123ace

Reduce the price further if you absolutely need the cash now, or just wait until you get a buyer at an acceptable price. I can't see the problem. Sell to a Thai maybe?

Unless you can locate the property owner you cannot "sell" the leased home. The best you can do is sublease the property per the terms of your original lease. By the way, there is no such thing as a 90 year lease, only the first 30 years can be registered with the local land office and therefore be legally enforceable.

The method is not a sub-lease but to assign or transfer the lease rights for the remainder of the unexpired term. Correct on the 30 year term, however if the lease agreement has renewal provisions (which we may assume it does) then these rights would also be transferred to the new lessee.

None of this is new. The OP needs to track down the Lessor and inform them that the lease is being transferred to a third party.

You will not get much if any good practical advice here as your situation may be diagnosed quite clearly as a catalogue of small disasters.

In the absence of the builder / lawyer etc you need a new lawyer, based in samui and with the proven ablity to handle farang lease property.

Don't assume this is a lost cause.

Don't panic and try not get despondent. Panburi is a whole better place than Samui, this is a positive move and you will not miss samui, I know I don't!

Cars in Thailand are so boring. <snip>

I think the consumers here just don't know how to demand better quality and wider range of products.

Thailand has 500K new vehicle sales per year (of which ~50% are pickups) with a ~62M population, in a country where you need 100+ dealerships to have a proper dealer network - these just aren't the kind of statistics that give you any freedom in your product mix unfortunately. Couple that with nonsensical excise taxes, and the fact that the overwhelming majority of sales happen at the absolute bottom of the market, and there's just simply no way to make a business case for a more diverse product mix

By comparison, Australia with just ~22M population buys 1M new vehicles/year. USA with 310M population is now approaching 10M sales per year. I don't have the latest stats for Japan handy ATM, but last time I looked they were about the same volume as the USA, but with just a 127M population.

I really disagree with you on this. After watching the car market here for 20 years my observations are:

Taxes are a smokescreen. As the currency has moved drastically up and down in the last 10 years we have not seen any corresponding reduction in new car prices. Taxes may be from 30% to 200% but this is not being applied even remotely accurately as seen in the last 2 – 3 years as prices should have come down in line with the weak pound or dollar etc.

Engine size and bhp issues. Again this seems completely arbitrary as the mini with a small engine and low bhp is priced excessively high, due to what? There are many examples of this high pricing by led by perceived socio-demand.

Range of cars. The marketing machine and public perception has molded the demand with saloon auto’s favored even by the young demographic. This is in total contrast to international norms, there are no affordable hot hatches or coupes in this market. Everything is pre-ordered in auto form further dumbing down the market. Thai’s have limited knowledge that the big manufactures have a much wider range and these models are just not introduced here.

Pick up trucks. These are predominantly bought as a cheap alternatives to passenger cars. The theory that they need the load space is a myth as seen by 99% of empty picks up in the daily Bangkok commute.

I got done on this stretch yesterday and paid THB 200. -

The tripod is under a bridge in the middle of the road, rather than to the left hand side.

I have noticed them several times already under that bridge,as well as today,but I never see the second half of the team.How did they stop you?

Two cops in the road with those mini light saber things. They were a long way ahead of the speed trap though - at least 3 km's.

It seems cars here are priced acording to some sort of percieved desirability scale. With the small engine, low bhp mini overpriced just like all MB's.

Unfortunately we don't get the full spectrum of nice cars here. It's dressed up as being due to lack of local demand for non mainstream cars, or not in line with local car fashions etc, but it has more to do with what the local distributors are prepared to import and sell and almost no knowledge from local consumers that these big car brands have more like 30 cars in their range and not just the 3 or 4 we get here.

The problem starts with automatic vs manual. With auto as the preference and manual for taxis (ie poor people) this limited the volume of manual imports in the 80's (when the market started to mature for the massess) set the trend for auto's. Followed by a prefernce for saloon / sedan bodyshape over coupe and hatchback and the mindset that saloons are more fashionable - i.e. volvo, BMW, MB etc dripped down to accords and camry's (as these premium brands had so few hatchback & coupe's at entry level in the 80's & 90's we had less imported) then you can see why we are left with a dearth of choice today as current imports are predominatly auto saloons in silver.

In the mid 90's the roads were full of Honda preludes, Toyota celicas & Hyundai Tiburons. I had on of the coupes here then and as manual. They all thought I was mad or could'nt afford an auto! I would never had sold it had I know that today there are no coupes to buy as we are today Thai's don't like them!!

Shock horror - but great coupes back then cost from new THB 700k to about 1.5m. The BMW 3 series compact was THB 1m - so what has gone wrong? they pretend its taxes and excahnge rates....its not, not anymore as the currency has almost corrected to pre June 97 levels...

fashion drip fed by importers and narrow minded consumers has shaped the dull market place we have today...

