newnative

Bend with the bamboo.

They can get rid of a political party but they can't get rid of the political party's ideas or its supporters. FFP to MFP. MFP to . . . maybe PMF or PFF. Whatever the arrangement of letters, the movement will continue to grow.

At this point in time everyone knows, or should know, about the big problems that Airbnb and the like cause with some condo projects. I say 'some' condo projects because it is not a big problem for every project. Those that seem to have the most problems are: #1. new or newer projects. #2. large projects with 500 units or more. And #3, the trifecta: new or newer large projects in popular tourist areas with most of the units in the 30 to 35 sqm range. Someone doing illegal daily rentals will love #3. A new project in a tourist area with a large number of small units will allow this type of investor to easily purchase multiple new units all at one time, to maximize profits and staff economics. And, the popular tourist area will, hopefully, provide a steady stream of illegal short-term tourist renters. The small units now being built are cheaper to buy than larger units and work well as illegal hotel rooms. Speaking from experience, I owned condos at three different, new at the time, large projects in Pattaya in prime tourist areas. All three projects had around 1000 units or more, with most of the units in the 30 to 35 sqm range. All three projects became plagued with illegal short-term rentals. I no longer own any of the condos. On the plus side, the projects were popular and I was able to sell all at a profit--I just didn't want to live long-term at any of them. When I finally smartened up, the last condo I owned before moving to a house was at an older condo project with less than 100 units, with the smallest unit size at 64 sqm. Quite a difference--I felt like I was living in a residence rather than a very busy,noisy, unpleasant hotel. At this point, it's really a case of the old saying, buyer beware. Check very carefully before buying. What is the project's attitude towards illegal short-term rentals? What specific measurements are in place to deter owners from doing illegal short-term rentals? How effective are they and how is the enforcement--good or bad? Spend time observing at a project you are interested in and talk with residents and staff. Although I no longer own there, I still get the newsletter of the last condo project I owned at. Even though short-term rentals were not a big problem, the project is still being proactive by putting in facial recognition technology. Each condo is limited to 6 facial scans and to be scanned into the system you need to show either condo ownership or a rental contract of at least 6 months. This is the sort of thing to be looking for, technology that will make it more difficult to do the illegal rentals, and a project that is not ambivalent about cracking down, due to too many investment owners.

What makes no sense is your statement that 'illegal gambling will increase three folds'. Why would Thais suddenly start gambling three times as much as they do now just because they can't get into one of the new casinos, should they ever be approved?

Sales figures are for 2023. 2024 sales will be more of an indicator of the effect of the new tax laws on property sales by foreigners.

I remember years and years ago before flat screens I had a 30 inch tv, which was considered big at the time, especially since my tv in college was a 12 inch black & white. Thing was super heavy and it took 2 people to carry it. My spouse and I joke that every time we buy a new property here in Thailand, our tvs get bigger. I think we started with a 32 inch, then moved to 42, then 50, then 55, then 65, then 75. The tvs got bigger but the prices stayed the same or were less--nice when the price of something goes down rather than up. With our recent move to our second house, we bought a floor model 85 inch tv for around 28,000 baht. 85 inch might be our limit--but never say never.

I have the best dentist I have ever had, both here and in the US, at Bangkok Hospital Pattaya. Just terrific. She's done both fillings and crowns, plus the usual check-ups and cleaning. I like that she doesn't push the expensive choice. Recently I had part of a tooth break and she told me she could do a crown but she thought she could also do just a filling and that should be ok, too. I'd never go anywhere else for dental care.

It was still closed on Wednesday. They are taking forever to finish that short stretch of road construction so the intersection can re-open. I hardly see any workers and this intersection is so important--instead of weeks and still not open it should have been done in a few days working 24 hours aday with a big crew.

Our drive time to Pattaya from Phetchaburi in downtown Bangkok is almost always less than 2 hours so if the plane arrives on time you should be ok.

