newnative

Sad to say, this is probably actually true. He borrowed his Big Lie regarding the 2020 election directly from the Nazi Germany play book, with his preposterous Big Lie that the election was 'stolen' from him. (Well, the lie does need to be BIG--that's the whole point.) Even sadder, using the Big Lie can apparently still work with the brain dead. In a recent poll, over 30% of Americans still believe Trump's Big Lie. Also sad, as an American, that there are that many idiot Americans. Lotta sad with anything to do with Trump.

Yes. As he lost the last two times he ran for President--in both elections the majority of the voters rejected him. The majority of the voters wanted the other candidate. Did. Not. Want. Trump. Was given the presidency, against the will of the voters, by the cursed Electoral College in 2016. Will be rejected again by the majority of the voters in 2024, if he is the GOP nominee. He's going down hill with voters. In 2016 he lost by 2 million votes. In 2020 he lost by 7 million votes, as Americans got to know him for the lying, cheating, delusional grifter he is. Loser.

Thank you!

They need to continue north with the overpasses that they have done in the south on Sukhumvit, to start. Then look at removing parking, starting with North Pattaya Road.

'Thailand's tourism opertors' should be corrected to the opinions of just 2.

Have fun and and don't sweat the small stuff--and, in the end, almost everything is small stuff.

The cheapest studio on Hipflat is a floor 8 unit for 18,000 baht. Some others are listed from 22,000 to 26,000 baht a month. An 8th floor unit is listed for sale at 3.7MB. I did not see any VT6 studios on Facebook for 10,000 baht, either. There was one listed for 28,000 baht.

Except, that thread was discussing short-term rentals. I believe the OP is planning to do long-term rentals--something different. I would say a hard no to short-term rentals, from a financial point, especially with just one or two condos. And, also because they are illegal. Long-term rentals I find a much more viable proposition, and have done them myself.

This may be a dumb question and might have already been answered somewhere back in the 200+ pages but I can't remember. The question came up this morning. I have a Thai brother-in-law working abroad who is planning to return to Thailand in April or early May 2024. He might be transferring a large sum of money to Thailand due to a condo sale in 2024, before he returns. The question, if he stays out of Thailand for more than 180 days in 2024 will he be considered a 'non-tax resident' for tax purposes even though he is a Thai citizen? Or, does that designation just apply to foreigners? Thank you!

You will get negative posts telling you to rent, not buy, in Thailand because it will be a terrible investment and you will lose your shirt, and likely your pants, as well. This has not been the experience of my spouse and me through a number of property purchases and sales, mostly condos. Your plan is actually what a number of Thais do, including two of my Thai spouse's relatives, both in banking. When they retire, required at age 60 where they work, they receive a lump sum payment, rather than a pension, that has to last them for the rest of their lives, whether they live to 70 or 100. In order to make that lump sum last longer, they have bought rental condos to provide some income. If they can get, say, 30,000 baht a month in rental income, that's 30,000 baht that they don't need to withdraw from that lump sum each month. They have been buying the condos while they are still employed and they each own one or two. We actually owned three Pattaya rental one-bedroom condos at various times, at Lumpini Park Beach, The Base, and Centric Sea. Had I not had a pension and SS, we might still own them. Ultimately, we opted for a quick profit selling them, after renting each for a year, rather than a slower, monthly return. I can't remember the LPB rental but with the Base, we got 25,000 baht a month and Centric Sea was 22,000--this was when both projects first opened, a number of years ago. The Base cost us 3MB and Centric Sea was 2.5MB. No advice on specific projects to buy but all our Pattaya condos were seaview units, which were not difficult to sell at a profit, when we decided to sell. I would say always buy in foreign quota, don't be in a hurry, and do your homework. Hipflat is an easy to use website that can give you useful information on condo rental and sale prices for Pattaya condo projects, with units listed for sale and rent, so you can get some idea regarding pricing for both sales and rentals. I think the north Pattaya beach area is getting very desirable and there are only a handful of seaview condo projects--Northshore, Centric Sea, and Markland come to mind, so not much competition for seaview rentals in that area. Good luck.

Ok. Simple and brief. Spouse and I had dinner the other evening with three Pattaya bank branch managers. They were aware of the proposed tax change but were just as clueless as all of us. So, at this point, the banks still seem to be in the dark regarding any banking changes they would be required to do. They said they would keep us posted.

VT3 has no on-site bars.

I'm not sure, we get the memberships through our bank.

You must have absolutely hated being corrected in school.

See my comment to Ralf001.

