Wasa

Here are a couple of truths for you. #1. 'Nobody's there, so nobody wants to be there.' If you were starting a business, would you rent a shop in an empty shopping center with no other open shops? Probably not. Since nobody is there, you don't want to be there, either. # 2. 'Everybody's there, so everybody wants to be there.' Example: Central Festival. Had a big laugh over the argument as to whether tight parking will raise or lower property values. The parking is tight because of #2 above. Good for property values--especially if you can walk to the desirable places and leave the car at home. LennyW is right about one thing, it's all about supply and demand and in some areas the supply of condos is more than the demand for them. But, with central Pattaya and the area around Terminal 21, high-rise condo supply is low and demand is high--especially for newer condos with seaviews and good amenities. It started with Festival but each new big project: Harbor Mall, The Bay, Terminal 21, and Asiatique Prime will each make a stronger case for center city Pattaya being the place everyone wants to be.

Good points actually.

If you head north from the Terminal 21 site there is very little available in the way of quality condos. You pretty much have to get down into Soi 18 before there are the likes of VT6, SkyBeach, Park Beach, Northpoint etc.

Up Pattaya Naklua Rd there is very little, except until you get up past the Coffee Club, but they're a bit off the waterfront and not really decent quality. If you head east along Pattaya Nua there is not much really either. They are building those new Posh condos down near the bus station but they are shoeboxes and aimed more at the Thai market. There are a couple of new condo buildings south of Terminal 21 site but they are shoeboxes as well.

Based on this and the fact that you could walk to the new mall, I think Pattaya North and Naklua should do ok. They at least will hold their prices, not collapse as some have suggested here.

Lived there in Northpoint for many years and loved it. Nice 3br unit, beachfront and was give or take 100,000 baht/month.

Buying a unit there would have been 25m and up I think. I highly doubt they went down in price over the years.

Overall I am glad I didn't buy as the building suddenly felt like the 'russian embassy' and we were somewhat happy to move out.

The Russians are mostly gone now and prices have dropped a little I think you will find. I have a 3 bed 132 sqm. on a high floor you can have for 21.9 million with a long term tenant paying 90k a month.

I think that sort of money goes beyond what I can afford to put at risk in one location, especially in Thailand. If we are to follow the mantra on TV of only buying to a price point that you can afford to lose then a figure much lower than that would be the limit of my exposure.

I need to fund my Aussie property as well and property in Australia is not cheap.

He is appalling, a complete tosser. Stabbed the former leader tony abbott in the back and swept to power on the basis that the liberal party were declining under abbott in the polls and that they would not win the next election. Now just a few months later the honeymoon is over and they're in exactly the same position! He has completely failed to connect with the ordinary man in the street. Another appalling leader in a run of the most uninspiring leaders since hawke, keating and john howard. It really is demoralising the way things are there now. I have about given up hope.

I think Terminal 21 will have an impact on condo prices in that area; at the very minimum I think it will keep the prices stable and make a desirable area even more desirable, just as Central Festival did. VT6 is almost identical to VT3 and VT5 in terms of design and condo studio floorplans yet a 48sqm studio at VT6 commands a higher price than VT3 or VT5 studio units. No doubt in my mind it's due to being in town and next door to Central Festival. Harbor Mall, The Bay Shopping/Restaurant Center opening soon, and Asiatique on the drawing boards can't hurt, either.

I've lived in the VT6 complex on soi 18, they are nice condos but definitely more pricey. My view is that Naklua is generally a more desirable area than Jomtien, its definitely more leafy.

One problem with VT6 is the constant stream of Chinese laden tourist buses that enter & exit the car park right on the bend of Soi 18 where it goes around to Centara Grand. Its constantly choked and diesel fumes are present when you eat in the VT6 restaurant at around 7.00pm every night.

Its nowhere near as bad further down the soi towards soi 16.

OP, go for it if it suits you best

As mentioned, nice to have a place called home, your home. We have a very nice house here and after 2 months overseas work, I love coming home and relax. We spend a lot on improvements but since it's our home, it's money well spent.

