tangoll

jfchandler, now we're even -- I picked up about Izumi from you on the other thread, and you've picked up about Niku from this thread.

In middle of Sept, a friend from Hong Kong will come stay with me in BKK, and he's really into good food -- shark's fin, seafood, good Thai food, etc. If anything that's a good balance between quality and price, I'll post our ventures.

Some Thai friends took me to this Chinese/Thai restaurant that's on Thonglor, about soi 14 or so, that's called Tong Krung or something like that. I'm not in BKK right now, so not sure of exact name and location. They like that restaurant as being good and authentic, amongst the locals anyway. I will get the exact name/location when I get back to BKK the 2nd week of Sept.

For those who are members of British Club on Silom soi 18, the Thai dishes made by the local chef at the club are very good and reasonably priced, and much like food that one might get at a Thai home, even if half the dishes are actually purchased outside and brought home.

On a sale of a condo unit, the taxes and fees payable at the Land Dept on date of transfer are calculated solely from the transaction value reported to the Land Dept by the seller. The transaction value could be the sales price or if the Land Dept decides, they might use their own assessed value for the property being transferred. There is no calculation based on cost or profit made on the unit.

yabaaa, it would be a whole lot more informative if you would just give us the details of even one of your friend's purchases, details like which building and location, which floor, unit size, and price. The details on one transaction is better than the summary info you mentioned, which tells us basically nothing about what's really happening in the condo market in Bangkok.

onethailand, lunch special at niku goes from 10:30 am (which is when Emporium opens, I think) until 4:00 pm. Not sure whether this is available on Sunday or not, but certainly weekdays.

Niku, Japanese restaurant on supermarket/restaurant floor of Emporium Mall, Sukhumvit soi 24, BTS Phrom Phong. The restaurant is at the back, past Burger King and Swensen's. From 10:30 am - 4 pm, daily, lunch special, either sukiyaki or shabu shabu, cook yourself, lunch set from 169 baht for pork to 199 baht for beef, with veggies, rice, kimchi, sauces. Very fresh ingredients. Dinner buffet is about 400 baht per person, so the lunch set deal is a good one.

Since you cook the food yourself, the cooked items are only as good as you wish to make it. Reasonably authentic, and when compared to Tokyo prices, like Serena's at Roppongi, Niku's is like 800 yen for lunch set vs. Serena's 10,000 yen for dinner set. Not exactly comparing like to like, but you get the idea.

I've not tried taking a taxi from On Nut, but I think the quickest way off the BTS is at Ploenchit station on the side of road with gas station. If you take a taxi from there, it's only about 50 meters to the toll gate entrance to highway, and then by highway to airport is only 25 - 30 minutes with low chance of traffic tie-ups. Cost by taxi meter is about 200 baht with 65 baht for tolls.

If you don't have a lot of luggage, and can take BTS to Ploenchit, I think this is the most efficient way by taxi to airport.

Huey, since you've sold your unit, do you mind letting us know the relevant details of your sale, so that we can get a reading on the market? Floor, size of unit, which unit if you care to divulge, and selling price, either in whole or on a per sq meter basis. And whatever you care to tell us about the buyers -- intend to use for themselves, from out of Bangkok, or for weekday use to reduce their commute, or whatever.

It would help. Thanks.

Just saw that it was a 3 BR penthouse, but the actual sales price per sqm would be very interesting.

Huey, great that you were able to sell thru prakard.com. So, what do you think are the relative values of comments made by me and others who suggested using prakard or pantip or even the ladies at the Noble sales office vs. the sarcastic comments made by people like Midas, Meetjohndoe, etc?

The most relevant comment was from the one who told Midas -- <deleted>.

FD333, it's a total waste of time and energy engaging in a verbal duel on this forum. Maybe some posters just get their kicks in wanting to have someone anonymous say, "Hey, you're right, what a brilliant piece of analysis or argument you've presented, you really know the situation here, etc etc." I'm just not into any of that.

Since you've said you've bought and sold property here in Thailand, why don't you, as in the purpose of this thread, just give the pertinent facts of your purchases and sales within the last few months, and then let each reader make what they will of your posting. I've done that several times here and I hope the readers appreciate some of the postings I've made. I recall donx thanking me for what I presented, as being indicative of what's really happening. I mean, people actually doing something, as opposed to just talking about it. I'm not trying to talk the market up -- doing that defeats my objective as well.

