BlackRain

Actually, more than that,

In 2007, 889,656 Russians visited Pattaya, up 84 per cent from the previous year, making them the leading market for the resort after only Thais, 1.51 million of whom checked into Pattaya hotels last year.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/b...s.php?id=127965

Ok, it was 20% last year, and they expect it to be 40% this year, but they seem to make 80% of the market in central areas, they are buying everything

This year experts believe that Russians will account for 40% of real estate purchases in Pattaya. Since Russians often don't speak English, Russian speaking staff and Russian language advertisements are essential for attracting Russian business at real estate agency's and other tourism-related businesses.

http://www.readbangkokpost.com/easybusines...ayas_real_e.php

It's not a buyer market, not anymore, it was 5 years ago, but now it's overbought, the seller make the choice,

with all the Russians coming here and making 80% of the buyers in Pattaya for the last 2 years (see BangkokPost article), you are out of luck

I believe the time for rising price in the Thai property market will soon come to an end,

Only Pattaya seems to escape the reality as 80% of buyers are Russians who have been out priced in their home country (20,000 USD per sqm in Moscow),

With high inflation, lower growth, and Thai banks amassing a string of bad loans, I don't see what else could fuel such a market,

it's going to stop and when it does, it will be brutal. It doesn't mean that prices will fall overnight though, and they are still a lot of projects in early stage, but with oversupply and no demand, someone will have to make fire sales to cover those constructions costs,

maybe a bit late to answer that topic but I can add my 2c since I am in the industry,

1. Hiring IT professionals is extremely difficult here, costly and often not effective. It's art or you have to be very lucky.

2. The level of English is very poor, even with Thais HiSo, however their writing skills is much better, maybe ok. Cultural barrier is pretty big. A lot of farang boss go mad running a business here.

Basically running a business in Thailand will take a lot of patience and skills from the farang manager, you will either adapt or break

Hilarious, obviously it didn't happen

Thanks George. I'm in digital marketing and I know that Google doesn't side up with anyone. Anyway, good for you and Thaivisa's readers. It's a good offer and one that will bring even more momentum to thaivisa... who should surely now consider having a strapline that communicates that it's not just about visa!!

cheers

I have done some consultancy work for Google...

Then I must be very famous too because I also have a co-branded Gmail account with my domain name.

Google has been giving away those services to 100,000 domain names already as a part of a big beta test. Next month, they will go into full production and it will be released to the public. You can sign-up already for it, but need to wait for approval, usually takes 2 or 3 days.

This is Google answer to Microsoft Live

ok one of my employees got herself into some stupid debt. Instead of asking me for a zero interest loan, she went on her own and ask for a JCB card with those loan sharks at Quick Cash and those AEON gangsters. Why are these companies still operating is a mystery but that's another debate.

Anyway, soon after she started using the card, she realized how expensive it is to borrow money from those gangsters. Instead of resolving her debt issue, she started to ask for a raise to payback the monthly minimum of her debt as she is being strangled financially. Being the nice guy that I am, I started to investigate why she couldn't make it financially when I pay her already above average rate. This is when I discover what kind of gangsters she was dealing with:

For a loan of 15,000 THB taken in 2004, the loan has grown to 28,000 THB in 2006, mind you that she had payback already the monthly minimum of about 1.500 THB during those years, while borrowing a bit more everytime. Now the monthly minimum is about 4.000 THB and she can't make it.

After going through the statements, it turns out that she had paid more than 7.000 THB in interests fee alone over 2 years for an average loan balance of 20.000 THB with repayment done in between. That's about 30% interests over 20 months, or 21% per year (1.75% per month)

With her current situation, she will never be able to recover from her debt, and it would take years for her to pay back that 15.000 THB loan, which would be ridiculous.

Obviously I will need to bail her out and of course this is going to be expensive to do it and it will cost me more than the 15.000 THB originally borrowed if she had come to see me in the first place. But I would also like to go after those gangsters at QuickCash and AEON and I was wondering if there was any agency to help Thais resolve their debt with those kind of loan sharks by "negotiating" the early retirement of the debt. Those loan sharks love poor people, and they know very well that they will struggle to make through the payments, forcing them to borrow even more.

Anyway, anyone with experience with those kind of issues ? I remember the government planning something a few years ago but not sure if it became concrete and or it was just news propaganda.

Thank you for your feedback,

The trial was a farce, and so was the execution. Saddam has become a martyr and a new hero.

The war is lost for the US anyhow, but he will be remembered as the defiant leader with his controversial past forgotten. He won.