In Your own home, you decide the size on the TV and how many and the real leather sofas have just been repaired and looks like new again, life is good.

Exactly.

If you aren't motivated by cost and are prepared to pay a premium for long term use why haven't you bought already? Every month's rent is a waste when it seems your mind has already been made up. From what you say is your purpose in buying, the condo's worth will eventually be realized by your beneficiaries whoever they might be so a bit more or less won't matter?

Gawd, there's always someone on TV who wants to conduct a cross examination! Even on a relatively innocuous subject such as my OP.

I don't have to justify my past actions, except to say that up until this point I have been happy enough to just rent. That's it, up until this point.

I'm not retired and don't just sit inside a condo all day, so it is not a pressing priority.

Recently took up an indefinite contract in the Philippines where the company pays for my accommodation, so I am not paying rent and I can afford to sit back and take my time. Eventually, in the not too distant future, I intend to finish full time work and work as a consultant, basing myself back in Pattaya and part time in Aussie.

And yes, you're correct, a little more or less won't matter, it's just that I'm not in any particular rush. I was just wondering out loud that's all.

I've contemplated buying a condo just to have my own place but don't see a condo in Thailand as a credible investment, like my home country. Given the continued supply in Pattaya I'm sceptical that Terminal 21 would make much, if any, difference. I'm sure that many estate agents will take a different view, but then, they would, wouldn't they?

If i ever decide to do so it will be with money I can afford to lose. You never know when the rules and regulations change in a country like Thailand.

No body knows what the future holds. But if you spend all of your time frozen in inaction you won't achieve anything. The best guide we have to the limited future ahead that is our remaining lifespan (beyond that who cares?) is to look back in to the past. History shows us that despite all of the recent upheavals, successive governments have been reasonable in their handling of foreigners and property ownership and that property values have generally trended up.

And yes, the loss of a property in Thailand due to some kind of radical government action would not be a deal breaker for me. It would hurt of course, but I would survive financially.

I wouldn't buy a condo in a resort town to make money, buy a condo in Pattaya because you want a home, your home.

Yep exactly the way I have explained it earlier. I'm not too fussed about it making money, I will have a home base back in Aussie that'll take care of that side of things.

Hopefully it won't go backwards......

I'm just looking for a home base in Pattaya & Oz where I can come and go by simply pulling the front door shut.

I'll divide my time between the two, renting does not really suit this arrangement.

The OP might be thinking of buying into one of the Condos i lust over .Two of the same design (art decko ,white ,with huge balcony ) ,absolute beach front , in Naklua .

Yep, that's it. I lived in one of those for two years. Built in 1993.

Great design with full height atrium, all doors open out into fresh air, so you are never in those enclosed hot hallways that are in every other condo.

But they are getting on and if they haven't been renovated already you need to be prepared to spend money to freshen them up.

They are not cheap.

Where is this complex in development located?

On Pattaya Nua, just east of the Dolphin roundabout and 2nd Rd intersection. You can see the site, it is in early development now.

better off renting by far, why would you want to buy?

I am well aware of all the arguments for and against buying. I'm not a wide eyed newbie fresh off the plane and in lust, I have actually lived in the area for a few years and know the area inside out along with all the pros and cons.......

Renting tends to get tedious after a while. Never worried me when I was younger, but I believe we all want to call some place home and now being in my late fifties I want to have a small base in Pattaya and similar back in Aussie on the Sunshine Coast. In a few years I will eventually work online as a consultant in my specialized area of engineering and I want to be able to flit between the two locations as required. I want to be able to just pull the door shut and leave from each one without having to pack or worry about anything, and able to walk back in to either and start work within minutes. Renting doesn't suit this lifestyle.

I'm not in a hurry either. Currently working in the Philippines, I can afford to just sit back and wait for the right one to come along. The condos I am looking at are beachfront, very quiet, not shoeboxes, solid and secure and for that I will pay a premium, which I'm ok with. I would never purchase in one of the poor quality mass produced shoeboxes that are springing up around the place.

