Buying/renting a house instead of building one

[Bassosa]

I know it's not commonly done, but has anyone bought/rented a house instead of building one?

 

Is it a taboo or do you lose face if you buy/rent?

 

I'm trying to understand why every man and his dog is doing a newbuild.

[CharlieH]

I rented for two years before committing to both the relationship and a permanent property. I eventually built but looking back (14yrs), there are many times I wish I had just rented. You can be totally flexible and go where you want when you want and try different areas before making that final decision.

 

With the constantly fluid rules/regs, currency situation etc, RENT in the short term.

 

Remember the golden rule, dont spend or invest any more than you are prepared to walk away from.

 

 

[madmen]

13 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

emember the golden rule, dont spend or invest any more than you are prepared to walk away from.

Isn't that rule valid in every country on the planet even you're own?

[CharlieH]

16 minutes ago, madmen said:

Isn't that rule valid in every country on the planet even you're own?

 

NO, the circumstances here are not the same.

[Puchaiyank]

I can rent a very nice home for a fraction of the cost of a new build for a similar home...no sleepless nights worrying over contractor and materials rip offs...no fighting with the little lady or relatives over details...move in immediately and enjoy the fruits of someone else's labor...????

[NokNokJoke]

I'm in a 3 bedroom, 2 BR, house with a walled yard and gate, no mansion, but not a dump.   5000 b a month.

I tried using online rental agents, they were worthless, and tried to steer me to 18000 B a month places, but not the 8000 b a month places they had listed, online.

One of my GF brothers noticed a 'for rent' sign on a house in the neighborhood we wanted, and told us.

 

[fishtank]

Rent. Then you can move when the selfish (Deleted) opposite decides to turn his front garden into a workshop.

[sirineou]

4 hours ago, Puchaiyank said:

I can rent a very nice home for a fraction of the cost of a new build for a similar home...no sleepless nights worrying over contractor and materials rip offs...no fighting with the little lady or relatives over details...move in immediately and enjoy the fruits of someone else's labor...????

There is a lot to be said about renting, especially in Thailand and the inherent instability as a foreigner, and the difficulties associated with liquidating real estate. With a rental you can simply pick up and go.

Yet there is a lot to be said about ownership, especially for a particular personality set.

Some of as have not gotten over the "mine"phase. but even putting that aside, one simply does not make the investment in lifestyle in a rental that will make in one's own house.  Will you build that gazebo you always wanted in a rental? will you improve someone else's property.

IMO life is too short to be compromised for the sake of convenience.  

 

[GinBoy2]

My wife, when I wanted to move from Singapore back to Thailand explained to me about realty in Thailand.

 

Outside of central Bangkok real estate resale values are appalling. 

 

I quickly realized that after a few years, when you see houses empty, up for rent for years.

 

I wrote off the value of our house a while ago.

It serves as a vacation home, but as for it's 'value I'm pretty sure it 25% at best

[BritManToo]

9 hours ago, Bassosa said:

I'm trying to understand why every man and his dog is doing a newbuild.

I bought new as it was the only way I could get a mortgage.

Developer wanted to sell and had contacts.

Wish I hadn't now.

 

House is fine, area is fine, neighbours are fine, country is no longer desirable.

Edited September 10, 2019 by BritManToo

[Puchaiyank]

34 minutes ago, sirineou said:

There is a lot to be said about renting, especially in Thailand and the inherent instability as a foreigner, and the difficulties associated with liquidating real estate. With a rental you can simply pick up and go.

Yet there is a lot to be said about ownership, especially for a particular personality set.

Some of as have not gotten over the "mine"phase. but even putting that aside, one simply does not make the investment in lifestyle in a rental that will make in one's own house.  Will you build that gazebo you always wanted in a rental? will you improve someone else's property.

IMO life is too short to be compromised for the sake of convenience.  

 

Improve property...yes!  Gazebo...definitely not!  My Thai neighbors have actually came over and chastise me for keeping the grass cut on a regular basis and washing down the mildewed exterior white block fencing..."you crazy!"  555

[jayceenik]

4 hours ago, fishtank said:

Rent. Then you can move when the selfish (Deleted) opposite decides to turn his front garden into a workshop.

Yes ! Definitely Yes.

TGF and I bought a newbuild house in a very nice middle class Ubon subdivision just being developed.