Actually, it's not worth the energy getting into long-winded discussions on how to do this. All I'm saying is, if this were my unit, this is how I would do it. Since the unit is not mine, I could care less how the owner goes about it. I'm just relaying my experience in selling the units I have, and my observations from dealing with the buyers. My sales have all been to Thai buyers, from as far away as Chiang Rai, outside suburbs of Bangkok, and residents in Bangkok, sales direct to the buyers and also through agents.

If the owner wishes to target the unit at farangs, all the best to him. Which of the farangs here on TV, many of whom own property/condos in Thailand or Bangkok, would consider buying such a unit, and at what price?

Even the monthly maintenance, assuming 30 baht per sqm, works out to 10,000 baht a month. One might even find a decently furnished small 1 bed/studio to rent at that amount.

I think your potential buyers would be local Thai's rather than farang. If you believe that, then my comments about trying to sell a large condo in a good location, but in poor condition would be these:

1. Get the condo in as good a condition as you can -- decent paint job, remove old furniture and built-ins, leave vacant, but be sure air cons are working so that the flat is cool when buyers come to inspect. Have a table and a few chairs around, electricity and lights on, water running.

2. As for giving stratified incentives to agents, I have mixed feelings about even using agents. Thai buyers, even if brought in by agents, know that the price has built in commissions for agents, and they just don't like the thought of agents getting any commission, because that means the buyer could have gotten a discount on the price if there were no agent/commission involved. So, if the buyer finds out that the agent is getting a larger 5% commisssion, that's going to drive them bonkers thinking that there is a 1 mil baht commission on the 20 mil baht that they might be paying. Their thinking is, why the hel_l couldn't I have gotten the unit for a price without the commission? If the buyer knows that the commission is only 1%, this they can accept, because then they feel that the contract price is closer to your net in price. So somehow, you need to work out with the agents some way to overcome this Thai mindset.

3. If you don't work with agents, you need to have photos/videos taken of the inside of the unit and of the view when looking out of the windows/balcony. You certainly need to market the unit on the local Thai websites, like prakard.com or pantip.com, and using just English is OK. I've also seen a direct seller (that I know) advertising his units in Bangkok Post, though I myself have not used that method before. And you need to be very available to show the unit whenever a buyer wishes to come view or inspect the unit. And be very flexible on discussing anything, especially price. I would not willingly show buyers any of the quotes that you might have on total renovation; that would just hammer in the point that they need an additional 30,000 baht per sqm on top of the 50,000 baht price that they are paying to renovate. A Thai buyer would be able to figure this out for him/herself.

Anyway, the above are my thoughts on how I would do this if I were trying to sell a poor condition unit.

Good luck. PM me if you wish to contact me or for me to come take a look at your unit. I'm next in BKK from 8 - 12 Sept.

FD333, I'm not sure what your point is, but here's one thread/comment by pedro01 about dark windows:

<http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Bangkok-Condo-Prices-Surging-t200985.html&st=25>

Satisfied, or do you want me to find other such comments to back up my odd comment?

I just re-read the OP's question which is "Who is ready to buy", and wanted to edit my post, but couldn't. But to answer the OP's question, I'm ready to buy when the right opportunity comes along, and I'm also ready to sell any of the units I'm holding, at a decent price.

And for those posting, remember the original question, Who is ready to buy? Your post should conclude with the response to this question.

If one is interested in the well located projects that the local Thai's are interested in, prices have not dropped at all, and are now moving upward, and there is a lot of resale and new sales activity going on in that segment of the market. Most of these projects have only a 10% farang ownership portion because most farangs think the prices are ridiculous, and won't buy there. Well, up to you.

Where are these projects;

1. In the Ratchethewi area, by the universities -- Address@Siam, Baan Klang Krung Siam Pathumwan, Villa Ratchethewi, Address Pathuwan. This area is nearby many universities, main one being Chulalongkorn, and Thai families, especially those from out of Bangkok, buy units here for their children to stay in while at univ. Those who buy for investment here whether for rental or resale reason that there is a whole new crop of students coming into this area every year, and thus there are new buyers/renters every year. Prices at Address@Siam are now at 100,000 baht per sqm vs. 75,000 at launch 2.5 years ago.

