robert10

I like to scan my hardcopy prints (4" by 6") to softcopy formats. Any idea where I can do it and how much?

Good point. Thanks. One bedrooms are all about 2 million so they wouldn't be buying them, but maybe investors buying and then renting to students...

In general it seems tough to buy a condo pre-sale. So the reputation of the company seems pretty important.

Punna on Nimman looks nice. But 5 million+ for a one bed... No thanks...

What's the asking THB psm for both projects? Other newer projects seem to be asking 35-40K Bht psm upwards.

Mixed feeling about location of Punna on Nimman. There's a night spot next door that plays live music real loud til late at night. Also, you're directly under the aircraft flight path, and its loud enough to rattle the room.

Haven't seen either but was cautioned by certain property agent that Punna along Huay Kaew may attract many student renters, and thus be noisier. AYOR

I believe one factor contributing to the strong THB is that the Thai export sector has been doing well. Exporters sell foreign currencies which the exports are denominated in, and buy THB to repatriate export earnings.

Hi,

What's the price in Thailand? (Please provide specs as it may differ from my home country). I'm visiting LOS soon and may get it there if its cheaper. Also, as it comes with Thai keyboard, it may come in useful in my Thai lang lessons. As a side question, can I switch the Windows7 lang. from Thai to English without re-installing?

The place down the airport are renting out nice-looking Toyotas for a similar rate on a day-by-day basis.

Any contact details for this place?

ight i saw this in a news paper a while back i did it and now send money to thailand for free . hope it works for u no reason why not . i even used my hotels address to open account :-

Thanks for your detailed write up! I also have a Kasikorn account. But I do not have paypal account just yet.

Am I correct to say that Steps 5 to 7 need only be done if you plan on using your Thai Paypal account for online purchases? For somebody like me who want to transfer money (without fees) from home country to LOS, I guess I can skip the virtual credit card thingy?

Also, did Kasikorn Bank charge you for step 9 when you deposit USD to your savings account?

It seems that you can hold foreign currency (USD) in your savings account? I checked with K Bank on wire transfer from my home country to K bank account, and they told me that they will automatically convert home currency to THB on receipt of wired funds, which means I cannot choose to convert to THB on a day that the FX rate is favorable to me I hope to get around this by using the PayPal route instead of regular banking wire transfers

I've chosen to post this here in CM forum as CM is where I hope to retire to one day

Would like to hear from those who are already retired, or working towards your retirement. If personal finances is not an issue for you, what are your considerations/experiences for deciding when to retire? Would you retire earlier (or later) or, looking back, are you happy with your retirement timing?

I opened my account with Bualuang Securities but did so in Thailand. Go to their website, get contact info, and send them an Email with your question. All I needed was money, my passport, and a bankbook from a Thai bank. The bankbook is necessary because any dividends you get are sent to your bank account with 15 percent deducted for taxes and are not credited to your securities account. Capital gains are not taxed so you do not need to keep records or file any reports to the government.

Bualuang Securities is majority-owned by Bangkok Bank which is the number two bank in Thailand. I have never had a problem with them. Since the day I opened my account I have done everything on the internet. The only withdrawal I heve made went from them directly into my bank account in two days.

That's great! Sound easy enough as I already have onshore bank account with Kasikorn.

How about settlement of trades? How do you do pay for share purchases, as well as receive stock sale proceeds? can that be done online via internet banking facilty with the Thai bank?

... By foreigner, I mean one who is not resident in Thailand or holding work permit. If possible, what are the requirements for account opening and which stock brokerage do you recommend?

Looking for a place to stay either at or within walking distance to Nimmanhemin area for a week in CM.

Anyone stayed at above place before and can comment? Looks like 5 min walk to Nimmahemin from the map and their opening promotion price (50% discount) is attractive.

A tourist visa can be extended 30 days - a visa exempt entry can not - and without a ticket out within 30 days you may not even be allowed to fly. Obtain a tourist visa prior to travel - that will get you 60 days on arrival and can be extended another 30 days.

Short, sharp and helpful ... if only all replies are like this! Cheers

I'm from one of those visa-exempt countries where I'm automatically stamped with a 30day stay by airport immigration on arrival whenever I'm there for holiday. I may have opportunity to holiday up to 3 months in the kingdom soon, so the usual 1month period isn't sufficient

Is this the same situation as the OP and I go to Suan Phlu/CHeang Wattana office to get extension? But I would want 60day extension though, on top of my standard 30day stay

What do I need to do?

