newnative

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.

For the Supersight, I can't remember what my spouse's cost--I think around 200,000 baht. Mine was more expensive as I had a different type of lens--I think it was around 275,000 baht. That included an overnight stay at the hospital after the surgery to monitor our progress and follow-up visits.

Spouse and I both had lasik around 2012 and last year we did SuperSight. Both procedures with Dr. Somchai at Bangkok Pattaya Hospital. Both procedures completely eliminated the need for glasses for both of us. After 10 or 12 years our lasik vision had deteriorated a bit so we did the Supersight. In both procedures, we had some strobing and glare at night--maybe most noticeable with oncoming car headlights. That has gone away, as it did with the lasik. Both procedures were quick, easy, and painless. The Superight required putting several different kinds of eyedrops in the eyes several times a day for a number of days. That was more of a bother than anything else. Dr. Somchai is a total wiz at lasik--just terrific. I was told in the US I would still need glasses--either for close up or distance--after lasik. So, I didn't do it there. Dr. Somchai said he thought he could tweak my eyes with lasik so I wouldn't need glasses for ether close up or distance--and he did just that. Excellent doctor. I'm 73 and have great vision--I would check out having lasik done with a good doctor. Easier and cheaper than Supersight. It's great not wearing glasses ever--except sunglasses.

I'm gonna have to nominate this for the surprise of the day.

Thai partner decided to move back to Thailand from the US. I had retired and was working part-time, decided to move to Thailand with him and see if I liked it. Starting my 15th year here and it's been mostly great.

Ear-splittingly noisy motorcycles.

It does make both me, and my Thai spouse, appreciate how lucky we are, in comparison to some of the Thai folk we see, like the ones pushing a hand cart along the road, filled with hopefully enough cans or plastic to earn them money to eat that day.

Yes, we boomers are lucky. Perhaps our best luck was being the sons and daughters of the Greatest Generation. That generation survived the Great Depression and World War II, worked hard, scrimped and saved to send their children to college, some as the first generation to go to college. I was certainly lucky with my parents and the upbringing they provided us 6 kids.

Boo hoo. As I was reading the article I was wondering when Gofundme would come up and there it was at the end.

Complete and utter nonsense. Also, laughable! I used the very website you, yourself, said to use in your post--Thinkofliving! Check the very first sentence of your post that I referenced! You, yourself, said to check Thinkofliving's prices for projects when they were new and then compare them to today's prices, where, supposedly, we would see a 25% drop after 10 years, except for a very few projects. Readers are welcome to check my figures for what Thinkofliving was quoting when it reviewed the projects I mentioned when they were new or just getting started with their sales. I then used one of the most popular websites, Hipflat, to see current prices. You're in a snit because none of the Thinkofliving projects I checked lost your 25% in value. Indeed, most either stayed flat or increased in value--which was what I suspected, from our personal experience, even before I started my checking. Having bought and sold something like 20 condos since 2010, my spouse and I would not have been able to buy one condo after another if they lost value. We would have quickly gone broke. Rather than 'cherry picking', I included some of the most popular, numerous projects, such as the View Talays. I don't know where you live in Thailand but I don't think anybody living in Pattaya would consider choosing the View Talay projects as 'cherry picking'. Some posters have called them Soviet-era housing. The projects I cited ranged from the very small Garden Cliff project to the massive Lumpini Park Beach, with over 1800 units. Lumpini, one of the largest builders in Thailand, which builds many, many projects, was represented both in Bangkok and Pattaya with my research. Let's do one more check. Some readers will know that my spouse and I have steered clear of what I've called 'theme park' condo projects. These are the numerous low-rise projects in Pattaya, many named after places. Atlantis, Grand Caribbean, Espana, etc. One of them has a pirate ship in the swimming pool, if I recall. Let's check Laguna Beach Resort 3, The Maldives and see how it is doing. Below you will see the Thinkofliving report from 2015. Big project with over 1,700 units. TOL, the website you said to use, has the starting prices at 39,000 baht a sqm, with the smallest units priced at 890.000 baht. See the TOL report below as evidence I am not making up figures: Laguna Beach Resort 3 The Maldives Pattaya Laguna Beach Resort 3 - The Maldives Pattaya Project information Location / District: Pattaya , Eastern Region Location / Area: Chonburi Location / Road: Jomtien Road Price range: 1 - SUPER ECONOMY Project status: In progress Completion Date: 2015 Basic information group: Condo Building information: Low Rise 7 buildings Number of floors: 8 Number of units: 1,750 website: Official Website Price information Starting price: 0.89 million baht Per square meter: 39,000 baht/sq m. Common fee: 40 fund: 500 baht Types of residential units Studio 23 - 27.5 square meters 1 bedroom 34 - 68 square meters Other project details Unit details Utilities Security system Standard equipment Fully Fitted Now, let's see how the project is doing today on Hipflat. Hipflat has the average sale price at 56,097 baht per sqm. Cheapest unit for sale is at 1.3MB, up from the TOL starting price of 890,000 baht. So, again, not seeing your 25% drop. It's interesting that TOL classified the project as 'super economy', so, also again, I'm not cherry picking only upscale projects, or projects that I personally like. I will repeat what I said in my previous post. Some condos lose value. Never said otherwise. What I am not seeing is your 25% loss in value over 10 years time for most condo projects, except for a very few.