First two years it was perfection. 

Now the farang who bought next door plays noisy shouting ping pong games with his Thai friends every afternoon and evening.

And the Thai who bought the lot at the back has built a hangar to sort out bags and bags of second hand clothes to sell at markets.

His activity is not what the neighborhood is about plus loud voices all day until late at night.

It just happens that we have an escape route. The TGF has bought another house in her village and that's where we're going to live as soon as it's ready. We will keep the present Ubon house for a time with a family member to house-sit it.

It's luck that we're able to buy another house but if we we're renting it'd be simply just a matter of moving quickly to another rental.

Edited September 10, 2019 by jayceenik

[DJ54]

Make sure the relationship is so.id before you build. I built new 

and relationship went sideways. She still lives here and I’ve learned to ignore what I want to. Suggest renting. 

 

The house wasn’t expensive and if I had to walk away I could...

[kingofthemountain]

rent is definitively a better and less expensive  option

you can move quickly if something is wrong around

 

anyway you can not own land in thailand

 

sure you can buy or built a house for your wife or girlfriend

but it'll never be ''your'' house and you could be stuck here or be kick out

depends on how the relationship turn in the future

[timendres]

A friend rented for a few years, then purchased the home he was renting (in Chiang Mai). Very nice way to make sure the house has no serious issues before buying. Myself, I prefer to rent forever. But, if I were a young person, looking at years of living and working in Thailand, I could understand the desire to invest.

[richard_smith237]

Many mixed opinions on here...  there definitely no 'one fits all' answer. 

 

I owned a place (or rather my Wife did) for about 5 years, it took us over 2 years to sell it, couldn't even get it rented out, but as soon as it was rented out, it was sold with Tennant within a month. 

 

Having been burnt trying to sell our place I decided not to buy again. But, I have since spent over 3,120,000 Baht on rent over the last 4 years which I consider quite wasteful and thus, have just bought another place (or rather my Wife has!), but this time its a place where other houses in the complex have rented out very quickly, thus, if plans changed and we needed to move I 'hope' we could rent it out fairly easily. 

 

A lot of consideration needs to go into whether or not you want a home or just want somewhere to stay. 

 

[Rdrokit]

If you are happy here and happy with the wife and don't think you will be leaving soon buying is best, at least in my opinion. I love it here and still love my wife after 15 years of being together. Our house has been paid off for 6 years now and the same house in the development I am in is selling for twice what we paid for our house. 

 

Of course when I was single and living in Pattaya I was renting and had no thought of buying anything except a motorbike and a good time. ????

[sirineou]

IMO you only live once, go for it!! You know what you want out of life, what rocks your boat, one size does not fit all. For me owning is the way to go , since my early thirties I have always owned at least one home.

 For me I like building fish ponds , waterfalls, gardening and walkways. I could not do that in someone else's house. Others like to hung out with friends , travel, explore the world, they don't want to be tied to a house and a place.

Renting certainly gives you the freedom to move whenever.

   First to address the buy instead of build. If you have rented and lived there for a while and then decided to buy it, as someone in this thread did, good! by then you know the neighborhood, but more important know the house. In Thailand with dodgy builders, and no , or little regulation, codes and inspections, How do you know what they did in the building process?

 Second when you build yourself , not only you control the quality, you also customise the build to fit your requirements and likes.

  As I said renting has its advantages, especially in Thailand, but when you rent you are living in someone else's house, with also the disadvantages associated with that. 
 

 

[Rdrokit]

2 hours ago, sirineou said:

IMO you only live once, go for it!! You know what you want out of life, what rocks your boat, one size does not fit all. For me owning is the way to go , since my early thirties I have always owned at least one home.

 For me I like building fish ponds , waterfalls, gardening and walkways. I could not do that in someone else's house. Others like to hung out with friends , travel, explore the world, they don't want to be tied to a house and a place.

Renting certainly gives you the freedom to move whenever.

   First to address the buy instead of build. If you have rented and lived there for a while and then decided to buy it, as someone in this thread did, good! by then you know the neighborhood, but more important know the house. In Thailand with dodgy builders, and no , or little regulation, codes and inspections, How do you know what they did in the building process?

 Second when you build yourself , not only you control the quality, you also customise the build to fit your requirements and likes.

