dragonaus

Thanks Jaywalker, for your detailed info.

I will check them out in a few months.

Thanks Jaywalker, we will try the shop next to Tesco Lotus, if you happen to know the name it would be appreciated. Otherwise we will go knocking, we tried along second road mostly without joy in the past. Great to know they can sell plus contacts.

Can't help you on where to purchase in Pattaya, because we are backwards and forwards between Oz and Pattaya, and can not purchase plus contacts in pattaya, every optometrist says minus only. So we are buying in Australia.

When we move to Pattaya full time, we may have a problem unless we can buy online overseas.

very interesting read from wheredoolive (DailyMail) on contacts lasting much longer.

My wife is Australian and wears +3.00 monthly disposable contact lenses. She can not get any in Pattaya, so we have been looking at buying online such as clearlycontacts.com. Not sure if buying contacts online is a problem living in Thailand.

So she is very interested in Supersight Surgery and all your comments are very much appreciated.

A couple of questions for you, (a) One eye or both, she would prefer to get out of the way. ( her sister got both lens replacement surgery done in Australia at $10,000 per eye and is very happy with the result. would this surgery be the same and use top quality lenses everytime.

thanks for your time.

That may be the case in Bangkok or Chiang Mai, but as far as Pattaya goes (and this is the Pattaya forum) most desirable condos are indeed bought by farangs, to the extent that many are bought in company structures (which after all are designed solely to bypass the 49% farang legal restriction). Thais may have a near monopoly on places like Lumpini condo town, and those nasty "resorts" being built in Jomtien, but who in his right mind would want to live there? Even the Russians aren't keen.

No, The Thais are buying the better condos in Pattaya, the holiday farangs are purchasing the one bedders and some farang retirees are buying 2 bedders. The Thais especially from Bangkok are buying the best thay can find from one end of Pattaya to the other.

So you're saying that in most decent buildings there is less demand for the farang 49% than for the Thai 51%?

I disagree.

No you were saying the Thai's are buying in less desirable places. I am saying they are buying everywhere and especially the most sought after.

As for the OP's question: the Thai condo market is not reliant on a few farangs buying condo's hence prices will not fall as a result of any tightening up of tourist/visitors visa regulations, it simply wont happen.

That may be the case in Bangkok or Chiang Mai, but as far as Pattaya goes (and this is the Pattaya forum) most desirable condos are indeed bought by farangs, to the extent that many are bought in company structures (which after all are designed solely to bypass the 49% farang legal restriction). Thais may have a near monopoly on places like Lumpini condo town, and those nasty "resorts" being built in Jomtien, but who in his right mind would want to live there? Even the Russians aren't keen.

No, The Thais are buying the better condos in Pattaya, the holiday farangs are purchasing the one bedders and some farang retirees are buying 2 bedders. The Thais especially from Bangkok are buying the best thay can find from one end of Pattaya to the other.

Why do people on here think there is a property bubble and prices will drop. Thailand has the third lowest property prices in S.E.Asia, plenty of room for growth. the highest amount of tourists visiting in the world. Pattaya alone has 9million visitors a year. The whole of Australia has 6 million a year.

On top of this the Bangkokians are buying in Pattaya on mass. The largest developers in Bangkok are now here and building and see the great potential.

When the fast train is built, Pattaya and Rayong will be the first to benefit. Thais from Bangkok will buy even more for investment and of course to live, travel to Bangkok will be very fast and away from the politics and floods etc. price are lower here than Phuket and Bangkok.

land prices on the beachfront in Pattaya have doubled in the last 5 years.

Yes, there is a glut of one bed condos and 23% of the 49% foriegn owned new condos are purchased by Russians and this will slow down, but there is always some other nationality coming. I see many new condos 80% sold before building starts.

In our building, 60% of the owners do not live there, thats why you guys see no lights on many condos and I can tell you none of the owners are looking to sell.

Pattaya may slow down for a while, but there is plenty of reasons why the property price market will continue to climb.

Call Mark Welch ( Director) at One Stop Real estate, he is the most ethical guy in Pattaya. i have known him for a few years and bought from him last year. he will point you in the right direction.

I know most of the Real Estate guys in Pattaya and Mark is streets ahead.

Very trustworthy.

Just Google yourself, that may help.

I tried before asking , but for Waterfront by example you have thousands of answer with "condo on the waterfront" or with resale offers...

I tried official sites too, http://www.waterfrontpattaya.com/, http://www.northpointpattaya.com/ and a few other, but you rarely find this info nowadays. Found it for Zire though: http://www.zirewongamat.com/factsheet.html

Can I ask you where you find these figures ?

Easy, firstly I have been to all these developments to purchase and got info first hand, then today I backed them up after you doubted me, by typing the following " maintenance fees for The Cove in pattaya" or Northpoint etc.

Most of these builds are beachfront and sell for 110,000 THB - 150,000 per SQM. The average maintenance fee for a condo in good condition is 40THB in Pattaya. View Talay is not a great example and I would say they are in the lower end of the scale.

