newnative

True, but he would be alive today if Thailand did not allow unlicensed tourists inexperienced with both motorcycles and Thailand's roads to rent motorcycles. Add another needless tourist motorcycle death to the list of dead and severely injured.

Might be worth noting that Chadchart became governor in 2022. The building that collapsed began construction in 2020, on another governor's watch. I'm not sure how much say the Bangkok governor would have had in a federal office building--likely not much, if any at all. He's been educated at the University of Illinois and MIT, one of the most prestigious universities in America. In my opinion, he's one of the good guys--and Bangkok's lucky to have him at the helm at a time like this.

Agree. Pattaya needs a dedicated crew of city workers focused solely on parking enforcement. We used to call them 'meter maids'--in the days when flight attendants were still called 'stewardesses'. Whatever the name, the fines collected should easily pay their salaries while improving things both for walkers and those in vehicles.

You would think, wouldn't you--but almost every time I mention Asean Now, and, before AN, Thai Visa, none of the expats I know or meet has ever heard of it, or just vaguely know about it. I'm still waiting to meet someone who actually reads it.

I like to keep busy. Spouse and I are working on the plans for a house we will be building, likely starting sometime this summer on land near Lake Mabprachan. For relaxation, I like to read mystery and suspense novels, watch movies and tv, swim and exercise, and travel. We will be going on a cruise in November, leaving from Barcelona, with six of my USA family members. Should be fun. Life is good.

Often when you have a catastrophe, such as two planes colliding, or, in this case, a building collapse, it will be later found that a number of factors came together in a 'perfect storm' to cause the catastrophe. I would guess that will be the case here. Likely the 'perfect storm' here was some combination of inferior building materials, architectural design and engineering flaws, improper or poor inspection and supervision, and construction errors.

Glad at least the police want to know what happened to him. Suspicious the family could care less.

Scary. It's all scary these days. How could anyone object to having a biography of Jackie Robinson in a library? Or the autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.?

"Maybe over half voted for him..." Trump wishes. In 3 presidential elections, Trump failed all three times in reaching even 50% of the vote. A large number of those who voted for him are now being royally screwed by him. I don't know why any of them are surprised--the one truth he told in the election--somewhat hidden in his thousands of lies--was that he didn't care about them at all--he just wanted their vote. I'm almost--almost--feeling sorry for those poor Republican congressmen/women who have to go back to their districts and face the wrath of the voters. I think they've been told to cancel any public meetings as they have been so embarrassing to the Republican party and the president. The mid-term elections next year should be interesting--if Americans are still allowed to vote, that is. America's decline began with the Kennedy assassination, in my opinion. The 20th century may have been the American Century; the 21st will be the Asian Century. America has become so fractured, it's hard to see it being a United States again. But, perhaps Trump will be so bad that he will inadvertently be the catalyst to unite Americans--against him and his mostly illegal actions and policies. When the earthquake hit I posted a short note on Facebook that my spouse and I were ok. One of my American sisters responded that she had not even been aware of the earthquake--the news is so bad in America she has stopped watching any news altogether. Sad that's the state of things--and we're only just starting month 4 of the second term of the worst president in US history.

Throw the book at him. Fine should be 10 times that and then deportation, after he cleans up his mess.

He says he goes to Festival or T21 about every day. If he's in Pattaya already, in a condo like Grand Avenue, VT6, Centric, etc., he just needs to deal with Pattaya traffic, and he's not far from either Festival or T21. From some of the condos he can walk to one or the other. If he's in Jomtien, he has to deal with Jomtien traffic, then Pratumnak traffic, and then Pattaya traffic. If he has his own transportation, a Wongamat condo would be an easier drive to T21 and Festival than any condo in Jomtien.

We received word from the condo management that the engineer from the municipality inspected the condo building and deemed it safe. Residents have posted photos and the damage seems to be similar to ours--vertical cracks and some horizontal cracks where the walls meet the ceiling--we have some of those, too. We also discovered that one of our floor to ceiling wall mirrors has a small, horizontal crack right at the top. We might be able to hide that with molding. It looks like we will need to re-wallpaper a number of areas--we saw that, as well, in photos posted by other owners with wallpaper.

The Darkside is a huge area with hundreds of housing projects--and more housing projects starting every day. Probably needs another name as these days it's not so dark. Lots of the new houses being built are in the 10 million baht to 30 million baht range--with some houses in projects like Siam Royal View going for 150 million baht or more--so perhaps not exactly 'cheaper'. One of the great things about Pattaya is the wide variety of housing available--all types at all price points. If your lifestyle shifts, Pattaya has the housing to meet your new wants and needs. Spouse and I enjoyed our beach condos but when covid hit we decided we wanted more space and our own pool and gym. We are liking this shift--and also like that we can still be at T21 or Festival in about 15 minutes--probably faster than when we lived in south Jomtien.

