Looking for some advice on house/villa rental

[RobbyXNorway]

This is a partly repost from the Realestate forum to hear from people with experience about the prices and market in Hua Hin;

 

Hello there guys and gals!

 

My first (well second now) post on ThaiVisa ?

 

I'm a 44 year old retired (disability) guy from Norway who is planning to relocate to Thailand for the foreseeable future. I have prior short (1 month) visits to Thailand and have been married to a thai lady which didnt work out (no hard/bad feelings or trickery).

 

I have found Hua Hin to be pretty much perfect for me health wise due to temperature/climate and love that soft wind that is pretty much constant. I have absolutely zero interest in golf, although I did love minigolf as a child ? It seems like a relaxed and cozy place where I can live and enjoy my hobbies (reading, PC gaming and perhaps even boardgames/RPGs). I have no love for bar-hopping or beer drinking so that doesnt appeal to me at all. Good food however is something I love (with proper moderation offcourse).

 

Anyway, my question is relatively simple. I intend to rent a house or villa with 3+ bedrooms preferably between Soi 88 and 112. And preferably within a development with security and communal pool. What kind of price should I expect? I have been looking at Thailand-Property and see the prices range from around 20.000 baht pr month to the stratosphere. I'm not looking for a luxury place but would like western comforts (toilets and kitchen primarily) of decent standard. Is it ok to sift through the Thailand-Property listings and pick there or should I do physical legwork and go around looking for a place? I have driven around on my last trip and seen there is a jungle of signs "for sale" and "for rent" with phone numbers. But is it worth running around looking compared to finding it online? Is there a price discrepancy? This part I have no knowledge/experience with and would love some input from guys who know the market.

 

Also, it seems the market in Hua Hin is overflowing with houses and condos for sale, with not much moving from what I see online. I have been thinking about buying but considering the land ownership rules and the impossibility of understanding "fair value" there, I feel safer renting for some time.

 

As a last note, is there any problem getting for example 3BB 200/100 mbit fiber internett installed in a rented house inside a development? I know some condos have a central wifi system which seemed "locked in" (The 88 Condo).

 

Thanks in advance!

[Khun Jean]

First thing to consider is HOW are you going to stay in Thailand. A retirement visa is only available for when you are 50 years or older. There is no 'disability' retirement class that i know off.

 

With that in mind you could use a tourist visa which will give you 2-3 months per time after which you have to get a new one. This can be easy or a disaster depending on how easy it is for you to move around. If i am correct this would then limit you to 180 days per year.

 

I would forget about buying. To many complications and for those prices you better put your money in some fund and pay rent from that income. so much for rent in all areas and price ranges (5000 and higher). Sure you will find something. If you are here you will understand better in which area you want to live and use that time to look for something to rent. I just walk into a condo office and without exception there are always a few for rent. Seen very nice ones for 8000 and horrible ones for 50.000. So anything is possible.

 

Edited July 22, 2018 by Khun Jean

[RobbyXNorway]

I will stay on a PE (Thailand Elite) visa for 5 years (6 years actually) until I'm 50 and then retirement.

[Khun Jean]

Not sure if that was an option for you as it is not cheap at all. But that will work out fine.

[ukrules]

13 minutes ago, RobbyXNorway said:

I have driven around on my last trip and seen there is a jungle of signs "for sale" and "for rent" with phone numbers.

 

The delusion is so high in Hua Hin that those 'phone numbers' might actually be the list price.

 

On a serious note though I would recommend you stay somewhere on a short term basis for say a month and then find somewhere once you're on the ground.

 

Cut out any middle men / agancies. There are empty houses everywhere because people can't rent them out or sell them at the unrealistic prices they ask.

 

For reference I pay 15,000 / month for a townhouse. It has 3 floors, 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. My neightbours are attempting to sell their identical houses for a price which should command a rent of 35,000 per month.

[ukrules]

5 minutes ago, RobbyXNorway said:

I will stay on a PE (Thailand Elite) visa for 5 years (6 years actually) until I'm 50 and then retirement.

A good point, I have one of these. Well worth it.

[RobbyXNorway]

ukrules: Read some of your comments in the Realestate forums and thanks for the pointers!

 

Getting a PE visa is pricy but affordable for me when looking at it from a yearly cost viewpoint. It's about the same as a vacation trip by Norwegian standards once pr year but this one last the entire year ?

 

I have seen prices all over the place (not geographicaly speaking) and it's hard to assess whats a fair price to be honest. A german friend found a very cheap big condo in Soi 94 for an incredible price (think it was under 10.000 baht) with good standard. And this by word-of-mouth. We (me and him) did quite a bit of legwork to go around and look when I was there in January-to-April this year. But the intention then was a purchase, which I later decided not to do. My main interest is probably something along Soi 102 up towards the bypass road as this is a good road to drive to Blueport, park the scooter and walk where I need to go.

 

I was a bit awestruck by the number of signs everywhere with "for rent" or "for sale" and likely the same in thai language with no english.