I looked for 4 years before buying my condo last year.

also check The Cove/ Cliff / Legend/ Waterfront / Vision / Reflection etc etc

Hard to check Legend, Waterfront, Vision... when they are still in construction.

But as you seem to knows their fees, why not give us fee for Northpoint? or similar condos?

Common fee often is no more in their selling brochures...

Amazing, but here goes............. Northpoint is exactly 60THB per SQM per month ................. The Cove exactly 60THB per SQM per Month ...............Reflection exactly 50THB per SQM per month................ Waterfront stated from various agents 50THB and 60THB

Just Google yourself, that may help.

Add another............. Prima Wongamat 60 THB per SQM per month. it really isn't that hard to find any answer you want, try it before you spout!

also check The Cove/ Cliff / Legend/ Waterfront / Vision / Reflection etc etc

Hard to check Legend, Waterfront, Vision... when they are still in construction.

But as you seem to knows their fees, why not give us fee for Northpoint? or similar condos?

Common fee often is no more in their selling brochures...

Amazing, but here goes............. Northpoint is exactly 60THB per SQM per month ................. The Cove exactly 60THB per SQM per Month ...............Reflection exactly 50THB per SQM per month................ Waterfront stated from various agents 50THB and 60THB

Just Google yourself, that may help.

You will find new condo's such as Northpoint/Northshore/Zire/Waterfront etc pay approx 60THB per SQM per month, older types such as mine even though it was built in 1994 will pay approx 30 THB per SQM. Per Month

Never saw 60 B/sqm yet, not even 50 ??

Zire by example announced 40 B/sqm "only", not 60.

30 B/sqm for a 20 yo condo is very expensive and not very frequent AFAIK...

It can be a lot cheaper. Many condos still have a 10 B/sqm fee.

I think it's the case for the View Talays, even for VT6 about 5-6 years old.

Zire estimate 40THB on completion, adjusted to market rates on completion, now check next door at Northpoint also built by Raimon Land and tell me if they are under 60THB per SQM also check The Cove/ Cliff / Legend/ Waterfront / Vision / Reflection etc etc . I am in between the Zire and The Cove and we are 20 years old and I pay 34 per SQM and this is cheap for a prestige condo.

You will find new condo's such as Northpoint/Northshore/Zire/Waterfront etc pay approx 60THB per SQM per month, older types such as mine even though it was built in 1994 will pay approx 30 THB per SQM. Per Month

And yes in some condo's, not all owners pay their maintenance hence the reason for neglect in maintenance, but the annual payments are taken out when the person dies or sells the condo.

It was interesting reading the kiwicouples post, because yes this is Pattaya.

It's always amazing how a holiday can go this way or that, sometimes it's some rude hotel staff or the hotel itself, the weather, the music next door, etc.

We are a middle age Australian couple that first went 6 years ago to Rabbit Resort for a 7 day holiday after Europe, and enjoyed ourselves greatly. The next year we came back to central Pattaya and stayed at Flipper House and again and had a ball, why, because it was central to everything and the hotel was great value with great breakfast all very good value, yes we moved room because of the music next door. and we have tagged Pattaya on to all our holidays since, we also have been very sick twice from food poisoning, and once in a very good restaurant. It is one side of Thailand, we wish was much better eating shell seafood.

A few of you have said why would a married couple come to Pattaya, well the food and drink is all around you, and some restaurants have great food. we have had some of the best Italian since Italy, also great vietnamese and Thai etc. the ambience of the restaurants and the hustle bustle/people watching, and evrything is close by baht bus, a real problem in Sydney.We could go on for ever why we love Pattaya.

We have now bought a big condo on Naklua beachfront, and can't wait to retire to our little piece of paradise.

We see Pattaya for what it is and it appeals to us a lot, not all holidays are for everyone.

Absolutely brilliant video of your journey so far Sacha & Jmayel.

Thailand Tourism, should sign you guys up....... what a way to sell Thailand around the world.

My wife and I, are from Australia and a tad bit older, waiting to sell our house and move to Thailand to retire, keep up your great work, really loved the captions/speed and the whole HD look.

Please don't listen to some people, with their supposed video advice, we thought it was easily the best doco travel video we have seen. Isn't it great you have Skype to keep in touch with your families in the U.K.

Look forward to many more episodes------------- and sell it to channel 4/BBC/ITV etc.

2 x Aussie fans of yours

Sorry about the large font ---------- back to normal

My first post from here in Sydney --------- so be kind. we are in about to put the house on the market, a real bad time and hope to be living in Pattaya later this year.

My reason for sending this message is, We believe we know the Condo apartment block in Wong Amat, and because the press have not mentioned the name of the block, neither will I.

But ----- The balconies in this block are very large and the railing is higher than most. And yes someone mentioned the balcony railing heights are low in Pattaya, and I agree, but not in this block.

We have been to this block a few times and hope to buy one,

I must admit there is quite a number of falls from Condo's ----- Many more than I have ever heard anywhere else, Which is a worry, The Police always say depression or medical issues.

It's never nice to hear someone wanting to finish their life.