SGD

Isuzu ? Toyota ? Mitsubishi ? Ford ? My somewhat old fashioned thoughts are a nice big engine and you'll be ok. There are two 12+ year old 3.0L auto Isuzus in the family bought from new so they have been good workhorses and we'd like the next one to work for 10-15 years too on limited miles per year. I've hit all the websites and many don't outwardly say which are 4x4 or not so I need help. Don't need finance, just a cash purchase. Thanks

So your car doesn't depreciate then ? Please tell me of this magic car. I know you don't put 10/20k of fuel in a car every month but go try service a BMW or buy a replacement part or buy new proper Continental or Michelin tyres and see how much they cost. To replace my BMW X3 would be about 4.5m, maybe a bit more and I think that after 5 years, it would be worth perhaps 2.5m to 3m. So let's say the higher number, 3m, meaning I'd lost 1.5m over 5years, then that is 300k a year or actually 25k a month. Sorry, you're right, a decent car doesn't cost 10/20k a month, it is more like 30/40k a month.

So where can you rent a 200sqm plus condo for 15k ? Why do all expats have to live in shoebox size condos ? I'll let you into a secret, it is because they cannot afford or justify having a larger, roomy and airy place. You also realise that the 65k visa requirement hasn't moved in about 20 years and back then you could get about 5 x as much for your 65k as you can now (in GBP terms) so that would make 65k into 325k a month or 4.38m a year. That would seem somewhat near my number 🙂

It depends on what you do, what you eat, what you drink, how you travel, etc. A good (not good value, I mean good) bottle of red wine in a restaurant is rarely under 3/4000 and dinner for 2 people can easily be 10k plus. Do that once a week and your 50k a month has gone already. Not all of us consider a shoebox condo or some Thai standard house as "living". Nor, though we love soup noodles, do we want to have to eat street food for every meal. Why can't I have a BMW or Mercedes car ? properly built to European safety standards and the same cars I have been driving for decades. Why, if I return to live in Thailand, do I have to downgrade to an inferior locally made Toyota or buy a pick up or go native and get a bloody motorbike ? Sorry, 50k is what I'd put in my pocket if going out for the night, not a month's total expenses.

Diana Estates cannot resolve the cheap charlie design with no lifts and balconies that are about 12 inches wide. They were ok value at 600k to 1m but at 1.8m to 3m and 60/70k per sqm, they are madness valuations. I nearly bought about 10 or 12 of them from an investor some year ago. I should have for capital returns but in truth the place grinds on me and I have stayed there 2 or 3 times to assess it. The flooding doesn't help either. The other problem is that because the infrastructure is so <deleted>, it isn't worth investing lots to make a really nice condo.

I'm talking about living there versus investing there. However, rents have crashed and though they have bounced a little, there are issues with the place being a glorified Airbnb place and many units have been absolutely hammered without much reinvestment. I lived in Pattaya through the era when condos were not routinely finished and every condo was sold as a concrete shell. In VT2 for instance we had years of building work as there were always condos being fitted out. Thankfully that is now behind us but even if you look at modern developments, a great many landlords fail to put in the higher level finishes and some just bang a tv on the wall. VT6 is stuck in the middle. <deleted>ty old stuff and some newer stuff. I'd invest there if the price was right but it isn't. I can buy 2 condos in VT2 for the price of 1 in VT6 and I can achieve between 1.5 and 2 times the rent of VT6. The days of 30k+a month for VT6 are long gone.

I cannot own a condo in the Thai quota. My daughter earns an income from working for one of my companies and has investments of her own. She is looking to diversify and purchase assets in Thailand.

I cannot own a condo in the Thai quota. Any arguments which follow on from it being in my name are irrelevant. I thank you for your post but I did state this in my opening question.

Critical point. Those speaking about under 20 this and that are failing to recognise that the protection of the law is when something negative is suggested, not something positive.