 

It sounds like you have a great home for a great price then (ukrules)! I'm not sure about having a town house due to noise. I'm thinking development both for security reasons and soi dogs/neighbor noise.

 

I heard much rumours about how there was now a big downturn in tourism in Hua Hin (30% was the word) with less people everywhere. I found the place to be very relaxed and cozy. A perfect place for my taste. I'm not a partyanimal and prefer a nice bareque with family/friends and calling it an early night ?

[ukrules]

1 hour ago, RobbyXNorway said:

My main interest is probably something along Soi 102 up towards the bypass road as this is a good road to drive to Blueport, park the scooter and walk where I need to go.

 

I have a friend who lives in the Soi 102 area, I'll ask him about the rental situation around there.

 

[ericg1953]

I rented a modern 3/2 with a nice sized pool in a secure 42 villa development.  35k pm including all services and internet. Nice clean house and I think it’s a fair price 

[ukrules]

5 hours ago, ukrules said:

 

I have a friend who lives in the Soi 102 area, I'll ask him about the rental situation around there.

 

 

I asked him while having a few beers tonight and he said that it's not easy to know what's up for rent because they have security on the entrances and they won't allow you in to walk around the place.

 

Apartments and stand alone houses will be easier I guess as they have their own noticeboards / signs.

 

[RobbyXNorway]

Just had an offer for what I would say looks like a very new and well kept house (from pictures mind you). 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom with small swimming pool. Nice western standard wc/kitchen. Rooftop patio. 25000 pr month. I'm thinking to jump on that as it was in Soi 102 and a short distance from Bluport. But offcourse it must be inspected and such before any deals made. Heard too many horror-stories about how pictures show it as new but the actual state is bad and unkept. At least this one is currently at the top of my list. I had some offers of houses in the 14000-15000 area but they are more thai style and dont look very good in the pictures. Some times a house will look better when I'm actually there, but usually what you see is how it is.

 

The security gates makes it hard to enter unless there is an agency for the project that one can check in with. I actually respect the security guys who will not let anyone in until the project reps are there. Shows me they take their job seriously.

 

One funny thing was that about 5 minutes after I posted my addy on Facebook for a house/villa I had an offer on a house that was much further south than the area I said I was interested in. But the funny part it was exactly the max price I listed and for the exact time period for my PE visa (which I told about in the addy). So they wanted 25000 pr month for a 5 year rental contract. I found that a bit funny since I believe thats quite a bit outside the norm ?.....or...well...what is "norm" in Thailand anyway?

[joe china]

Five year rentals are no that uncommon at all. I have a friend that rents out properties on this basis. Usually the house is quite cheap for what you get but then he is getting the guaranteed income.

Though you should keep in mind that the rental of property laws in Thailand gives you the option to exit a lease with 1 month notice, this is for both parties. So if you sign for 1 year, 5 years, 10 years, you can get out pretty easily.

There is certainly a glut of property and many new projects in the pipeline. The rental market is soft as you can imagine. Getting in with a good agent is always handy for sure, but then a lot of private landlords do not use the agents.

I live in Kao Takiab, closr to the beach and close to town. It is a little bit further from the area that you are looking at but not by much. I can get to bluport in 10 minutes and the compound I am in has about the best communal pool I have ever seen in my life. The water is always quite chilled. We went for this option over getting a house with a private pool after viewing about 20 properties and finding all the pools quite warm. That is a consideration for sure. The upkeep of a pool is a pain and if it is warm it is about useless. Though that is just my opinion.



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[LivinLOS]

On 7/22/2018 at 11:24 PM, ericg1953 said:

I rented a modern 3/2 with a nice sized pool in a secure 42 villa development.  35k pm including all services and internet. Nice clean house and I think it’s a fair price 

Buddy rents a nice 3 bedder, with a good sized master suite (obviously on suite bathroom) decent kitchen, and a bit of outdoor space. Place has a private pool and is 30 plus a cost or two (I think he pays 2k a month for pool services). Its simple but a decent standard. 

 

Seems a fair price. Hua hin has lots of 'ok' standard building, probably more choice for pool homes than where I am in Chaing mai. Up here they seem to think adding a pool means its 40k and up even if it was a crappy 15k building before hand. 

[RobbyXNorway]

7 hours ago, joe china said:

Five year rentals are no that uncommon at all. I have a friend that rents out properties on this basis. Usually the house is quite cheap for what you get but then he is getting the guaranteed income.

Though you should keep in mind that the rental of property laws in Thailand gives you the option to exit a lease with 1 month notice, this is for both parties. So if you sign for 1 year, 5 years, 10 years, you can get out pretty easily.

There is certainly a glut of property and many new projects in the pipeline. The rental market is soft as you can imagine. Getting in with a good agent is always handy for sure, but then a lot of private landlords do not use the agents.