I'm not overly motivated by money either, its really just the lifestyle I'm looking for. If it doesn't go up well so be it, at least I'm not handing over rent money each month. The only reason I asked about prices increasing was general curiosity and to do with the timing of my purchase.

With Terminal 21 coming to Pattaya North, does anyone think this will push up surrounding property prices, specifically around the Pattaya North and Naklua areas? I'm contemplating buying a condo in one of the more upmarket established condos around Naklua where I have spent the last three years renting.

These condos are not your generic shoeboxes that are springing up everywhere else, obviously they are older but tend to better built, bigger, well serviced and maintained.

Just wondering if the new mall has potential to impact nearby property prices or not ......

What a load of drivel! Sterotypical mindset of the minority, "american troops coming back from the frontlines" "Thai people spit on the ground when the mention Pattaya " how on earth does this rubbish get bandwidth!!!

Couldn't have expressed it better.

Neither could I....absolute nonsense article that is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt by the author to push his moralistic views down our throats.

Thailand + Philippines = Laos

No, your equation is wrong I think. If we ratio it on a common deniminator such as comparative GDP per capita then your equation should be -

Thailand - Philippines = Laos

i certainly count the seconds until i leave.

as an aside, electricity and water in BGC and Makati, are more expensive than anywhere i have ever lived.

Internet is tragic, 3 and 4g are worse.

The ripoff starts at the airport, with people in airport uniforms selling coupon taxis for 2-5 times the going rate.

produce available even in the high end supermarkets is anemic at best, selection is ridiculously poor. give me a villa any day please.

meat counters are vile, ground beef is waterlogged, chicken slimy and they will hand you a bag of chicken breasts that is slimy on the outside because the person behind the counter is not careful.

every one, every where calls you sir.

mall cops have shotguns, 7-11 guards have shot guns. bank guards have shot guns. Parking attendants have empty holsters, because 3 or 4 guys share the same rusty pistol.

most condos or toilets do not have bum guns.

all food has been philipinized and outside more upscale eateries is awful. you thought kfc thailand was bad,you have no idea. try kfc phils, jollibee, or chow king. wretched.

while they claim is made that english is widely spoken it is essentially a tagalog bastardization and in comprehensible.

Nor can they understand any vaguely complex request.

taxi drivers speak rudimentary english if any and have no knowledge what so ever of the areas they drive. getting lost hopelessly despite a very logical grid system in the area i live. taxis are beat up over half have broken back seats. they always ask if you can pay "additional" due the trappics sir.

drivers are in constant use of the horn and far more stupidly aggressive than their thai counterparts.

taxis are impossible to come by at certain times of the day.

if you buy or rent a car, due to color coding it is unusable 3 days out of the week.

while i am most emphatically not in either thailand or phils for the women, the women her do nothing for me. there is no polish,

they are strangely shaped and all seem to have some sort of massive facial mole.

me no likely. 2 more months and im back in my thai house.

I mostly agree with these comments. The food is not nice and the last bit about the facial moles is spot on!

I lived and worked in Thailand for a few years. My work there dried up so I took a year long stint fly in fly out on an Australian LNG plant 6 on 2 off and then an expat role came up in the Philippines so here I am in a corporate environment just south of Manila with occasional trips down near the villages around the south coast also.

Definitely a well established gun culture here and a more corrupt and violent society. Political uprisings around the country with frequent associated bombings and shootings. 100m + population and counting due to the predominate catholic society.

One thing no one has mentioned here is the traffic. If you live in the cities it dominates your life. It is stifling and far worse than anythink BKK can ever throw at you. What should be about a 20-25min journey into Makati can take up to 3 hours. Even my 5 min walk home on a Friday night in my quiet area (if I were to use my driver) could take 30mins in the car. Infrastructure is lacking.

But even with a GDP per capita less than half that of Thailand, it is strangely in some ways more civilised than Thailand. Traffic is orderly (probably because it doesn't move) people wear helmets, there are armed cops and security guards everywhere.

