newnative

You're welcome.

I would advise, as others have, that you definitely buy in foreign quota. Your investment shoud be safe and secure. The land under the condo is a non-issue, as long as the condo is not built on leased land. Condos can be purchased in company name but it's a gray area, you have to set up a company with Thais involved, the condos are harder to resell, and there is yearly paperwork involved with company ownership. Stick with foreign quota--this from someone who has bought and sold over 20 condos here in Thailand with my Thai spouse. I would also suggest that you take your time and explore different areas. Don't be in a hurry to buy--educate yourself somewhat first. You might start by renting for 6 months. In your shoes, I would first determine the area that you want to live in, based on your lifestyle and weekly activities. Then start looking at condos in the area you select. Once you settle on one, find out if foreign quota is still available. If it is, do more study of the condo project. Interview owners, check the financials if possible, walk the property observing maintenance and the condition of the project and the facilities, and make several trips to the condo both during the day and at night. Be advised that some new mega condo projects with 1000 units or more in some tourist areas have been plagued with short-term illegal daily renters. Some of these projects function more as a hotel than as a residence. From personal experience owning and living in several of these projects, I would advise you to steer clear unless you like a hotel atmosphere--or if the condo has an excellent system in place to deter daily renters. Good luck to you.

Just did a quick search on Hipflat and found rental listings for pool villas in Pattaya starting around 25,000 baht a month. That's pretty reasonable, and just one source checked. I think a buyer or a renter will be able to find something in his price range as the variety and the amount available is so great here. Pattaya has a huge construction boom going on right now with houses. And, as I said in an earlier post, they are building at all price ranges. You can buy a non-pool small single family home on a small land plot for less than 3MB. Plus, plenty of homes to choose from in the 10MB to 50MB range. If your budget is 150-200MB, Pattaya also has some houses to show you. You are right, though, that prices for similar housing look to be somewhat cheaper in Hua Hin. Spouse and I like to watch lots of real estate videos when we are exercising and that seems to be the case. Chiang Mai also seems to be somewhat cheaper, from what we see for sale there on videos. For us, with a Bangkok getaway condo, we like being able to get to it from here in less than 2 hours, and with an easier drive than Hua Hin's.

Condominium Act: The Condominium Act of 1979 (B.E. 2522) and subsequent amendments provide the legal basis for condominium management in Thailand. Bylaws: Each condominium develops its own set of bylaws, which include rules and regulations for residents. Fines: The bylaws can specify fines for violations of these rules. These fines are often a way to enforce compliance with the regulations, such as those related to noise, use of common areas, or pets. Enforcement: Condo associations have the power to enforce these rules and regulations, and fines are one of the mechanisms they can use. Transparency and Participation: Residents have rights to information about the condo's operations, including the bylaws and any changes to them. They also have the right to participate in meetings and voice their concerns. Legal Consequences: Failure to comply with the Condominium Act or the condo's regulations can lead to legal consequences, which may include fines, penalties, or other actions as outlined in the bylaws.

There's always a plan, but few ever get completed. Plans for high-speed rail, plans for casinos, plans for road safety, plans for pollution control, plans for better schools, etc., etc. Hopefully not a single new rider signs up for this ridership drive as the trains are horribly overcrowded as is. But, yes, where are the 6 carriage trains already???

How fines are established is not the point. I was responding to your statement that, I quote, "there is no legal basis for charging fines".

Well, the several iterations of the Move Forward party were disbanded for a lot less.

Tougher year than the 'pandemic era'? Totally doubt that.

Talk, talk, talk. Only that.

Stocks go up and down. I followed my Dad's stock portfolio through its ups and downs. When he died in 2009, his portfolio was worth about $600,000. It was in a family trust and no stocks were bought or sold after he died; the portfolio was just maintained and the dividends helped support my Mom's nursing home care. When my Mom died the portfolio was split among the 6 children. It had taken a big drop when covid hit but by the time probate was done it had recovered and it was worth about $1,800,000. Had the portfolio not been split up, it would be worth $2,353,000 today. So, through ups and downs, but mostly ups, the portfolio went from $600,000 to $2.3 million. It's the same with real estate. The last condo I owned in the US, I bought in 2009, during one of the big real estate downturns. It was a foreclosure and I paid $170,000, patting myself on the back for what a bargain I had bought, as the previous owner had paid $292,000. Hold the back patting, as the condo continued to lose value, dropping down to around $160,000. I moved to Thailand in 2010 and rented the condo out until 2012, when I wanted to buy some more property in Thailand and I sold the condo. By 2012 the value had recovered some and I sold it for $176,000. Not much of a profit but I didn't lose any money and I had rental income of $1,500 a month for several years. Zillow tells me that it is worth $277,000 today. Not back to its all-time high, but getting there. Ups and downs for both stocks and real estate, but, long-term, an upward projectory.