Saw your post and thought I'd do some checking with condo projects I have owned at, have thought about owning at, and, in one case, still own at. These projects were all reviewed on Thinkofliving--an excellent website, in my opinion. (Will be referred to as TOL.) First up, the condo I still own in Bangkok. Built in 2012, TOL, in its review at that time, had the average price per sqm at 105,000 to 125,000 baht. Hipflat today has the average at 146,696. So, no 25% drop in prices. Phew! Checked a condo nearby, Q Asoke, to see how it is doing. Built in 2014. TOL had 180,000 baht as the average price per sqm in its review. Hipflat gives 206,049 baht per sqm today so also no 25% drop. The first condo we bought in Bangkok was at a new project, Lumpini Makkasan. TOL, in 2017, gave the average price per sqm as 140,000 baht. We bought the smallest unit, 24 sqm, on a low floor and paid exactly 2.4MB, or 100,000 baht a sqm. Hipflat has Lumpini Makkasan with average prices today of 141,176. Again, no 25% drop, although the project is not yet 10 years old. Moving to Pattaya, let's check Baan Plai Haad, built in 2015. Nice project, almost bought there. TOL had 128,750 as the average price per sqm. Hipflat gives 121,126 for prices today. Slight drop but not 25%. Unixx is a big project but not oceanfront. Also 2015. Apparently it had a very low pre-sale of 40,000 to 85,000 baht per sqm, according to TOL. I imagine low floor, non-seaview units were at that lower end. Hipflat has Unixx at 86,538. Also no 25% drop there. Something a little more 'average Joe'? Also large, Lumpini Park Beach in Jomtien. 3 highrise buildings of 30 stories and around 1800 units. Starting price way back in 2013 was 46,000 baht a sqm, according to TOL. Could not find an average on Hipflat for today's prices but the cheapest unit was priced at 51,000 baht a sqm and the highest at 120,000 baht a sqm. No drastic 25% price drops in those figures. Centric Sea? 2016 construction. TOL's review said the average price was 86,000 baht a sqm at that time. Hipflat today has the average right at 100,000 baht. Not finding any of those 25% drops you wrote about. Let's try one more TOL project and call it a day. Riviera Wong Amat. TOL in its 2013 review gave the average price per sqm as 86,000 baht. Hipflat today has it at 86,538. I would call that flat. Again, no 25% drop. What about older projects, built before Thinkofliving even existed? One of the oldest in Pattaya is Garden Cliff, built in the early 1980s, which we owned at. I have no idea what the price per sqm was back in the early '80s but the current price is 122,500 baht per sqm--I doubt it was that much in the 1980s. 3 bedrooms run from 10 to 17MB--I also doubt that is a 25% drop. The fact that Garden Cliff is still standing also disproves the two posters who claimed that Thailand condos go crashing to the ground on either their 20th or 30th birthdays--take your pick. One last example, the View Talays of Pattaya. Probably thousands of those 48 sqm studios. Spouse and I did a half dozen of them in the View Talay 5 projects years ago. Bought them for around 2.2MB as shells, renovated them, and then sold them for 3.25 to 3.5MB. Never bought below floor 16. Hipflat has a 48 sqm unit on floor 15 for 3.5MB. One on floor 19 for 2.99MB. But, also units in the 2.6MB range. Seems to be a mixed bag with price depending a lot on how the unit looks--which was actually the case years ago, as well. We did nice renovations and sold at the higher price range at the time. Let's say some VT condos have likely lost value but I don't think I am seeing a 25% drop. To sum up, do some condos drop in price? Likely. Do most condos lose 25% of their value in 10 years, as you claim, with 'very few buildings that are the exception'? Unlikely, and certainly not at any of the projects I have owned at, or thought about owning at, both in Bangkok and Pattaya. As a buyer, I'm waiting to see a 25% drop in some of the projects I like. So far, I am waiting in vain. As an owner, I'm happy to see the one condo I still own has not lost 25% of its value.