I think you are the one with the eye condition. Of course the article was about savings! Duh! That was the whole point I was commenting on. You can't judge a person's wealth simply by looking at the cash in their savings accounts--which was the impression the article was giving. Oh, the poor Americans, they only have an average of $5,300 in their savings accounts . . . A more useful figure would be the average American's net worth. This is usually calculated by age range and runs, for example, from $183,500 for age less than 35 to $1,566,900 for age 55-64. Median figures for these two groups are $39,000 and $364,500. Whether average or median is used, both are considerably more than $5,300.

Pattaya does have a small campus of Thammasat University. It is currently building a large hospital next to the campus that will be affiiated with the university.

I prefer occasional flights of fantasy to weird; taking something real and then creating something fictional and, perhaps, whimsical out of it. Some time ago I began to notice the many posts on every Forum thread having anything whatsoever to do with Pattaya, by a legion of non-Pattaya posters, some who had never actually even been to Pattaya, some who had been to Pattaya once or a few times, many years ago, and some, like you, who lived here at some point and moved away. Despite in some cases never, ever visiting, or visiting very long ago, it didn't stop these posters from voraciously reading every single thread they could find about Pattaya and then, often with wonderful sour grapes tonality, adding their comments, opinions, barbs, etc.--usually woefully out-of-date and inaccurate. Lots of good examples on display in this very thread, including yours, harking back to Pattaya of the 'nineties'. Having observed this crazy, unnatural phenomenon, I let my imagination run and out popped the mythical Just Can't Quit Pattaya Fan Club, made up of members, such as yourself, that, well, just can't quit Pattaya--for whatever reason. Just. Cannot. Let. It. Go. Talk about weird! Is there a Just Can't Quit Lamphun Fan Club? I think not. In any case, welcome to the club. Membership allows you to comment inaccurately on all things Pattaya to your heart's content, for as many years, or decades, as you feel you must, and with absolutely no condemnation from your fellow club members, who, of course, suffer from the same strange malady. So, post away!

Rather a meaningless article, in my opinion. According to the article, the median bank account was $5300. Really tells nothing, as it is only surveying bank accounts, and not other assets that many have. My Dad probably never even kept that much in his bank account. He was fond of saying that he wanted his money working for him, rather than sitting around in a bank account earning practically nothing. So, he owned real estate and, especially, a large stock portfolio. Together, the real estate and dividends from the stock portfolio kept my Mom in a nice nursing home for 10 years after my Dad's death, to the tune of $70,000 a year, with the stock portfolio still intact after Mom's death, at age 101.

Who irons clothes these days? Before I buy anything, the first thing I check is if it needs to be ironed. If it does, I don't buy it. Good for her, refusing to iron. Hubby needs to buy no-iron or iron his clothes himself. And, wash them, too.

Not racist? You gotta be kidding. In any case, an application for the Just Can't Quit Pattaya Fan Club is on its way.

Racist much? Twice a week my spouse and I go to a very nice high-end resort in Wongamat to use the also very nice gym. And, yes, the resort does have Chinese, Indian, and Russian families. Also those from other countries, as well as lots of Thai families on weekends and holidays. You need to get out more--there's a lot more to Pattaya than just Walking Street/Soi 6, etc. As I've said before, most of the big, new development is not near Walking Street. Actually, anywhere but. Instead, it's in north Pattaya with Terminal 21, Ozo, Mitt, Grand Centre Point, Centre Point Space, and Once condo. It's in Wong Amat with Arom, Riviera, and Wyndham Grand, to join all the other development that has gone in there, including a number of boutique hotels. It's in Jomtien with Copacabana, Aeras, Riviera Monaco and Ocean Drive, among lots of others. It's on the Darkside with a big new amusement/water park going up, along with numerous new housing estates, and a large under-construction hospital connected with Thammasat University. It's south of town with Icon Siam on the horizon, to go with extensive roadwork expanding the lanes and incorporating overpasses. It's lots of new non-bar businesses springing up everywhere--check out the huge, new Nitan coffee cafe on Sukhumvit sometime to get an idea of how Pattaya is changing. Or, perhaps the new Miss Pastry near Lake Mabprachan.

If you're talking about the bar scene--maybe. The rest of Pattaya has been changing tremendously, and still is, with new development going up all over the area. From the description, the OP was mostly in a very small part of Pattaya.

Good description of what some of the awful tatts look like! I always say the tatts--on both men and women--make them look like they have been in horrific motorcycle accidents but 'vomited pizza' might be even better.

As I've said a number of times, one of the great things about Pattaya is the diverse neighborhoods one can choose from to live in. My spouse and I started in Jomtien/Pratamnuk and lived in several different condo projects but found we were driving into central Pattaya a lot and eventually we lived in south Pattaya, north Pattaya, and Wong Amat. We are now living in yet another neighborhood, Lake Mabprachan, liking it a lot, and it is an easy, short drive into town on the Motorway.