2. In the Thonglor area, projects near BTS station, being Noble Remix and Siri@Sukhumvit, activity in these two projects are very active now, Siri@Sukhumvit more so than NR, because Sansiri is a much better, more progressive, and successful developer. Both projects are 100 - 200 meters from the station, though on the less preferred side of Sukhumvit.

3. On Thonglor soi 4 is Quattro -- Sansiri's premier development. Two towers, about 450 units in total. 90% of the one bedroom units have been booked/sold, and resales are starting to come onto the market. Price is from 130,000 baht per sqm and up. Quality of materials to be used in the construction are said to be top of the class. Thonglor is a very popular area for residents and renters because of the many boutiques/restaurants/small malls in the area.

4. New projects coming up - AP's soi 28 development, with prices said to start at 150,000 baht per sqm. Noble also has a new project on soi 26 of Sukhumvit, with pricing to start from 100,000 baht per sqm.

These are the popular projects amongst the Thai's. All the comments made above about the difficulties of the world economy, and the Bangkok property market in general, just don't apply when talking about the better located, higher end projects like I've listed above. The Thais that I know and deal with rarely bring up arguments or reasoning as presented here.

So, in answer to the question, Is now the time to buy? -- the answer is, it depends. If you wish to buy into the segment of the market like those listed above, then the answer is: hunt around, do your research, be fully aware of what transactions are being made and what the real prices are, prepare your cash, and act quickly when a decent opportunity appears. I do not want to deal in the middle tier of Bangkok condos, so I cannot offer any opinion as to the answer for that slice of the market.

If you wish to sell, work up a realistic price considering the project, room size, floor, view, perspective, and how much you are willing to deal with agents, and put the offer out. A realistic price will find a buyer, usually a local Thai, and surprisingly now, a younger Thai in early/mid 30's looking to build up his asset base for a steady rental income stream in the future.

blakegeese, the iMac is an integrated setup where the CPU, harddisk, etc are like built inside the monitor unit, so I think to swap out just the screen/monitor is no obvious or simple task. At least it doesn't appear simple to me. So I haven't even thought of looking for a 2nd hand iMac in HK.

MarleyMark, pm sent to you.

Thanks.

tangoll

I'm in HK and have a 17 inch monitor iMac computer. The monitor seems to be failing, as there is this two inch wide vertical stripe of rainbow colours down the middle of the monitor. To bring the unit into the authorized service centre, they charge HK$600 (about baht 2,600) just to evaluate the problem and make an estimate for cost of repairs. No offset on $600 if you go ahead with repairs, and no refund if you decide not to do repairs.

So I found another shop that can repair macs, and over phone, he said probably the monitor has to be replace, and the cost would be HK$3,800 (about baht 17,000). He said ASC would probably charge in excess of $5,000 (baht 22,000).

Do these estimates sound reasonable to any of you mac users? A new 20 in iMac would cost a bit over $10,000 (baht 45,000) here in HK. So I wonder why anyone would want to repair something that costs 50% of the price of a brand new complete system?

The iMac still works fine -- hard disk, CPU, connections -- just the vertical stripe down the middle where nothing can be seen.

Since I had a Toshiba Satellite L40 laptop, I bought a new Acer 18.5 inch monitor, and hooked up the monitor, keyboard, and mouse to the Toshiba which functions only a harddisk and processor, and the system works like a charm, except the system only has Vista and no MS Office, Photoshop, or other similar applications. The Acer monitor, brand new, cost only $1,020 (baht 4,600).

There are 2 or 3 shops that do T-shirt printing in Century Movie Plaza mall, at Victory Monument BTS station. Connected walkway at the end of station towards Phayathai station direction. Don't know the prices, just noticed the shops.

Izumi restaurant at the 2F has a 49 baht barbecue beef set lunch from noon - 2 pm if you're there around lunch hour. Set lunch includes bowl of beef/rice, miso soup, small salad, kimchi, and a can of coke. Best deal in Bangkok.

surface: thanks for the advice. Have done it. Thanks again.

I have a Toshiba Satellite L40 Laptop, using Windows Vista. Randomly, whether on or off line, I could be in the middle of doing email or some other application, the system takes over and has a message "Windows is Configuring Updates" and stays on for awhile, and then automatically shuts down the computer. There is no option to cancel or delay or anything. Everything that I have been doing is lost, and I have to restart the computer.

Has anyone else experienced this problem, or is aware of it, and how to prevent the system from being taken over and shut down?

Thanks.

