tomazbodner

There is a difference. I think it's quite a stretch to see someone turning 40th floor unit into a karaoke bar, and pets are banned in most condos. Street dogs are a different story, especially if there's a moobaan nearby, but nothing that can't be fixed with double glazed windows on a high floor.

Absolutely agree. Most condos now only have 30-40% of parking lots compared to number of units, and while some don't allow any dedicated slots, those that do, usually only do that for largest units.

Obviously simplistic. We didn't put in capital gain taxes, potential income from renting the unit out, differences in utility prices between rented and owned properties, potential losses from investing in something that went belly up, etc. My post was for someone who has a choice (and funds) between renting a place and buying one, that there are benefits to owning it if that's done in the right kind of property in the right area, at the right price. Like there are benefits to those who have few, if any ties to Thailand and are just longer term tourists, in renting, rather than owning a place. One admission... I bought condo at the beginning of COVID when people thought there was the end of the World coming. Sansiri wanted to close the project and offered 50% discount on all unsold units. Hence if I went to sell mine, I'd probably get 50-60% profit on it. But I like it (despite being thrown around in last quake), especially sunsets out the windows... So I have no interest in selling it. I'm not Aussie and have no knowledge nor interest in real-estate there, hence I would be useless in any discussion about it.

Unpaid maintenance bills? That was harsh. Never saw anything like that happening here. In our condo they cut off water, refuse to extend parking rights and access to common areas, which is I think for 3 months overdue fees which are collected twice a year for building maintenance and every 3 months for water usage. Electricity is anyway paid directly to MEA.

I bought it because I didn't want to have my permanent address registered at a place I don't own. This place has only a handful of foreigners, and admittedly we don't interact at all. But other than 2 cases (far from my floor, whom I've only seen a couple of times), it is far more calm (and quiet) to live in this place than it was in previous ones I was renting. The people are different. This building has 90%+ of people living here owning their place. There are very few AirBnb cases, and after owners got fined, their units were put up for sale, so we don't have short nor long term rental problem, the common areas are rarely used - that 50m swimming pool rarely sees anyone coming near, fitness is a bit more popular, but only early morning,, like 5-6 am, and after 7 pm... and lobby - there is a small community that plays board games in the evenings. It is very different from living in a building intended for rental, or one that has lots of people renting. But it seems the only thing you're looking at is reselling the unit. Yes, if that's what you're after, then it might not be worth it. But then, put together a list of all the rent you've paid in the past 20 years, and sum it up. Now compare that with the cost of condo plus maintenance fees - and deduct what you could sell it for. I am quite sure your rent is considerably higher than the loss on the condo resale value.

Condo is an entity in which only up to 49% of total unit space can be owned by foreigners. As unit owner, you are "co-owner" to the project, which is Thai as it's below 50% foreign owned, and the land is owned by the project, not you. That is true for "Freehold" condos, but not for leasehold, where land is leased for 30 years - there are many such examples in Ratchaprasong area between Rama 1 and Sarasin roads... But assuming Freehold - yes, you can own the condo unit, or even several of them in same or different condos. If you have permanent residence in Thailand, then you don't need anything special - get list of co-owners with their share of floor space from juristic office (seller will provide that) and statement that there are no overdue payments, buy unit, register it at land office and you're done, If you don't have PR, then you need to also provide proof from bank that funds were transferred from abroad. There are no differences between Thai and foreign co-owners after purchase. Only exception would be if project is tethering on the edge of allowed foreign ownership, and it's in area popular with foreigners, then foreign-owned units may command higher resale prices. But that's only true in small area of Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket. Your hypothetical question on whether majority could decide to remove foreign owners... That's very far fetched, but seems impossible. We had one that was causing a lot of trouble and his parents were called in to remove him from building. He was gone for several months while their unit was put up for sale but nobody bought it. Eventually, he returned, alas rarely venturing out of the room. There are also 3 ladies on 3rd floor I think that are in some sort of conflict with the rest of residents... can't do anything to them either. All that can be done is approving new condo rules by the project committee, which penalise certain behaviours and by that encourage behaviour change. But you cannot force someone to sell off his/her property. It's not like rent, where either side can cancel the contract. You actually own that box. There is one exception to all of this - and that is in case the building is no longer habitable. Example would be major damage in quake or fire, which renders building unsafe and too expensive to repair. In that case, the project folds and unit owners lose their units. I don't know of any cases of such to give details on exactly what happens in such a case.

I never registered for e-gates as my PR booklet was 2/3 full and I have heard of people having a problem after changing the PR booklet and they could no longer use eChannel or whatever it's officially called. And Immigration couldn't fix it. So I wanted to wait until I change the booklet, which I did but forgot about that. Each time I go through counters, they stamp both my passport and PR booklet. In the past I saw someone going through eChannel and then going to a desk where an officer stamped both booklets. And that took longer than going through the Thai passport counter... That's why I am interested in it. If there's no need for any stamps when going in and out of country into these booklets, I'd definitely prefer to use e-gates, so the passport and the white book don't fill up. Their annual non-quota visa and endorsement stamps are taking enough space already.

I forgot to do that, as I always go to Thai Passport counter that has basically 0 people as all others use e-gates... But if using e-gates, I assume I still need to get stamped?

