newnative

Totally disagree. Once you give up on maintaining public spaces you might as well throw in the towel. Take a gander at France--which has let graffiti go completely unchecked. So many public spaces you see destroyed by ugly graffiti--sometimes graffiti on top of other graffiti. Horrible. Bridges, retaining walls, overpasses, buildings, doors, signs--any surface, public or private, is fair game there. I was so looking forward to seeing Paris but even it had ugly graffiti everywhere--even in the richest, supposedly best parts of the city. Touring the city, I would be admiring a fine, old building and look up to see, yes, graffiti on, not just the front doors and first floor walls but also up at the top--someone managed to climb up and spray graffiti even there. Italy was just as bad. Sad both countries care so little and have just given up--what does that say about them? Contrast that with Japan, which my spouse and I visited late last year. The entire trip, we did not see even one instance of graffiti. Not one, anywhere. I'm not saying graffiti doesn't exist in Japan but we did not see any so it must be under control--at least where we were in the Osaka-Kyoto areas. It was great to look around and admire everything and not have to try to see it through layers of ugly graffiti. So far, Thailand has been pretty good with keeping graffiti from getting out of control and I admire the local citizens for standing up and demanding action when graffiti appears--as they did in this case. Bravo to them.

And, yet, even with all that, plus the FBI's last minute election interference, she still won the election with actual voters, by over 2 million. Which makes Trump, in comparison, even more 'terrible' than her. She was, supposedly, 'terrible' in your thinking but he still lost by millions! Loser! Let's not even dwell on his even bigger loss in 2020. Double loser. Poor Trump had to go hat in hand to the cursed Electoral College, get on his creaky knees, and beg, 'Pretty please, would you please make me President even though the voters didn't want big, fat, loser me at all. Please forget what the American people want. Give me what I want. If you do that, I promise to be the worst President in history.' Remarkably, children, that promise, right up until this very day, is the only one Trump has ever kept. Now, class, isn't history fascinating?

Yes, even though Clinton won the 2016 election with the actual voters, Trump was awarded the Presidency by the cursed Electoral College. Duh. That doesn't change the fact that the majority of the voters wanted the other candidate to be their President in both 2016 and 2020. Trump's a loser with the American voters in both elections, and by a huge number in 2020.

Just early polls. The fact remains that after 4 years of Trump as President, American voters rejected him--to the tune of over 7 million voters--a horrible showing for a sitting President. They also rejected him in 2016--by over 2 million voters. Loser with the voters not just once but twice.

A minority of Americans might want him back. If history holds, it will never be a majority. He lost the popular vote by over 2 million in 2016 and did even worse in 2020, losing by a staggering 7 million votes even with all the powers of incumbency. In both elections the majority of Americans wanted the other candidate--embarrassingly so in 2020.

Spouse and I would only buy a hybrid at this point--we're not ready for all-electric. They are definitely still a strong option and will be for some time.

Yes, you can transfer a condo in Thai name to foreign quota, but only if foreign quota is still available in the project.

Just a clarification. I've seen 'Thai quota' mentioned several times. There is no 'Thai quota'. Thais can have 100% ownership in a condo project. There is ownership in Thai name, ownership in company name, and ownership in foreign quota, which is 49%. As others have mentioned, it's best to check with the juristic to see how much of the foreign quota of a project is still available, and if that percentage available is enough to cover the size of the condo you are interested in.

I think Aquatique was planned for Pattaya Beach Road, not Bangsaray. That, and the casino entertainment complex, may or may not ever happen. But not everything is 'just talk'. The new highrise hotel across from Centre Point Space is being finished, after it stalled during covid. The old shops up the street from it near the circle have been boarded up and look to be demolished--the land has gotten too valuable for what was there. Another new large structure across the street from it and near CP Space is going up--not sure what it will be. Spouse thought maybe some sort of entertainment. The new Arom Wongamat highrse condo is nearing completion. Speaking of Centre Point, yet another massive one, Centre Point 3, is slated for a huge tract of land in front of Cape Dara--it's been cleared and fenced off. From the photos on the construction wall, CP3 will be bigger than Grand Centre Point at T21 and CP Space. Up the street from CP3, another big highrise is planned, Wyndham Grand. The old hotel next to Centric Sea is being totally re-done. And, that big, old house that sat on the very large piece of land between Second Road and Beach Road near Hard Rock Hotel has been demolished and the land cleared. Curious as to what will be going in there. Another big project in Jomtien, to go with all the other new ones--Copacabana Coral Reef, with 1900+ condos--is the next project slated for Jomtien Second Road. It joins the previously announced Skypark Lucean highrise, two towers of 60 and 31 floors. On the Darkside, some sort of new amusement park is going up near View Ang restaurant. A large, new hospital connected to Thammasat University is being built near Siam Country Club. Plus, many new housing estates, with a number of them in the 10MB price point and up. All over town, new retail is springing up--from new auto dealers such as Changan to interesting places to hang out like the quite large 2-level coffee cafe, Nitan, on Sukhumvit. Pattaya continues to grow.