We are in Pattaya now but an engineer at our Bangkok condo went into our condo and took some photos of our damage and sent them to us. As you said, just 'superficial harm'. There were a couple of small, vertical cracks by the bedroom window and that was all he found. The room is wallpapered and the cracks messed up the wallpaper a bit so that area will likely need to be re-wallpapered after the cracks are repaired. We thought it would be a lot worse.

Pattaya--see other threads as to why it is a good place to live long-term.

Rubbish.

BTS and MRT are both good but very crowded. Both need extra train cars added to handle the many more riders these days.

The education system is awful--as is always pointed out by survey after survey that ranks Thailand low--even among other ASEAN countries. And, as always, some talk and perhaps even some hand-wringing but then back to the status quo.

Traffic definitely is a problem, especially on weekends and long holidays. We try to avoid going into town on weekends and, since my spouse works from home, we can go in during the week. We're on the Darkside but can be at T21 or Festival in around 15 minutes or so non-rush hour/weekends so not too bad. The Darkside, itself, is no longer very dark and has plenty of restaurants and services now so we don't really need to go into Pattaya that much--but we still like to.

Hard pass. Sent you a private message as to why.

Spouse and I owned at Axis when it first opened. You are correct--great parking garage. We found the pool to be on the small side for the project's size. OK gym. We had a distant seaview on floor 16. When we were there, the developer was renting some of the floors in the smaller building--not sure if that is still the case. Unless things have changed a lot, I would question 'many fine dining restaurants' within walking distance--at least my walking distance. We found Axis to be neither here nor there--not conveniently in Jomtien or Pattaya. Some may like that, we didn't. Spouse and I would not live in that area again, or Jomtien, because of the huge number of new projects now being built or soon to start construction. That includes the mega-project right across the street from Axis, the 50-story Grand Solaire with 1,700 units. Riviera alone has at least 3 or 4 new mega projects--and that's just one developer. How are the already inadequate roads in that area going to handle all the extra traffic? Or, the baht buses? There is public transportation in north Pattaya--which I consider to be the area extending to Dolphin Circle. So, if you lived at Markland, Northshore, Centric Sea, or one of the smaller boutique condo projects in that area, you could hop on a baht bus to get you to, say, Immigration in Jomtien. Actually, if you lived at about any of them, you could walk to either T21 or Festival--spouse and I did that when we lived at Centric and Northshore. You are correct that you do need your own transportation if you are on the beach areas of Wongamat--in condos like Zire, Riviera Wongamat, etc. Public and private transportation--and the road system--always something to factor in when making housing choices.

As i have said a number of times, Pattaya is actually a much better place to live year-round than to visit. As a visitor, I would probably have your same reaction--especially if one only gets to a small part of greater Pattaya during a visit. Living here year-round is when you grow to appreciate all Pattaya has to offer. Great variety of housing of all types at all price points--probably the best selection, or certainly one of the best, in Thailand. Important, as housing is usually the biggest monthly expense. Along with the great housing selection is also a great selection of distinct neighborhoods to live in--from different beach areas, each with their own vibe, to the huge Darkside, with large pool villas available for the price of a 1 bedroom beach condo. Great shopping with two major malls and all the big box stores, huge variety or restaurants, great health care choices, a big variety of recreational choices, large expat community, several movie theaters in English, Bangkok and two major airports less than 2 hours away, large Immigration office easy to get to. Etc. Normal needs are easily met. Time for a new car? Pattaya has dealerships of just about every brand available in Thailand--including three or four new Chinese brands and both Korean brands. So wide selection. Start with BMW in the south and end with BYD in the north. Easy and handy--and being one of the laziest people in the World, I like easy and handy. Living here going on 15 years, spouse and I find it an easy, safe, comfortable place to live that checks more of our boxes of wants and needs in a place to live than anywhere else we have looked in Thailand. And, we have looked. I think many expats are also finding this to be the case. By the way, we've walked on Walking Street exactly once. The entertainment areas, a small part of greater Pattaya, are easily avoided but there if you want them.