Good. But, how's it going to be enforced?

Agree. One of Pattaya's biggest strengths is its huge selection of housing to buy or rent, at really all price points. Especially great is the selection of pool villas, most notably on the Darkside, both to rent or buy. There are new projects galore to choose from, plus lots of very nice established projects.

If there were no fines, there would be no use in writing condo rules--they would just be ignored. In the example I gave with laundry on the balconies, it made for a much better look for the condo. Once people were fined for violating the rule, word got around and it was rare to see laundry hanging over the balcony railings, etc. I was happy there was such a rule, and others, and they were being enforced. What I found: Yes, condominium (condo) associations in Thailand can include fines for rule violations in their bylaws, but these fines must be reasonable and align with the Condominium Act and other relevant laws. The specific rules and penalties are typically established by the condo's management or juristic person and must be approved by the unit owners.

37 million is a nice, manageable amount, in my opinion.

Condo associations can charge fines. At one condo I lived at the condo association charged fines for a number of violations, including hanging laundry above the railing on your balcony. The OP needs to check his condo's bylaws.

Put the BMW in a crusher, make it into a coffee table, and then present it to the Thai driver. Deport the BMW foreign driver. Well, it's a start. Saw sort of the same thing this morning with a BMW driver impatient with the line of cars making a U-turn and the BMW driver pulled out of the turning lane and drove to the front of the line and managed to cut in front of everyone by blocking traffic and nearly sideswiping the other cars before making the U-turn.

They needn't worry, those opposed. Just endless talk, talk, talk with no action, like everything else.

How's your grooming, use of deodorant, and dress?

I guess you didn't get past "4 bar girls stabbed" and just assumed it was Pattaya--even though "Bangkok" was also in the headline. Just goes to show that incidents like these can happen anywhere there are large numbers of tourists, and workers catering to them. Might be Pattaya or Phuket next time, all three are in the 20 most visited places in the world and can be expected to have incidents such as this.

I wonder if your Thai wife's friend had her eye procedure done at a public hospital--which, of course, would be cheaper than a private hospital such as what you used, and result in two different prices. Also, to start with, her standard lens likely cost far less than your special type of lens. My Thai spouse and I both had lasik done at a private hospital and we were both charged the same price. About 12 years after our lasik, we both had lens replcement, Supersight, done. Same private hospital. Mine cost slightly more but that was only because I required a different, more expensive lens, not because I was a farang and my partner Thai. The service was quick and easy, both of us done in one day, with both eyes done for each of us. Contrast that to my partner's Thai sister. She also wanted lens replacement but, to save money, she used her public hospital. When we saw her, she had had one eye done but was waiting to have the second one done because the public hospital had run out of the type of replacement lens she needed. Months later, she was still waiting. I think she has now had the second eye finally done. So, in this example, two different prices, for two levels of medical care, reflecting the use of a private hospital over a less expensive public one. Frankly, I don't have a problem with Thai citizens paying less at both public and private hospitals--or parks, museums, national monuments, etc., etc.

For some, such as my spouse and me, owning is more than a numbers game, no matter what our ages are. We like having our own space to do what we want with, and don't want to live in someone else's space and taste. But, the numbers have been very good for us, as owners, and we thank our lucky stars, and hard work, that we bought our first condo here in 2009, instead of renting.

We have a getaway Bangkok condo but live in Pattaya. On our Bangkok street, we mostly just see 'the old belchers'. Looking forward to when they are finally replaced.

Good to know you can survive a car running over your head, and I guess it helps if you're drunk as a skunk while it's happening.

I don't see what the big deal is, She is buried at Trump's golf course so why is Trump offended with a remark saying that she's buried at his golf course. Talk about thin-skinned. I guess she was also an immigrant, but perhaps not a GENIUS VISA immigrant like his current grifter wife.

"While it's not clear when these electric buses will start operating..." I think it's pretty darn clear from the article that the answer is not any time soon, as has always been the case with Bangkok and its terrible buses. Just 368 million baht has been allocated, according to the article, and each component costs far more than that, with several costing billions of baht. The bus lease alone is 10 billion baht. They're not going to get very far with their measely 368 MB. Back to the belching diesels, which my Thai spouse, now in his late 50s, tells me are the same ones he rode as a child.