  As I said renting has its advantages, especially in Thailand, but when you rent you are living in someone else's house, with also the disadvantages associated with that. 
 

 

Yes, you can customize the house to suit your needs. Where can I rent a house that has a man cave that has a bar and a golf simulator.

 

[sirineou]

1 hour ago, Rdrokit said:

Yes, you can customize the house to suit your needs. Where can I rent a house that has a man cave that has a bar and a golf simulator.

 

 

I had one of those, after I broke my third TV I had to give it up.

[Rdrokit]

24 minutes ago, sirineou said:

I had one of those, after I broke my third TV I had to give it up.

I use foam balls to drive and real ones to putt. I will probably get a projector and hit into a white canvas screen with real golf balls in time. High definition projectors are really expensive. 

[emptypockets]

Rent vs owning has been done to death.

What about buying vs building? Seems everyone seems obligated to build a house....why? Partner pressure?

[1FinickyOne]

Mostly, Thai don't like second hand... for a few reasons... generally houses depreciate in this climate plus fear of ghosts... 

 

From what i have seen, most people want to sell for more than the price to build new. It doesn't make much sense as you get their dream home not yours... 

 

neither is easy to sell.

 

just my 2 cents.

[Bassosa]

2 hours ago, emptypockets said:

Rent vs owning has been done to death.

What about buying vs building? Seems everyone seems obligated to build a house....why? Partner pressure?

Yeah exactly, that was the object of the question, to find out why everyone's building. What's behind it? It's almost a cliche

Edited September 11, 2019 by Bassosa

[mosan]

I think most build because of sheer ignorance of the real estate market here.  Most foreigners build before they realize that they can't really own anything and believe they can pass this property on their heirs in their home country-not true. The only one that can inherit the property is the "Thai" significant other or members of his or her family.  Also most foreigners do not understand that there are no restrictions on what can and cannot happen to the property surrounding theirs.  They eventually fall victim to bad neighbors, a factory, a club, a large hotel/condo or an auto garage. There is no limit to what you'll be living next to in the coming weeks/days/months/years.  Additionally many areas look horrible after about 5 years due to lack of maintenance. Last but not least, most are pressured into building to please others.  Unless you've got money to burn, just rent. 

[Ron jeremy]

4 minutes ago, mosan said:

I think most build because of sheer ignorance of the real estate market here.  Most foreigners build before they realize that they can't really own anything and believe they can pass this property on their heirs in their home country-not true. The only one that can inherit the property is the "Thai" significant other or members of his or her family.  Also most foreigners do not understand that there are no restrictions on what can and cannot happen to the property surrounding theirs.  They eventually fall victim to bad neighbors, a factory, a club, a large hotel/condo or an auto garage. There is no limit to what you'll be living next to in the coming weeks/days/months/years.  Additionally many areas look horrible after about 5 years due to lack of maintenance. Last but not least, most are pressured into building to please others.  Unless you've got money to burn, just rent. 

You nailed it, well said. Just throwing money away.

[Denim]

On 9/9/2019 at 10:31 PM, Bassosa said:

 

Is it a taboo or do you lose face if you buy/rent?

 

We bought 2 new builds in Bangkok when we lived there. Broke even

( just ) on the first and made 650,000 profit on the second. Owned both for 4.25 years.

We were previously paying 9000 baht a month for a 1 bedroom, 1 living room apt at Rachayothin.

[Rdrokit]

21 minutes ago, Ron jeremy said:

You nailed it, well said. Just throwing money away.

Yea, like renting isn't throwing money away. I have a friend in Pattaya who rents for 20,000 baht/month for the last 10 years. He's flushed over 2 million baht down the drain.

[Bassosa]

2 minutes ago, Rdrokit said:

Yea, like renting isn't throwing money away. I have a friend in Pattaya who rents for 20,000 baht/month for the last 10 years. He's flushed over 2 million baht down the drain.

He should've built a house in Isaan, like everyone else.

 

Maybe its not too late

[kingofthemountain]

20 hours ago, emptypockets said:

Rent vs owning has been done to death.

What about buying vs building? Seems everyone seems obligated to build a house....why? Partner pressure?

If we consider than most of the house are build in the thai girlfriend\wife\partner original area (Aka a small village in Issan) it could be a form of pressure indeed