If you go to T21/Central daily I would rule out everything in Jomtien. My spouse and I used to live in south Jomtien and, like you, we went into Pattaya a lot. We eventually realized we should live closer to where we were spending so much time and we moved and lived in north Pattaya and then Wongamat before moving to a house on the Darkside--which is actually quicker to get to T21 than south Jomtien was. My first recommendation would be Northshore but the cheapest unit there I could find is over your price range. You might consider Markland, just down the street, an older project. In your price range and you could walk to T21 but the facilities are not as good as some of the newer projects and some of the condos need renovation. There are some smaller, low-rise projects here and there in this area of Pattaya that you could look into, such as City Smart Residence. There are also some low-rise projects near The Base and The Avenue shopping center, which are walking distance to Central Festival. One of the newer ones is Grand Avenue and it would be in your price range, as would be most or all of the other ones. I'm not especially familiar with low-rise projects as my spouse and I always bought seaview condos but I know there are a number of them. Literally right next to Central Festival is View Talay 6, in your price range for a large studio but the project is on the short side with amenities. Up the street a bit is Centric Sea, a large, 3 building project on Second Road--walkable to both T21 and Festival. In the past it was plagued with daily renters. I've heard there has been a crackdown but it might still be a problem to check out. 3 pools and 3 gyms. The third building at Centric is a smaller, low-rise in the back, with the third pool and the third, smaller gym. Likely quieter than the 2 highrise buildings and you might consider something in that building if a seaview isn't important. If you have transportation, you could check the many condo projects in Wongamat--a nice area of Pattaya. Most are not far from T21 and, using back roads, traffic isn't bad. There are a number of reasonably priced low-rise projects scattered around, such as Club Royal. A big variety of older and newer projects. One of the newer highrise projects, with lots of amenities, is Riviera Wongamat, and it would have units in your price range. There are a number of others, such as Zire and Wongamat Tower, that could also have smaller, non-seaview units in your budget. I suggest you do some checking on the website Hipflat. Hipflat is a good database that posts listings from lots of different real estate agencies. You will see some duplicate listings--agencies posting the same condo for sale--as a number of agencies might have the same listing. The last condo I was selling showed up on Hipflat at least 8 times as I had listed it with lots of agencies. On the plus side, with the duplicated listings you will likely see some different photos of the condos you are interested in. When you get to the Hipflat site, choose 'buy', then 'condos for sale', and then choose 'Chonburi' as the province. You will then see a list of areas in light pink boxes. I would click on the boxes for South Pattaya and North Pattaya. This will give you listings with photos for condos ranging from the southern part of Pattaya to Naklua/Wongamat, Do some searching on the website, identify some projects that seem to have what you are looking for, and then do some in-person looking. Take your time and don't rush into things. With the project or projects you are interested in, make multiple visits at various times of the day and on a weekend. Talk with some of the owner-residents and give the whole project a going over with a sharp eye. If you can see the financials, all the better. Check what the monthly maintenance fee is and make a note of how the maintenance on the project is going--good or bad. I would strongly recommend only buying in foreign quota. The condo will be in your name on the Chanote (title deed) and you will not have to deal with the yearly reports and expenses involved with owning in Company Name. Should you ever decide to sell, foreign quota condos are usually an easier sell and attract more potential buyers--some buyers will only look at condos in foreign quota. Good luck with your search.

I find Hipflat to be a good gauge for what properties are selling for. There's always going to be a price range with similar-sized units in a project, based on a number of factors, including condition of the unit, view, how high a floor the condo is on, what direction the condo faces, etc. I know the price for condos I have sold and when I check Hipflat their range almost always covers my selling price. For example, the last condo we sold, during covid, netted 9MB. Hipflat has similar-sized units in the project for sale from 8.5MB to 10.4MB, the latter on one of the highest floors. What we netted was in the price range. Websites like Hipflat might be the closest thing Thailand has to a multiple listing service, or MLS, since they list properties posted for sale from multiple agencies. Some people only list their properties with one or two agencies so if you just check a few agencies you don't get a full picture of what might be for sale at a certain project you are interested in, and at what prices. If someone lists their property only on Gecko and I check Fazwaz, I'm not going to find their property. But, both agencies post their listings on Hipflat, so the listing should be there, plus ones from other agencies, as well.

Looks like you're the one cherry picking. Again, all my figures for the new-at-the-time condos were from Think of Living--the website you said everyone should use to check if people were 'lying'. You said to check Think of Living for original prices and then compare them to today's prices, where we would see drops of 25% for all but a few condo projects. I did exactly what you said to do and did not find 25% drops. You are correct that there are 3 low-floor, under 30 sqm units at Lumpini 24 priced under 5MB on Hipflat. But there are also a number of them that same size that are in the 5.2 to 5.8 range, so not all have dropped much, if at all, from the original 5.8MB starting price. The average selling price at Lumpini 24 was 210,000 baht a sqm at the start, according to Think of Living. TOL had studios of 28 sqm priced at 5.8MB back then, about 207,000 baht a sqm. Hipflat has the average today for Lumpini 24 at 226,153 baht per sqm. So, the project as a whole has increased in value, and has not lost 25% in value, even if a few condos are priced below the original list price. I've stated several times that some condos do drop in price, for whatever reason. You've found a few--good for you. I'll try to dig up a gold star. Your statement that most condos lose 25% of their value after 10 years remains false. By the way, my spouse and I sold two condos during covid, both at a profit.