The Golf GTI or WRX are the best if price is less of an issue, but they are not really 'mimi' sized, if price is an issue I prefer the look of the Mazda 2.

The Mini is positioned a tad too feminine (pretty boys included) in Thailand and the car is priced on looks here, not engine or BHP etc. The mini has been up-branded in Thailand as being more special than it actually is when compared to the Jazz et al in qualative terms.

Where are the Polo GTI's the Clio Cup's the 206 GTI's??

Why do the importers here feed us such dross when the mini has shown with stunning clarity that there is a market for small expensive cars!!

Shell has stopped the Benzine 95 - this is a real shame and my Subaru is meant for Benzine only.

I refuse to drive a boring car!

What Shell station and when? My wife filled the tank a few days ago with V-power. (Benzene 95)

Well, as far as i know the Shell at Pattaya North, just before the Pattaya Bangkok Hospital has stopped selling V-power Benzene 95.

This was the only Shell station around in Pattaya that i knew which had this V-Power Benzene 95. I stopped at several other Shell stations when i came from BKK and Rayong, and from other trips in the last weeks, never found another Shell station with V-Power Benzene 95.

At which station did your wife found the V-Power benzene ?

It is still V Power something, in red etc and looks like the old Benzine branded stuff. The staff will just assume you know and unless you make the effort to see that the sticker has been slightly modified you may not notice. Shell has nice useless phamflet explaining that its all ok...

I don't know about Caltex yet, but I may have to re-flash my ECU for gasohol. Allegedley it ads HP but I doubt it.

It also needs work permits eased. Far greater english language ability by local staff will be expected as they would operate a regional / international platform. Will corporate head office's be able to partner with only 49% control, when compared with alternative regional locations that have no equivalent foreign ownership restrictions?

Automotive firms with huge assembly plants here have done this under previous ROH schemes, but this looks like it is meant to attact a more corporate / urban business demographic. It has good intentions and will attract some I expect.

Office rents and housing rents are secondary issues compared to the above.

Shell has stopped the Benzine 95 - this is a real shame and my Subaru is meant for Benzine only.

I refuse to drive a boring car!

I got caught by a gun last year. I was doing 122. When pulled over by the cop, I of course was skeptical. Thinking this was a scam. But when he showed me my speed, he was right on. Never saw the guys with the gun. It was a 500B fine there, or 250 if we went to the station. I paid 500B.

I am in total support of this...especially if it helps with those crazy Thai drivers in MBs, BMWs or whatever with a red tag. They tail gate like crazy...and speed like crazy...an accident waiting to happen.

You got that right - in a straight line anyways!, just watch them when they are confronted with traffic lights, a roundabout or a junction - completely clueless!!

I spent many years as a traveling salesman driving in Los Angeles, New York AND in Boston. All really tough places to drive. Very aggressive drivers. When I would have somebody up my AS*, we did what was called a brake test. Pound on the brakes and watch the guys swerve behind us. Kinda mean, but having somebody in your "back seat" was no fun.

I did this the other day to a BMW who was inches behind me. Man, he swerved from lane to lane and almost lost it. He was so far behind me I never saw him again. It was easy when I owned my Infinity Q45...not so easy with my current mini-Jap car!

I have had people try and kill me for doing stuff like that here (in my newbie days). Better to afford a faster car and just speed up when they try to ovetake - this makes them more mad, but not in a way that makes them want to shoot you.

I got done on this stretch yesterday and paid THB 200. -

The tripod is under a bridge in the middle of the road, rather than to the left hand side.

If this is the one behind the wind surf place and The View, then it has partial views at best as it is blocked at almost every angle. The black pool tiles are not to everyone's taste. How would you spot a floater that has sunk...?

I doubt it will happen anyway.

Its a very cheap website with low quality CGI images (an indicator of the developers approach). It's unclear if it's actually on the beach or not, which leads me to asume its not. Certainly 50% of the building is rear facing, and at THB 49k there is no capital appreciation potential for the backside units.

No real photos is not great - not even for the views, or the site, construction progress etc. Could all be fine, but unless Thai's buy it will be a hard building to see through to completion and one day to operate.

I have lost Bloomberg at my Pats place, at least I don't have to watch endless loop repeats over the weekend of crummy US interviews. Or even worse as they advertise Bloomberg while you are already watching Bloomberg!! - it drives (it drove..) me bonkers!

Would the Indians really be welcomed to buy from the Thais?? I thought the Thais have a very strong dislike for Indians??

Indians with the money buy in the UK or the US. First and second generation money is simply not going to buy a non-investment holiday home in Thailand in preference to an investment / home in the west. Fear not.

And at this point in time developers would welcome indian buyers with open arms, if the interested was there. Developers don't live in their own projects anyway (or at least very rarely).

You may not be aware that Indians form one of the largest wealth groups in Thailand, owning huge parts of Sukhumvit - and I mean huge. They are just quiet about it.