Please post reasons why you are fed up by Thailand and want to go back to you home country?

None and I won't go back.

Another thread successfully transformed.

Do you see a pattern?

Yeah, Thai PMs of chinese descent do not take sticky rice

Your post speaks volumes about the attitude of Thai Chinese like yourself who come here of the opinion that your people are better than the locals and they need your imperialist viewpoints to enrich their lives. It sounds as if you think of the indigenous Thais as nothing more than "workers" (i.e. serfs of the Thai Chinese overlords and tax collectors). I challenge you to look deep down inside yourself and ask this question: "am I better than other people because I'm Chinese?"

We do well to remember that Heng doesn't speak for the entire Thai-chinese population, just as the KKK does not speak for Americans.

He speaketh for himself, and of himself

I don't really like spicy food so now go ahead and have a rant about how Thai food is totally different to Western food and just because I don't understand Thai food I think Thais are inferior for eating spicy food and that I think that Thais should eat McDonalds instead.

OK, here we go..............

Look, just because Thai people like spicy food and you don't it don't mean that Thai people are inferior, it just means that you don't like spicy food, I'm quite sure they would find Toad in the Hold bland without lashings of hot stuff, now c'mon, get a grip !!!! You ain't in Maidstone anymore !!! Or do you think they should all eat McDonalds, just cos you like it ?

Was that OK ?

Diesel pickup trucks are the best buy by far. Why do you think there are so many on the roads? They go farther on a liter of diesel than the little match box cars can go on a liter of benzine. They also last a lot longer.

What sort of price range are we talking about here?

Do they come with auto transmission?

I wondering if CM properties is a good place to invest on. At present I am renting a studio unit (a typical hotel room) near Thanin Market and I am paying 5000 baht per month. The rate is attractive considering it covers satellite tv and unlimited wireless broadband internet access.

I am not a local and I am not familiar with the properties market here. My home country has seen a steep rise in property price of 20-25% in a spate of recent 2 years. And I wondering if the same had happened here in CM, and if the current property price is at it peaks now.

I have looked around for new condo project in CM, and my personal preferences wil be Mountain Front and Punna Residences 3. For Mountain Front I like it's exclusive, high ceiling and wide window. And for Punna Residences 3, I like it's location. And I believe Residences 3 may fetch higher income and greater rental demand as compared to Mountain Front.

I have dropped emails via their websites, unfortunately none have had reply.

I have arrived in CM for more than a week, personally I would feel that the hotel rate is dirt cheap or rather there is a wide spectrum of options in terms of affordability. I have seen a hotel along Arrak Road renting room at 2500 baht monthly. It seems there is a glut of hotel rooms here in CM, and I believe it will spillover to the supply of serviced apartments and condominium.

If I gotten a unit in Mountain Front and Punna Residence 3, what would be the chances that it could be rented out? And what would be the monthly rental income (considering a studio unit of 45sqm)? And what would be the chances that the developer fails to deliver?

BTW, I will be in CM for a month, and I stay near Thanin Market. My intention here in CM is to pick up Thai language through self study, watching Thai DMC Channel and lisening to mp3. And if there is someone who are proficient in Thai language and would like to learn Chinese language, perhaps we can meet up and we can share our knowledge and it will definitely make our learning more interesting, memorable and enjoyable. Please PM me if you are keen to learn Chinese.

I'm also looking at buying condo for investment. But in BKK, not CM, as I'm not sure there's much rental demand in CM, other than from retirees etc, but I could be wrong. Another concern I have is that why would any Thai buy condo in CM when they can buy landed properties instead? However condo prices in CM are much cheaper than BKK. BKK condo prices has run up a lot in the past 3-4 years and buying there now is like buying peak prices. That doesn't mean it can't go up even higher though, as there's quite a lot of speculation there. Would suggest you go through the posts in the Real Estate subforum, as well as go to Prakard.com which lists mainly BKK condos.

Buying a condo off-plan in Thailand is a very high risk affair. Again if you read the posts in the Real Estate subform (as well as BKK, Hua Hin, Pattaya, PHuket forums), you will see what I mean. Generally, I would only consider buying offplan from SET publicly-listed property companies (excluding Raimon which is having financial difficulties it seems), and even then you have to do due diligence that the company is financially strong.