Actually, in thinking about my comment regarding giving more slack to vespaseeker, I wish there were 100's more like him, each operating in their own defined niche of the market. It's people like vs who provide activity and vitality to the property market. A lot sight better having them than those others who post here asking us to count the number of dark windows in apartment buildings, or who wish we would lose our shirts from the market falling out, or who are guessing at the number of unsold units, etc. At least, vs is doing something; the others are just pontificating.

I'm looking to sell another one of my units, then buy back into the market.

merlion, I think we should give some slack to vespaseeker on his post. Afterall, if that's what he has done in the past few months, all the more power to him, in this difficult period. However, from what I can see of what's actually happening in Bangkok condo market for well located properties, it's getting active for sales and resales. Also encouraging is that I am seeing and getting enquiries from young 30's Thai's who say they are looking to build up their asset base, to secure a steady rental stream 5 - 10 years down the road. Compared to 30 year olds in say HK, these guys are looking only to next week as to which bar or club to go to, or if in financial area, the next quick killing. Agents are also asking around to fill up their "stock" of listings of properties for rent and sales.

Quattro on Thonglor soi 4 has only 10 1 bed units left for sale, all being in the less desirable blocked view floors/lines. The company agent says a lot of Bumrungrad doctors are buying into this project, and one doctor has bought eight units, signifying what I'm not sure, except that doctors here, like elsewhere, are probably overpaid. A Thai friend from Korat who bought a unit here after I mentioned about the project to her, says she is now so happy to have reserved a unit here as well. Price from developer was about 130,000 baht per sqm for 13th - 20th floor.

The speculators are waiting for launch of AP's soi 28 project which word has it that starting price will be 160,000 baht per sqm. Just a word of caution here for anyone thinking to buy into an AP project. Do a careful due diligence that AP has all the government approvals necessary to do the project. True for all development projects, but rumours abound that AP has some difficulty with some of their recent projects.

For brand new condo units from top developers, to renovate to high standard, you can budget about 10,000 baht per sqm, and this would include all equipment, like TV, kitchen stove and hood, refrigerator, washing machine, etc as well as nice wallpaper, built-in closets, sofas, dining table and chairs, beds, etc.

Just go to Index or SB furniture in MBK and ask them for full package renovation for units of size 100, 200 sqms, etc.

thought I would resurrect this thread.

Siri@Sukhumvit, floor 17 of 34 floors, 1 bed / 1 bath, 50.6 sqm, bought on resale 5.1 mil in Sept 08, orig launch price 5.3 mil, first buyer paid 4.9 mil, just sold for 5.7 mil baht to local Thai buyer. This project will complete around 1Q 2010, and is now very active for resales. Sansiri is most popular developer amongst local Thais because their projects tend to appreciate well. Location is first rate, Sukhumvit soi 38, 200 metres from BTS Thonglor.

Lots of buying interest now in well located projects, nearing completion.

Anyone else bought or sold their property in Bangkok recently?

I tried find the old thread titled *Have you bought or sold your condo recently* but unable. During last 3 - 4 weeks, there has been a big increase in people asking me for details/pricing on my condo units. One month ago, I met an agent who came to see me about the units I have. Today, this agent delivered a buyer who signed a purchase agreement to takeover an off=plan unit.

Siri@Sukhumvit, Sukhumvit soi 38 at Thonglor, 17F of 34F building, 1 bed/1 bath, 50.6 sqm. I bought in Aug 08 resale for 5.1 mil baht, sold , one year later, for 5.65 mil baht. Orig contract launch price 5.3 mil baht, but first buyer paid full amount and got the unit for 4.9 mil baht. The new buyer is Thai late 30s male.

Also, many prospective inquirers are young Thais in their early 30s looking for rental property to build up their asset base so that 5 to 10 years out, they will have a steady rental stream to secure their future. I am very surprised how forward looking they are. No farangs have inquired about my properties, only Thais.

I think ability to move properties depend on location, quality of building, view and outlook of project, and of course price. But prices of well located projects have not come down much, if at all. I just heard that Quattro a Sansiri building, on Thonglor soi 4, has only ten 1 bed units left for sale by developer. Latest 1 bed unit on high floor 26F or so sold for 8 mil baht, about 54 sqm.

The condo market for good projects is much more active than six months ago, and transactions are being reported. The doomsayers here will say what they want, but to tell the truth, who cares what they say == the market acts independently of their predictions.