Best thing I did was to bring my Thai gf with me. I doubt I would live here unless something changes as I become more familiarised, so when my work is finished here I'll be heading back to Thailand.

<snip>

The UK is going broke while bragging about its socialism. The UK's debt is now about the same as that of the US as a percentage of GDP and it's climbing fast. The UK will be broke in fewer than ten years and then who will pay for the NHS?

<snip>

Cheers.

The claims you make are incorrect on every point raised. Ten year economic forecast for UK.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/forecast

Back on topic for preferred US President...

http://www.vox.com/2016/2/25/11110526/gop-tax-plans

That's a terrible 4 year forecast for the UK.

Low GDP indicating no growth in the economy.

Unemployment rising to 6.5%

Inflation so low it's at risk of becoming deflation.

Balance of trade deficit increasing.

Government debt as % of GDP at 85%.

Have you thought about the new Surface Pro 4? I had a demo on one a few weeks ago, it was unbelievable. The one I tested had an I7 intel chip with 16gb RAM and a 512gb HDD. Probably more high spec than what you're looking for and also very expensive. Can be set up for use as a tablet and a laptop.

I haven't read all of the earlier posts and someone may have already raised the issue of first aid.

My girlfriend showed me the facebook video last night. The thing that struck me was that even after the thai man was restrained, everybody just stood there and looked at her dying.............lots of yelling and gesticulating, some people even kicking the thai guy in the head as he lay on the ground hands tied behind his back.

Haven't they heard of first aid? Even basic first aid? Something could have or should've been done. Like sending people running into the nearby 7/11 grabbing ice, wrapping it in people's shirts and applying strong pressure to the wounds in an attempt to stem the flow of blood. If her heart had stopped someone else could have been performing chest compressions at the same time to at least keep her heart beating. I know the wounds were probably mortal but at least there may have been a chance to save her life, you have to have hope.

By the time the ambulance arrived there was a huge amount of blood loss and probably way too late. In the meantime no one did anything useful. They just watched her life ebb away, wasting their breath on berating him instead of helping her......pointless and extremely sad. I have a 24 year old daughter and if this happened to her I would be beyond grief.

I am reasonably happily married , have a beautiful wife of compatible age , if much younger both are grandparents . I have renovated my wife's home to a comfortable gentleman's residence and helped to build another house for her son and grandchildren . My wife's family are kind and friendly and not a financial drag on me . I love my wife even though she doesn't see much need for intimacy . We live in rural Thailand , where I find that local culture has little relation to western European culture . After nearly ten years I am bored to tears ; my wife complains that I spend all day at the computer , but it is the only way to keep my sanity . I think if I had my time again , I might not have settled in Thailand

Jesus, this is a sad post........

The Coffee Shop in Naklua and also Royal Gardens Mall. Cappuccino is superb and the staff are always smiling and happy.

They're called Hiso's. The have a luxury car, wear the latest fashion, and have the latest gadgets. But I've seen where and how they live privately. A rundown house, a small room for under 8k a month, and piles of debts.

I don't even own a car, in fact, I haven't been behind a wheel for over a decade. I wear comfortable shabby clothes that are several years old, I don't even have a smartphone. I have an average, for a farang, income but spend it on more important stuff like my well serviced and very conveniently located apartment, smokes and booze, and top medical treatment. I have no debts and at 80k my computer is the most expensive thing I own.

Am I happy? Yes I am.

You're gonna need the money you have saved through such a frugal lifestyle to afford the health consequences of a lifetime of smoking and to a lesser extent the booze?

Hello viewers!

Nobody should get bored living in Thailand.I found Pattaya full of lots of great things to do!and makes a great hub for travelling about too! I dont drink,dont visit bars and have never once watched the television in the last 25 years ( what a waste of life ) Thailand has a great climate for being out and about everyday exploring and being on new adventures.i used to meet people just by "strolling about " if you want to meet people try the beach (wongamat is ideal) Bangkok is also a great place such as the parks and on the trains too! Thailand is a place for the young ( or young minded ..) when you are 60 years plus then you are " out of the game " enjoy it while you are young and just have a laugh..... God bless you all...