I live in Kao Takiab, closr to the beach and close to town. It is a little bit further from the area that you are looking at but not by much. I can get to bluport in 10 minutes and the compound I am in has about the best communal pool I have ever seen in my life. The water is always quite chilled. We went for this option over getting a house with a private pool after viewing about 20 properties and finding all the pools quite warm. That is a consideration for sure. The upkeep of a pool is a pain and if it is warm it is about useless. Though that is just my opinion.



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Kao Takiab is really nice! I was down there with a friend at the ecological restaurant by the british fella (Andrew? Dont quite remember the name but really nice place and a fun guy). Unfortunately a bit too far from Hua Hin center since I intend to continue my thai language studies and the girlfriend will look for a cooking school there.

[RobbyXNorway]

I was originaly thinking about buying a condo but I was appalled by the low quality they presented as "luxury". The walls seemed paper thin and I could hear the neighbours arguing when I rented one of the units. Also the entry doors were really low quality and I while standing at the elevator I could hear the neighbours conversation 5 doors down the corridor even though their door was closed. Not my idea of privacy at all! It was a nice place to rent just for a few months but the idea of buying went out the window.

 

This is probably one of the main reason I want a house/villa with no neighbors on the other side of the wall. Sure, there can be noise from neighbours but not quite the same.

 

I feel quite locked in on the house I mentioned, but I need to look at it before renting just in case its not well maintained compared to the pictures. So I'll likely rent a condo for 1 month while getting the right house locked in. I will likely ride around on a scooter to look for a house if the 2 I now have available get taken or are not up to standard. I'm not sure how helpful the agents can be. It seems they have a limited selection they keep pushing on social media, but not sure if they go out "digging" for the perfect house for me.

 

Right now I'm just sitting in Norway, bored, waiting for my condo here to sell. Been an extremely slow market here in Norway also (not Oslo), but had an ok "viewing" yesterday so hopefully I get an offer today. Miss Thailand ?

[joe china]

 
So I'll likely rent a condo for 1 month while getting the right house locked in.

Thats certainly the best way forward. It is also quite possible to rent a house that your interested in on a short term basis and then buy it.

Good luck with selling your property in Norway. Hope it goes soon for you.

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[sirocco]

Hello,

Buy in Thailand? Never.
Even when renting, this does not guarantee you that,
overnight, you will not have a karaoke or a gargote
or kennel or condo in front of you or next to you.
Otherwise, there is a lot of rental, both in condos and homes.
Do not go through the agencies. This is useless.

[ukrules]

On 7/24/2018 at 2:15 PM, RobbyXNorway said:

I will likely ride around on a scooter to look for a house if the 2 I now have available get taken or are not up to standard. I'm not sure how helpful the agents can be. It seems they have a limited selection they keep pushing on social media, but not sure if they go out "digging" for the perfect house for me.

 

Some words of advice about the 'unique experience' of renting houses in Thailand :

 

Do the Air Conditioners work - test every single one of them.

 

Depending on the location you should check the availability of a phone line or good internet connection from 3BB. This probably won't be so much of an issue these days as it used to be but it was an issue at one point, a big issue if you can't get it and need it.

 

Check water pressure and water pumps work properly, especially in any upstairs rooms.

 

How do you get and pay the electric bill, you should get the bill directly from the electric company, same with the water bill. Water costs next to nothing for good reason, it's pumped out of some lake.

 

Be careful paying a full years rent up front for a couple of months discount, it can be a false economy as you're locked in. From experience once you've paid for a full year they have very little interest in fixing anything that's broken until it's time to move.

 

When you move out they will almost certainly want everything in perfect working order and make you pay for it even if it wasn't working when you moved in. The inspection of the house when you move out is always much more in depth and detailed than the one where you move in.

 

The longer you stay the more wear and tear there will be and they definitely won't want to pay for this so don't stay anywhere for more than a couple of years without forcing them to decorate the place / fix it up a bit every couple of years when it comes time to renew the contract.

 

Get a rental contract with your name and the address on it, somebody needs to do a TM30 (notification of foreigner living at the address) with immigration - you will need it along with a change of address form (TM28) which I believe requires the TM30 to be filed if you're going to be on any visa that requires 90 day reports (the Elite visa requires 90 day reports).

 

Have fun!

Edited July 25, 2018 by ukrules

[RobbyXNorway]

Thanks for the detailed advice! Taken to heart! I did intend to use my mobile camera to film any defects I find when looking around before renting, just to document if something is faulty/cracked/broken. I guess the best then is to ask them to fix it before signing anything?

 

I now have 2 houses in the same street very very close to Bluport on my list. I find it a bit funny that everyone sends me a prospect (pictures and info) with my max price. I said in my addy I was looking for something around 15-25.000. And pretty much all the houses I have been contacted about they say monthly is 25.000 ? I find that a bit funny. But the 2 houses I now have on my list I would say definitely are worth that price (to me). They look new with private pools both of them (1 at Milpool and 1 at Sierra).

[Michaelaway]

Negotiate; it's a buyer's (renter's) market.