This is a conundrum I have, sort of, so it interests me a lot. View Talay 6 - theoretically fantastic location but it isn't. Noisy and a virtual complete Air BnB building as they even have short term rental places advertising within the building and loads of agents are exclusively advertising condos here. The pool isn't as welcoming as you'd imagine either and many condos are compromised with views due to Central etc. Rents have crashed making it even cheaper but that doesn't help owners. I think this place is too far gone in the wrong direction. Grand Avenue - No, too many issues, I don't see long term value as it is another slave to the temporary rental market. View Talay 1, 2, 3 - Not where you think you want to be but even VT 1 and more so VT2 have so much land that they offer some insulation to the madness outside, especially VT2B set back from the road. You won't ever get this much common land with a condo block ever again. I'm a little biased as I lived there for 4 years but the owners have got hold of the management committee and are running things well. Parking is a breeze and the huge pool and decent on site restaurants are attractive. Prices have fallen and are competitive. Chateau Dale Thai Bali - Behind Foodland, next to VT1, just up from VT2. Semi tropical in nature with usually larger condo sizes (70sqm plus). Decent pool, I like the place. VT3 - Always looks empty when I go up there. Nothing to dislike about it but prices circa 30% higher than VT2 and I'm not sure that premium is worth it unless you want to be in Pratumnak and if you do then there are condos there cheaper per sqm than VT2. As ever, it comes down to what you want and more importantly, where you want to be. For me, since I never use a bike and unless a baht bus is passing I always get a taxi, then it doesn't really matter to me if I live another km away as I am always riding in aircon in a taxi. This is different to years ago when this wasn't possible. Of course, if you want to hit Walking Street or LK Metro within a 2 minute walk then you'll have to live nearby. If not, moving further away is better value and quieter.

I moved into the top floor of View Talay 2 (Building B) in 2003 and stayed for about 4 years. I'd previously lived in central Pattaya and it was refreshing to get out of the centre, even if you had to put up with the shambles of a road up to Jomtien. Baht buses didn't go much past about Jomtien Soi 5, if you were lucky to get that far and you could stand for ages waiting for one, though not as bad as now with them refusing to move until full or privately hired. Back then you could hire a bus for Bt50/70 to VT2 from central Pattaya. We got the first 500kb broadband when I was there and that was a game changer, though there was no real streaming service, just downloads and some forums but it was lightening fast compared to the previous dial up or even slower. TV was Sophon cable - dire repeats on about a 3 hour loop. Local bars were cheap and attentive but usually lower quality than Pattaya. However, Pattaya was hardly expensive and before mobile really hit home in 2007, it was a virtual paradise, though not what it had been in the decade previously of course. Life was simpler. We needed less and we got more. Today, it is far too clinical, too money driven and too materialistic. Whatever humanity it had has gone and Jomtien today has no more than Pattaya but just worse built up with an endless ever decreasing size of condos.

There is nobody on here who makes Bt1m plus a month advocating to live on Bt100k a month and those who say you can live comfortably on Bt50k a month are almost exclusively people who don't have more than that to spend. So you drove a car for 30+ years in the west and now you suggest a little moped is ok ? No, it means you cannot afford a car. After owning a house in the west for 30+ years, you suggest a shoebox condo rental is ok ? No, it means you had to sell your overseas house to fund your retirement because you never had any real investments and now cannot afford to buy a decent condo or house. Despite travelling extensively in 30+ years back in the west, you won't be staying in luxury in retirement ? No, your budget does not allow for that. Eaten well all your life but why are you on Cheap Charlie's specials all week ? Lastly (or the list could go on forever), despite having full medical insurance all your life back home, you now decide it is ok to get a Bt1m baht policy that might keep you alive in ICU for 30 minutes because a full medical package is $5000 a year and your budget doesn't allow for that. The reality, the true reality, is that 90% plus of retirees simply shouldn't be in Thailand as they don't have the funds to replicate a decent lifestyle. Of those, a huge majority compromise to a large or lesser degree but my experience is that fewer than 5% have enough medical insurance. As for not having a car, then any argument against that is madness. But it costs Bt1m plus for a Thai made car and Bt3/4m for a decent western standard car (pick up derived cars are tin cans, not real cars). Then you have another Bt10/20k a month running costs. Rent when you arrive for sure and maybe rent a few places but then why not buy a decent place ? If you have enough, then you buy eventually and if you don't you argue that rental is the only way forward. So what is the number you need ? Comfortably, Bt4m plus a year. You don't need to spend all that of course but it is only Bt300k+ a month and that is not huge. Save half of it unless you have specific expenses and you are down to Bt160k a month which is Bt40k a week which isn't a massive amount of money. But as I said, 90% plus are underfunded so 90% plus of views will think this hugely excessive, simply because they have much less.