Buy in foreign quota, if possible. The condo is in your name, not a company's, there's much less hassle with the purchase, there's no company accounting paperwork to deal with every year, and the condo will be easier to sell down the road should you choose to sell it at some point.

Some other older projects that are being maintained: Northshore, Sky Beach, Garden Cliff, Silver Beach, Saranchol, Park Beach, Pingpha, Baan Rimpha, Jomtien Complex, Grand Condotel, Baan Haad U Thong, Siam Penthouse 3, and Markland, among many others. I don't know if View Talay 6 is looking 'tired'--haven't been there recently--but I think the other VTs are being maintained adequately. I do go to VT3 fairly often and it looks about the same as when I lived there 14 years ago--although it has been recently painted on the outside and the elevators and pool were redone. I think VT5C and 5D were also repainted. The VT projects were pretty plain jane from the get-go with most having just a pool so not a long list of fancy amenities to maintain in any of them.

Keep condo rentals of less than 30 days illegal.

Me, too. Currently watching Shogun--terrific. Latest seasons of Fargo and True Detective were great. Masters of the Air. Like the new version of Reacher. For a change of pace, The Gilded Age. I've liked lots of the Korean shows, as well. Plenty of good content, just need to look around a bit.

And blacklist them for life.

Not even going out for bid until 2025. Glacially slow.

I don't think The Edge has any 35 sqm condos, and not for 3-4MB that I can see with a quick Hipflat search. Hipflat does have 26 and 27 sqm Edge studios listed for 4 to 5MB and up. There's a 30 sqm studio listed for 6.49MB. Studio rents range from 20,000 baht to around 35,000 baht. You might be thinking of The Base, next door, which does have 35 sqm 1 bedrooms for 3 to 4MB.

Smart doctor.

Prohibit tourists without a valid motorcycle license from renting any motorbikes of any size.

My spouse and I have sold 2 houses in Pattaya and a number of condos in Rayong, Bangkok, and Pattaya. The majority of the condos were sold in Pattaya between 2011 and 2019, although we did have a couple condo sales during the covid years. Some condo sales were quick, some took awhile; just the nature of the game, as far as I can tell. Patience is a virtue. Both house sales were in the last few years and they sold fairly quickly. I won't hazard a guess as to what sells easier, houses or condos--too many variables, in my opinion. I will say that a good property, condo or house, in a good location and priced properly, will find a buyer if it is marketed correctly for Thailand. As in another recent post on real estate, we have had some posters disparage real estate agencies. Usually along the lines of, "I listed with an agency and they never brought any buyers to see my property." Likely to be true. Which is why you don't list with just one agency. Thailand has no MLS, so you need to list with as many agencies as you can. The goal is to get your property as widely known as possible. That's not done listing with one agency. With the last property we sold, I think I listed it with maybe 30 agencies, both big and small. Most of those 30 agencies did not bring a single buyer to see the property. But, that's ok, because some of the agencies, big and small, did bring buyers, one of which bought the property. You list with many agencies because, unless you are Carnac the Magnificent, you have no way of knowing which agency is going to have the right buyer for your property. As I've said before, we always try to sell our properties ourselves--and we make all the usual marketing moves every time to try to find a buyer. We have managed to sell some ourselves--yaa us. But, the vast majority of them were sold by an agent bringing a buyer to us--yaa agents.

So true. My Thai spouse and I are building a new house and this morning he remarked that all the construction workers are from Burma.

Hope the upgrades will include more cars on the trains and more frequent train intervals. Nice if they added reserved seating and express trains from Makkasan.

Thailand does not have an MLS--Multiple Listing Service. You need to list your property with every big agency in Pattaya, starting with the ones closest to your property. I list with both big and small agencies, as many as I can find--you never know who will have a client looking for a property like yours. Also good, as already mentioned, a large sign on your property. Posters like to disparage agencies but most of our condo sales and both of our house sales were done with agencies finding and bringing buyers to our properties. Good luck to you.

Who knows. As dear old Dad used to say, "We're all just penciled in." He lived to 95 and my Mom to 101. I am 72 and in relatively good health.

If I was single I would be spending more but I want to make sure my spouse will be well-provided for after I am gone.

Much ado about relatively nothing. 614 cases since Oct. 2023. So, a tad over 100 cases a month out of millions of tourists, with most of the cases, from the article, on the petty side. A handful of the 614, also relatively minor cases but blown way out of proportion, have garnered lots of publicity so something must be seen to be done. These high-profile but petty cases wouldn't have caused a ripple in the US.