Another thing to beware of is that condos that are targetted at foreigners (and priced accordingly) can have their 49% foreigner quota sold out while the local quota (51%) suffer from low sales. This means that the condo, if completed, will only be half occupied, and will be poorly maintained over time because of this. Of course, the whole project could stall during construction as loan disbursements by the financing bank are tied to sale progress. There's quite a few high priced condo in BKK which are completed recently, or soon to be completed, which are suffering from poor sales for the local quota portion. Generally speaking, my view is that BKK condo market is/will be suffering from oversupply as lots of condos launched in the gogo years of 2005-2007 are being completed.

I think the jist of it is this:

"Chinese immigrants dominate Thai politics and culture to a disproportionate extent, is this a bad thing? discuss!"

The way some of these posts has been going, I thought it is more like:

"Chinese immigrants dominate Thai politics and culture totally. This is a bad thing and I will tell you why!"

Its quite a yawn how some old-fashioned bigotry exhibited here is being passed off as intelligent, impartial observations and analysis Who are these farangs kidding ?

since this topic is about PM's with Chinese blood I have to say that the mainland Chinese are a lot more intelligent since high education and studies at university studies are a high priority in Beijing.

Absurd ... and racist.

There have been some people here who've made the assertion that the Chinese have become successful not only in Thailand, but the world over and the reason being given is that they are (without debate) more honest, "hard working" people than most. I challenge this assumption. It is not a fact, but rather a biased opinion and broad overgeneralization. Moreover, if you read the links I posted, you'll see exactly how the Chinese have come into power in Thailand through Triads and illicit or criminal activities as well as nepotism and favoritism.

EA,

Strange you are calling somebody racist. Are your above comments non-racial? Your repeated posts "I'm seeing a pattern..." are nothing but poorly disguised attempts to tease out views based on ethnicity.

As for that link on triads, every society has its underbelly, and to generalise an entire people based on this, says more about you than anything else.

May all beings dwell in peace

So there is still no fitness centre open at Nusasiri? I also read complaints of units smelling like sewers due to a construction flaw. But if this was the norm it seems like I would be hearing that a l lot more often.

Sewer smell in the units or in the common corridor?

It wasn't specified. Just some people saying that the real estate agent admitted that the sewer smell that the client was noticing was due to a construction fault.

I haven't seen Nusasiri, but The Address 42 looks nice enough, and the soi is quiet at the end, I think the design is nicer than quality of materials, if that makes sense. Beware location...the back side units face another condo about 5 meters away, so look for better facing. Also, The Address units do not have balconies, so that's a negative in my book.

If buying into Nusasiri, avoid those units facing the bus terminus as there had been complaints about the traffic noise too.

As for sewage odor, I didn't encounter that on my single visit to that condo

Pattaya airport (U ta pao)

Most people still does not know that there is one.

Had a chance to use it when the yellow shirts closed Swampy. The BKK taxi driver burst out laughing when he dropped me off at the gate... it really was in the middle of nowhere

Came across this forum discussing The Address on Sukumvit 42.

http://www.prakard.com/default.aspx?g=topics&f=202

Looks like a nice project, nice location and quality facilities. So any idea why so many people are trying to sell and rent? Is this just a product of the poor economy?

This is happening not only at this project but other similarly priced condos that were recently completed. My educated guess is that these resales are coming from investors who did not manage to flip the condo units before transfer, and are not able to rent out the units under current market conditions. I expect to see more of this as more condo projects are transferred later this year and early next year, eg. Nobel Remix, Siri at Sukhumvit, Emporio Place etc. I am also seeing pricing weakness in the upper end segment of the market, as demand is mainly driven by foreigners, and although sentiment has improved, I think there are not many investors in a hurry to buy in what is arguably a toppish market.

I viewed one studio at Nusasiri Grand last month and find it to be too dark. Maybe other units are brighter? Another concern I had was that the developer is still working on the clubhouse facilities althought its a year since units were transferred to the owners.

Location-wise, Nusasiri Grand is definitely better than Address 42 and I find the BTS link very convenient. But one big difference is that NS is a mixed use development. I hear that may give rise to more problems down the road for condo owners in terms of condo management. Perhaps other forummers can give more concrete examples on this point and what to look out for when buying into mixed use condos?