First of all, sorry for late response. Didn't realise that I didn't click Submit button yesterday when this was written. As you likely would know (I am just reading post above this one), the same steel can be suitable for one purpose but not another. SKY steel was unsuitable to use for a high rise building, according to several experts, some quoted in links below. If I recall correctly it was the outdated process manufacturing the steel that made it hard on the outside but too soft on the inside. I don't remember the name of that process, but you could probably fill in here. The rest that was written yesterday: I've had some links in history that were republishing of articles and no longer work (originals are/were behind paywall) so I can't show all, but here are some of those that cover tests on materials removed from SAO building construction site after results were known, and that's in contrast to the claim of the cover article in this thread that the concrete met all necessary standards. There are also articles about the collapse of the warehouse in Amata, and photos of the same type of SKY rebars, with logos clearly visible. And finally the articles about the company producing steel with outdated process that's even no longer used in China, and making steel substandard for high rise construction being shut down last year by Thai government for variety of violations. I wanted to add a Khaosod article of why the truth will be suppressed and facts manipulated to make a certain chicken-shaped country look good, but that's an opinion piece and speculation, so I decided not to. It specifically pointed to positive spin to alleviate any concerns on other projects by the same players. https://thethaiger.com/news/bangkok/steel-samples-fail-tests-after-building-collapse-in-thailand https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2992846/substandard-steel-used-in-collapsed-bangkok-tower https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/3027775/saos-steel-brand-found-at-collapsed-factory-in-chon-buri https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/thailand-says-collapsed-bangkok-tower-used-substandard-steel https://www.nationthailand.com/news/general/40050096 https://www.nationthailand.com/news/general/40048642 https://thai.news/news/thailand/sky-steel-ltd-scandal-safety-breach-sparks-nationwide-investigation-in-thailand-2025 https://www.business-humanrights.org/pt/latest-news/thailand-steel-samples-from-collapsed-skyscraper-may-indicate-use-of-substandard-materials-industry-group-says/ https://www.worldconstructionnetwork.com/news/substandard-steel-under-construction-tower-collapse/?cf-view https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-01/collapsed-bangkok-skyscraper-used-substandard-steel-bars-probe-finds https://www.nationthailand.com/news/general/40048278

Let's not forget another warehouse collapse in Chonburi, using same sub-standard steel, from factory that was shut down for producing substandard steel. Is this just to redirect attention from the high speed train link to China also using same steel? Or maybe this is simply stating that despite complete rubbish of materials used, the design of the building was flawed from the start, construction quality was terrible, so whether materials were perfect or not, the building would have gone down anyway as it was so badly designed and constructed? If that's true - why was the design been given green light to start construction? Surely if it's so bad, someone would have pointed it out before the first earth digger arrived on site?

This guy really has some wild dreams... and then he writes about them when he wakes up!

It's an imaginary fatal disease, called convictitus felinitus.

Tony, with Friends like that, you really need no enemies

He has indeed. Thank you, Putin.

Can't imagine they'd be happy to see this face in the photo of the "leaders of NATO countries" either...

I don't know all the answers but these I do: 2) Can they add new rules without the approval of majority of owners? Yes. If the committee, which is voted for, approves it. 3) Can they fine condo resident? Yes they can, if rules of the condo as set by the committee and published to residents are violated. What happens if owner refuses to pay? They add it to outstanding fees like water and maintenance, charge late payment interest, and if exceeding certain amount of time, cut the water and access to common areas. Can you request total spending, etc.? Yes. In fact they should provide that update to all residents at least quarterly, in our case it's published every month and includes all the costs, including all salaries, all the upkeep of the building, contractor fees for repairs (including which unit was being repaired and for what), etc. Our condo is managed by Plus property. It was put to vote a year back or so when building was 5 years old and majority voted to keep them... but we did change security company twice, and each next one is worse than the last...

You should try it, usually they serve it with lime, and call it "anchan manao" or butterfly pea with lemon. Tastes very nice.

Which makes total sense when seeing 1000s on the roads...

👍 And that's probably 2 with safest bets on longer term survival. I am quite confident there will be further closures of car manufacturers in China (and probably elsewhere as well) as the markets are simply not big enough for so many players.

I'd recommend Uniqlo online. You should visit their shop (most Centrals/Malls have it) and consider that their numbers are 1 to 2 smaller than US size, so L = Uniqlo XL or XXL. Up to XL, sometimes XXL they have in their shops, so you can check for size, and if that's not large enough, then buy larger size from their website and have it either delivered to home or pick it up in their shop, where if it doesn't fit, you can exchange or return it for a full refund.

Just looking at NETA V in there... NETA is toast. And probably not the last one to go. https://www.nationthailand.com/business/automobile/40051576

They can't legally close it, but they can certainly threaten it enough to grind the shipping to a halt. Like Yemeni did before - it really doesn't take much to hit a large tanker from a few miles away. You sink a few and insurance costs skyrocket, ship operators refuse to sail through without military protection, which isn't unlimited and turns out to be very costly - and you've caused a major disruption. It would cost them just a few rockets or torpedoes. So maybe not completely close it, but still cause a significant pain.

We have quite a few Russians in this forum. Let's hear some disinformation from them.

That's on both sides, as big businesses generally "invest" on both sides, to have an upper hand, no matter who wins. Problem with Democrats is that they went to the far end extremes to please certain groups of people, and by that alienating everyone else. They've lost touch with population, and thought that pushing it further into extremes was somehow going to fix that. They've lost compass. I would dare to say that while they got some votes from people on Republican side who couldn't stomach Trump, a large number of votes also went to Republicans from typically left-side voters who believe Democrats no longer represent them, nor share their values. You could say the buck stops at the leadership, but the rest are just as responsible for the situation they find themselves in for only bringing this up now, rather than opposing it when realising they are heading in the wrong direction, which was quite a while back.