I'm not in Thailand right now but my experience of Thai bureaucracy is never to ask them what interpretation they would like but to know what they should do and then present the case. I can see a high percentage of land offices simply going down the "cannot, need Thai person" nonsense because they either don't know, don't care or are trying to preserve the ability of a Thai to screw over a foreigner somehow.

My daughter is 16 and there is a condo which is held in a Thai name which she would like to buy. She has dual Thai and UK citizenship and her mother is Thai. I would prefer that her mother does not have anything to do with the property or even knows about it but I do not know whether this can be done ? My presumption is that there must be a way because what if the mother was dead and there was no Thai relative ? We are not interested in any other form of ownership, such as a company or foreign quota etc. I also read that various land offices have "different interpretations" so for the record, this one would be a property in Jomtien, Pattaya.

I am old enough to know the old rules and the new rules but I am asking here about practicality. Say I have a beloved older car which I get into Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos or a border country etc. What are the immediate issues and what are the medium and longer term issues and what are the potential options. Please, don't clog this up with 999 posts of "cannot be done" or similar. I know the 99%, I'm looking for the 1%.

Just remember that "your" lawyer is not "your" lawyer, they are thieves working an angle for themselves. 1 in 100 is half decent. 99/100 agents are unscrupulous. They are working their own angle with fake buyers and so forth. Give David Gray a call at East Coast Real Estate. Not the cheapest but honest Scotsman as many will vouch for. https://www.thaiproperty.com/ https://www.facebook.com/eastcoastrealestate https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010331474516

Amateur landlords

You are all missing the point. Currently, Thailand considers income earned over 12 months ago as capital and capital is not taxed. Thus, if you can earn income tax free at source and then spend income earned 13 months ago, you legally have no tax to pay. However, if Thailand changes their interpretation of capital or requires income earned anywhere to be taxed in the year it is earned, you would technically have to declare your income and suffer Thai taxation. In reality, if you are paid into Hong Kong and transfer capital, no-one is ever going to ask you where the money came from because it is none of their business.

Of course he isn't going to go to jail. At worst it will be at some mansion in Bangkok or Chiang Mai. In reality, this is only until a new story can be spun about how he is innocent and a free man.

Visa approved. Back and forth a bit on email. They wanted the kid's passport put in multiple sections and they couldn't understand that the kid might actually be in the UK with me already but hey ho. Uploaded bank statements but they wanted another one showing £1000+ for a single entry (original was £50k+ uploaded so no idea why they wanted another one). You get the feeling like you do in all Thai administration scenarios, that they don't really know what they are doing but that they all want someone else to say it is ok or to sign it off as they don't want any responsibility. My advice is to apply well ahead of their 15 days suggestion, at least a month I'd say.

Yeah, sound advice to overstay ! "Departing with a four-day overstay will mean a 2,000 baht fine (500 baht per day) and an overstay on your immigration history which, while not a big immediate problem, could be held against you in the future."

I know this forum is the home of westerners who want to be "more Thai than the Thais" but why are they so grovelling and loving of the fraud that Thai people inflict on nearly every westerner in every occasion where compensation is due ? We all know this is never Bt30,000 or anywhere near that amount. It might be Bt1000 or maybe Bt3000 but the "demand" is at least 10 times the true cost. So like the cowardly white knighting of someone in the hope of gaining favour from a Thai woman, what is really in it for these people who think it is fine for a Thai to demand 10, 20 or 50 times the true compensation ?

They are the same people who don't have a car and despite 30+ years of car ownership back home, they say it is not necessary and a frigging scooter is enough, until they have an accident, for which they have no insurance. They always have an excuse to hide the fact that they shouldn't be an "expat" as they don't have enough money.

Your wish is my command ???? "The abbot’s disciples later arrived and cleared the damage by paying 100,000 baht to each vehicle owner for repairs and offered new motorcycles for the damaged ones."

I think more poignant is the high percentage of western men who father a child and then run away and fail to provide. Cowards. Then you have the Thai men who also leave their offspring. Cowards. Finally you have the western men who father children in Thailand in their later life but have no resources to send their kids to schools and universities which would give them the opportunity to break out of Thailand and earn a living on a world scale. Condemning your kids to a life as a Luk krueng version of Somchai the local XYZ is beyond comprehension and selfish beyond extreme.