F.J x

Your last bit about over 60's being "out of the game"....Wow...what a statement... coming from, I presume, a person who has no experience of what it's like being over 60. I have experienced every age up to 66 and I can say hand on heart that I have never had it so good, I am more happy today than I have ever been in my entire life.

My family are reared, I have done my duty and now I'm free to explore everything that "tickles my fancy" and to catch up on all the things I didn't have the time for before (or the money). I no longer care what others think about me (that comes with age) and believe you me, that in itself brings great freedom. I help others whenever I can and find "luck" in life is on my side as a result. As a matter of fact, the older I got the more I learned and experienced about "Karma". Have you ever heard the old saying...."You can't put an old head on young shoulders". What do you think that means?

I have been through the highs and lows of life and have come to understand the difference between happiness and pleasure. One can be lasting under all circumstances, the other is just a fleeting moment.

At the end of the day, true happiness comes from within, where nobody can touch it or take it away from you. If it's your lovely new car that brings you your happiness then that happiness is in the hands of evey punk out there, ie..if the thief in the night decides to take that car he has also taken your happiness away.

I was not born with this information, I had to learn it for myself, I had to learn it over time, despite being told it often by my parents.

So, I would think twice before making a statment like.....anyone over 60 is "out of the game".

Every new day I wake up the game of life starts anew all over again and I have another chance to make today even better than yesterday was....where would you get it........it's just brilliant.

.

Thanks dotpoom, for such a beautifully crafted and articulate response. I usually read at least one thread a day on TV, but rarely have the time to post. However, tonight I felt I had to make time to come on and acknowledge your contribution.

I very recently turned 56 and despite being fit and healthy, was feeling a bit down about it, which is unusual for me. That was until I read your post. It hit a nerve and made me sit back, take stock and realize I do have a pretty good lot in life. In fact, realistically I've got nothing of any significance to really complain about and a lot to be thankful for.

The thoughts you expressed can apply equally to both young and old, in all stages of one's life. You only get one life, one fleeting chance, so you have to make it worthwhile in the best possible way you can.

Thanks again!

A forty something year old lawyer working across the Atlantic on $75/pa? Our senior paralegal get that sort of of money. A qualified lawyer (average one ) is around 180-200k p/a. Since when $75k is classified as "high income"? For a lawyer is the bare bottom. Me thinks he's a daydreamer. After a holiday here he maybe thinking I can do this for good. On that note not worth giving advice. ps at 26 I was earning that kind of money. By the time u factor house payment etc I hardly had anything left and never considered myself as a big shot high earner. I still don't.

Like a lot of people here you failed to read the OP correctly. You just see what you want to see.

The OP asks if $75k would be sufficient to live on here. He did not state that was his current income in London.

He went on to clarify in a later post that he meant $75K per annum.

So he intends to retire as a self funded retiree using income from sources he did not disclose (and why should he)

You need to read his post again.

Being a size 8 British woman, I must admit that I desperately miss all those handsome Western men with their lovely smooth heads, luxuriant back hair and irresistible man boobs. But nevermind, I can go to Pattaya to see them any day.

A size 8 British woman? Why haven't you been declared a national treasure? Oh, I get it now - your disposition doesn't match your looks.

Yes, I think you are correct. Because two of Jane K's three 'points' are quite unfair in that male pattern baldness and hair on the back are genetically programmed and completely unavoidable if they happen to be in one's genes.

Her third point, the man boobs, granted, are pretty horrible and she will find many of them proudly on display here in Pattaya, along with matching beer guts of sometimes mind boggling proportions. Both self-inflicted conditions.

Whereas the XL and XXL sized women (and men) generally have no one to blame other than themselves for the state they are in. Again self-inflicted, stemming from a lifetime of eating inappropriate and energy rich foods combined with insufficient exercise.