Would someone please tell the AI writing these stories that Trump is not "Former President Trump"--unfortunately. Hello, AI! He is the current President--try to keep up. As for the story--scary.

Very good advice here, starting with #1. Take your time and do your homework--2 thru 4 above. Be thorough. Also, be aware of the illegal daily rental problem that plagues some condo projects here--especially some of the newer mega projects in areas popular with tourists. I would check that issue with any project you are interested in. Even after numerous real estate transactions here and in the US, I always also follow #5 above.

Not true--at least not for my Thai spouse and myself. We have bought numerous condos in Thailand. We have never transferred money to a private seller's bank account in advance of receiving the chanote at the Land Office. And, we never would. If a seller demanded that, we would walk away. True, also for Virginia in the USA, by the way--the process of which is much more complex--but again, no money ever went into a seller's bank account in advance of the 8 or 9 properties I bought in Virginia. Typically, we show up at the Land Office with a cashier's check in the seller's name, for the amount we still owe, and cash to pay our share of the closing costs, if any. When we see the chanote with our name on it, we hand over the cashier's check, which we have shown the seller at the start of the Land Office transfer. All of this should be spelled out in the sales contract which both parties have agreed to and signed. It's the same when we are the sellers. We've both signed the contract to buy and sell, buyer has put down a non-refundable down payment, and we both show up at the Land Office on the date arranged to do the transfer. We receive the final payment by cashier's check, (one or two may have been in cash), chanote is changed, transfer fees are paid, agent, if any, is paid, keys are handed over, etc. I mentioned 'private seller' above. In a number of cases, we bought new condos off-plan from established developers--Lumpini, Sansiri, Raimon Land, and SC Asset. Probably 9 or 10 condos in total. With those large, well-established developers, we gave them our final payments and they did all the paperwork for us. If I am remembering correctly, we didn't even have to go to the Land Office for several of the buys--perhaps because these developers are so huge and do so many transactions.

We're on our third SUV and would never go back to a sedan. The SUV is just so much more versatile--especially as we are often finding treasures to bring home on our antiquing and other shopping excursions. We open the back and--whether it was our old CR-V or our new Sealion 6--we are usually able to get in what we buy. Plus, we like the easy entrance and exit and sitting higher than we did in the Civic we owned before. Absolutely loving the new Sealion 6 plug-in hybrid, by the way. Super comfortable, great acceleration when we need it, and we hardly ever fill up at a gas station--the electric function has plenty enough range for our daily driving around town needs. Features galore--some of which we are still discovering. My personal favorite might be the seat cooling feature--one of the recent features we discovered. But, the camera system is also awesome . . .

Nailed it. Lots of hard work. High failure rate. Very little time off. Not for the faint of heart.

Airlines should require the purchase of 2 economy seats when someone's width exceeds the width of the seat. Or, my solution, special extra-wide seats out on the wing. No cabin service, unfortunately, but all the fresh air you could ever want--and the views!

These days the trains are so packed at all hours riders can;t do much of anything except stand in place and occupy their tiny piece of space. Bring on two more cars per train, starting with the most crowded ones first. Long overdue. The recent free ride total fiasco showed what's in store for the future, otherwise.

Thais need to do more public shaming like this--taking to social media to bring it to light. Sometimes, if the embarrassing spotlight gets bright and hot enough, it might lead to some action. That's about the only tool they readily have in their toolbox.

As always, just talk. Stop talking and crash into action. Had a big laugh with the statement regarding switching to teaching languages other than English---they're not even doing English well--always at the very bottom of ASEAN rankings. Knowing English is and always will be the most important skill for the Thai workforce, especially in an economy with a large tourist component.

Not to mention the World. First visit to New York City, one of my sisters was pickpocketed just steps after we left our hotel room. And so it goes.