking to buy. You need to take some time to do your research looking at different options in the market and to compare what you get for your money because like Warren Buffet said "Price is what you pay and value is what you get". I know that there are projects or private sellers in the market now who will listen to the clients not like before so it's not too hard for a potential buyer to negotiate a good deal with them. Finally you are absolutely correct about using the lawyer because I always advice my clients to use a lawyer in a property purchase to do the due diligence before they sign and pay anything. Recently I cautioned one of my clients who didn't buy a property through us to do the due diligence on the property they were going to buy because that deal sounded a bit too good to be true kind of. They took my advice and used a lawyer to check the title deed and surprisingly the lawyer found out that there was a 6 million baht loan registered in the title deed which the seller didn't ever mention to the buyer about. In fact when they showed the title deed they covered this loan from the buyer when they made the copy of the deed. Fortunately my clients didn't pay any deposit at that time and they stopped their wire transfer from UK immediately. This is one good example to show that sometimes with our experience we can serve clients. I did not charge anything for my service as I thought it is my duty to guide these new comer clients out of the trouble they were going to get in to. In the end these clients were highly appreciating my guidance and I introduced a lawyer to assist them to handle this transaction.

Pictured is the popular high end villas "Sedona Villas" with private pools in Mabprachan lake area. Prices are starting from 9.9 Million Baht for a 3 Bed , 3 Bath home with private pool and high quality European kitchen