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[Heng]

It'll be more of a buyers market once they hike up the interest rates a little more... to squeeze some property out of overleveraged hands.    

Edited by Heng, 2008-07-23 18:45:26.

[Gary A]

As for myself, I have no idea why a farang would even consider buying a property through a company. Why open an expensive can of worms when you can safely buy a condo in your own name?

Now I'll hear that the company comes with the house. That may be the case, but what about the accountant and yearly tax returns? What happens if the Thai government decides to enforce the law?

[chiang mai]

MacauThai, on 2008-06-17 11:13:28, said:

wait for the baht to fall thats what it looks like its going to do.

I live in hope, but, according to an IMF report in the Tribune, UK, US, Euro and Canadian Dollar are all overvalued and many major Asian currencies are undervalued - the Singapore Dollar in particular should increase by around 20%. I think the question will be, which currency will fall faster sooner, GBP & USD or THB.

[jitagon]

Gary A, on 2008-07-26 02:27:53, said:

As for myself, I have no idea why a farang would even consider buying a property through a company. Why open an expensive can of worms when you can safely buy a condo in your own name?

Now I'll hear that the company comes with the house. That may be the case, but what about the accountant and yearly tax returns? What happens if the Thai government decides to enforce the law?

oooh god, here we go again BECAUSE if you have a family, several assorted pets and don't want to have to listen to your neighbour arguing with his latest tee luk or hawking up in the bathroom each morning, AND are into gardening, you don't want to live in a bloody 'flat', whatever anyone calls it here.

[gmac]

jitagon, on 2008-07-27 15:30:36, said:

Gary A, on 2008-07-26 02:27:53, said:

As for myself, I have no idea why a farang would even consider buying a property through a company. Why open an expensive can of worms when you can safely buy a condo in your own name?

Now I'll hear that the company comes with the house. That may be the case, but what about the accountant and yearly tax returns? What happens if the Thai government decides to enforce the law?

oooh god, here we go again BECAUSE if you have a family, several assorted pets and don't want to have to listen to your neighbour arguing with his latest tee luk or hawking up in the bathroom each morning, AND are into gardening, you don't want to live in a bloody 'flat', whatever anyone calls it here.

I think the point being made here was more about the buying 'through a company' than the buying of a condo as opposed to a house.  The company route for house buying has been shown to be 'unsafe' thus the only way for a farang to buy in his own name is to buy a Condo.  The extended family and pets will always be happier in a house but the only way to buy this 'safely' is in the Thai wife's name with a 30 year lease (or not) and the hope of a happily ever after!  From another thread I think Gary A has his own Condo which he has rented out and now lives upcountry in a house with his own hopefully happy ever after!

To the OP, if you look at the adverts from the real estate agents from month to month you will see that very little 2nd hand property is moving so from that point of view it is a buyers market.  What you need to do as already mentioned is to find yourself a genuine seller who needs to sell and agree a figure probably some way below the current asking price.

Edited by gmac, 2008-07-28 09:47:52.

[TomBrown]

Well it would appear to be a 'sticky' Thai I am dealing with, who will only drop 100,000 off the price to maximise her profit. It turns out she invests in property usually buying off plan then sells later, so she probably could hold onto it much longer, has done so far.

LaoPo; really good advice, but I actually do like this property and its location and although we have seen other properties around Pattaya (for example Soi 10 Pattaya Tai, and in Ratanakorn developemnt at Thepprasit Road near Thappraya Road which we originally wanted to be as we thought this was going to be a good location for the future of the area/Pattaya/Jomtien, but we also like the town house in Nua. This could maybe be my biggest mistake ;-)

Gmac; As you said, not too much seems to be moving in the 2nd hand market at present, which I have kept an eye on. I see several of the same properties repeat appearances on the Carrefour notice board every week (as well as fresh 2nd hand property for sale), but was putting this down to it being the low season. Would you agree?

It is a town house I am looking to purchase, and as correctly said a foreigner cannot own land directly, so the land goes into my Thai partner's name and the town house into my name, using the 30 year lease route. Well that's the plan, I'll be confirming with the lawyer today.

Regarding purchasing a property with land via the company route, we visited several layers who all but one said that people who bought before the 1st July 2008 via a company would 'probably' be okay and unchecked, but going that route after that date would not be advisable and sure to be checked at some point. Only one foreign 'law advisor' not a lawyer, said that 'in his opinion the government will not check' so property via company is still okay, which in reality is not the case now, or possibly ever, as I read that the law was always there but just never enforced.

So, even though I have the funds ready, I do like the property and location in the city, have spoken to our lawyer and spoken to the property owner, there's still a little bit of doubt in my mind. The doubt is partly down to not getting a better deal from the property owner, and partly down to doom sayers who think this location has had it, and to be fair if things like taking down the Walking Street neon sign and replacing it with the steel framework but no money for the big TV that replaces the sign (rumour) happens, or not much customers in the Avenue Shopping Mall, I could maybe agree. Then again, much money does seem to be getting invested in the area with many new hotels and the new Central Festival Mall that opens in Jan'09, its hard to say what will happen.

Will see what happens over the next few days.

Tom.

Edited by lopburi3, 2008-08-04 06:55:45.
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