The market is just waiting for a total real estate collapse and exactly the same as it took the Spanish real estate market to collapse.

The entire Spanish GDP was, for a large part, totally depending on construction.

The result is -VISIBLE- more than 1 million houses on the market, for sale...but no buyers. In a country with 40 million people and even more than 50 (!) million tourists. Thailand doesn't even have 10 million on a yearly basis; forget about the visa running expats and returning visitors from Malaysia and other neighbouring countries, and 99% of those will never consider buying property in Thailand.

And, what's more, that's the visible part of the -for sale- market in Spain; there is a very large and very painful real estate market from owners who do not even dare to put their property on the market and hope for better times.

WHO is paying for the maintenance in the coming 1, 2 and more years...?

If you leave a house empty for some time...go back and look what happened in the past 6 months...

It's the same, maybe on a smaller scale, in Thailand; waiting for a disaster.

LaoPo

All wrong. New development has slowed, easing the over-supply burden. The volume of debt on 'sold' property is neglibile, as such there is 'no' bank exposure through non payment of loans. No reposessions, no local freddymac or fannymae equivalent.

Silly new developments launched off plan and purcahsed by the naive are irrelevant. This can happen anywhere and has no impact here - look at the local market evidence. Loads of failed developments - impact, none.

Some develoeprs are hurting - so what, even in the best of markets at the best of times some developers get it totally wrong, and go bust.

Pattaya has had at least 2 major downturns (worse than this), it has always bounced back.

Spain has had land title problems that we do not have - yes there are issues here, but the govt is not about to sieze land here as thay have there.

If the bars were to close 100% then I would agree the real estate market would totally collapse, but as the bars are not expected to close the market will continue as is, not much better, not much worse, but 'as is'.

The next generation of Pattaya real estate buyers will be mainland Chinese, 2 to 3 years time, bet yah!!!

No they will not. Try and understand that: Mainland chinese are not allowed to take money out of the country, they can't communicate in English or Thai, their home economy is far better, they would have nothing to do here, lack of chinese food, visa restrictions would make thsi hard and.... its a long list.

I find Silk Road to be the one of the best of its type in pattaya, not over priced, small plots for sure, but overall a very well delivered project.

I think you will find that any condo at silk rd will be low rise and in keeping with the general enviroment. A little effort and you can see where the land has always been for this. I don't think owners need to panic.

The Koral website serves as a warning to buyers, no developer details, no timing etc etc - it will attract newbie buyers due to price, but without serious international names appointed this it looks very high risk as it is not small scale. Not unattacative though, I can just see mistkes they are already making by thinking its so good they can go alone and save on fees.

Based on how its presents now, mainstream Thai's will not buy.

Who is selling it? who will manage it? who is proposed to build it & when? what is the phasing as its big? the list of unknowns is probably quite long Sales office is in the wrong place.

Fractional is a tool that typically enters an over-supplied market, or an over-heated market where sales values (and critically land values) have risen exponentially. It is also a method adopted by developers with un-saleable product on the assumption that the lower entry point will open the door to a wider market.

Its an approach that happens to suit some peoples lifestyle, particulary non-investors with disposable income, young families in need of a holiday home. It is often an impulse purchase made during a holiday.

Some hotels use it as a cash raisng scheme that allows them to release equity by selling fractional as an investment with shared income. Done properly this can be a very good investment, particulary with an established hotel. Off-plan, it does not work that well.

The topic of the EGM is not relevant, any EGM vote requires 50% of attendants to vote in favour. If the topic of the EGM was selection of committee members then this should be fine. In your case it sounds like 20% (as a % of 100% co-owners) as half of 40% (volume of co-owner attending the EGM) being 50% of the meeting makes it a positive vote, does that make sense??

That is funniest read I have all day on TV. The info presented as some sort of factual researched based commentary are all flawed. Starting with the assertion that values went from THB 40k to 130k psm. They did not. Some condo values were at 40k approx 10 years ago, however they have not risen to 130k psm. This is broadly incorrect.

New buildings have achieved higher values, older builings have been quite static and prices have fallen in the older buildings. Sales volume in the mid & high end is very low, and prices may yet drop based on lack of demand and falling yileds due to over supply and sharply reduced demand from tenants.

I would be stupid to rent a vehicle I have no history of, from a total stranger with dodgy tattoos and the sign "No Insurance boldly written on the said vehicle.

Its like going bareback on a 50 yr old career prostitute who have never been to the hospital in her life time and whose previous regulars can no longer be reached or contacted ever.

'its like going bareback' hmmm - who are you? I know a few people that use that expression & its not mainstream..

I would avoid most Hua Hin hillside developments from foreign developers. This sector seems to be hardest hit and originally based on very speculative demand which has not materialized.

There are few good ones, but I still woudl go for a completed condo building anyway.