You didn't say how many agencies you have your house listed with. Since Thailand has no MLS, you need to list with as many agencies as possible, starting with the biggest and the closest to your property. Email the agencies with a good set of photos and a detailed description. If CM is anything like Pattaya, some agencies will use your photos and description and some will want to take their own photos. Be as accommodating as possible. It's also likely at your price point that some agencies will also want to come to your property and do a video. At the last two houses we sold in Pattaya, which were in the 10 to 12MB range, we had at least 3 agencies do this at both houses. The videos can be useful for buyers not yet in Thailand. While it's useful to see if you can locate some Chinese agencies, regular agencies can also have Chinese and other Asian buyers. Our last house sold to a Korean buyer; the agency with the buyer was one of the largest in town. And, yes, they had done a video.

Agree, and yes it's sad that's the attitude.

Cheers!

Yes, and it gets busier every year. And, two huge new projects are on the way, Grand Centre Point 3 and Wyndham Grand. Not to mention the new Arom condo highrise and other development going on. North Pattaya Road needs to completely eliminate the parking to allow 3 lanes in each direction to help accommodate all the added traffic, especially on weekends and holidays.

The year is still relatively young but I think I've found my nominee for AN's Most Clueless Post of the Year Award. Competition is always fierce and, like the Oscars, it's a great honor, indeed, just to be nominated, but I believe you've got a very good shot at taking home the coveted prize this year. Finger crossed! You, like many others, including a number responding to this thread, are equating Pattaya as only having its, as you say, 'Red Light district' on offer to visitors. Thus, your truly clueless comment that 'there is almost nothing to do there' during the day. Nothing could be further from the truth, especially for families--who can visit Pattaya and find plenty to do and not venture into the nighttime entertainment areas. Pattaya is number 15 on Mastercard's most visited city in the world list for 2023. 15. In the world. That must make some choke. Obviously, to be that popular, it is bringing in far more than just men attracted to the nightlife. Families visiting Pattaya are staying in Jomtien, Cosy Beach, and other areas south of the center city and they are, especially, staying in the north Pattaya and Wongamat areas. That is easily seen with all the massive new hotel connstruction in those areas in the past few years. This would include the new Amari family wing, Mitt Hotel, Ozo Hotel, Grand Centre Point at T21, D'Beach Hotel third highrise tower, Brighton, Cosi Hotel, Akar Hotel, Marriott Courtyard, and Centre Point Space, as well as many new, smaller, boutique hotels scattered all around this area of Pattaya. These new hotels join other big hotels already there, including Dusit, Holiday Inn, A-01, Cape Dara, Siam@Siam, Pullman, and the huge Centara Grand Resort. Business must be good. Grand Centre Point hotel group, with the two very large hotels I already mentioned, has an even bigger third hotel planned for a very large tract of land by Cape Dara in Wong Amat. Families could stay at a big resort like the jungle-themed Centara in Wongamat and find enough to do there to hardly need to leave. But, there's plenty to do for families when they do go out. Some choices: Nong Nooch Gardens with wonderful gardens and entertaining shows for families Universal Studios Aquaverse amusement park Underwater World aquarium Tiger Park Brand new, very large go-cart amusement near Supalai Mare condo Floating Market Ramayana Water Park Elephant jungle sanctuary Ripley's Believe It or Not Sanctuary of Truth Day trips to outlying islands Snorkeling, scuba diving, and other water activities A number of nice golf courses Teddy Bear Museum Movies and entertainments at Terminal 21 and Central Festival Mini Siam While not by any means a complete list of what's available, I think the above is certainly enough to show that there are things to do in Pattaya during the day. I've lived here 13 years and I'm still finding things to do. If you ever visit again, maybe look around a bit more. You missed a lot.

Same in north Pattaya and Wongamat.

I didn't think so but, apparently, Trump can.

Trump is such a horrible human being. Disgusting behavior, sinking ever lower, when you think there can't be anythng lower.

Limit entrance to foreign passport holders and rich Thais who apply for a special pass. Regular Thais can keep gambling at the places they now gamble at. Win all around.

Guess I'll need to haul out my "I'm not a tourist I live here" t-shirt. I've traveled outside of Thailand the exact same number of times, and to the exact same places, as my Thai spouse. Why should only I be required to wear a mask? How are they going to be able to tell the foreign tourist Asians from the native Asians? Ridiculous policy. Either require masks for all or masks for none.

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.