Up to 17.5% of condos in Bangkok and surrounding areas are empty - good time for buyers

[Destiny1990]

Buy and then complicated  to stay yourself in it long term.

Rent out but complicated to find long term staying foreigner tenants.

How about unlimited renewable 1 year visas for condo purchase above 2M Bht?

Doubt that a free aircon or some free wallpaper will get sales going up again. 

[BestB]

First they overprice it and then do a discount making it sound and look like a good deal where in fact you paying what it should be worth

[watcharacters]

 

Thailand seems to lack the ability to provide buyers with reliable information about a possible house a buyer wants to purchase.

 

 

[newnative]

59 minutes ago, dimitriv said:

 10% is a lot. And not only in Thailand. I am sure that even in Europe you will not get 10%. Half of that is more realistic.

 

And that is still not bad. If you have your investment back in 20 years and the value of your property also increased you still make a nice profit. After 20 years all rent you will get is 100% profit.

 

Interest rates at banks are 0% now, and they even expect a negative interest rate which means that you will have to pay to keep money at a bank. 

 

But I have my doubts about the build quality of condo's in Thailand.  I don't believe that the average condo will survive much more than 20 years.

 

   Oh, my.  Last I heard from Thai Visa posters Thailand condos were on a schedule to go crashing to the ground after 30 years.  Now, the mark has been moved up to 20.  So everything built around the turn of the century should be starting to crumble.  I tell you, it's going to be downright scary walking the streets.  Hard hats all!

     Meanwhile, I am in an oceanfront condo built in 1985 that's in great shape.  Markland Condo on Beach Road should be in ruins, built waaaaay back in 1993.  The 1995 twin towers of Jomtien Complex by all rights should also not be standing--my goodness they are well past the 20 year mark!   View Talay 1, 1997, start evacuating immediately--your times up.  Jomtien Plaza--1990-- still up.  And, a favorite, Grand Condotel, circa 1988, also doing nicely.  Just a few that come to mind.

    Back at the ranch, poor Joe Montana had to call an audible and vacate his multi-million dollar SF condo--seems it's not only sinking but tilting, too.  If we ever get a Hurricane Dorian-type weather event, I'll feel safer in my Thai-built concrete condo than any stick-built American house. 

[mmushr00m]

Sold ours 2 years ago.

New owner was going to either rent it out or flip it. I have been told it's still sitting empty.

Buyer's market maybe, but not this buyer. Baht is too high.

[Mac98]

For retirement extension allow one-year renewal if you have a condo in your name and are current with payments. Bank deposits or proof of minimum income not required. That vacancy rate will take a big drop rather quickly.

[gk10002000]

Buyer beware.  If the units in a condo are so vacant, then what money is going to be used to pay for security, maintenance, plumbing, core utilities etc?  Sure you may get a lower price for the unit you are buying but what are the long term prospects of the building?  Thais are not known for long term planning and upkeep of things.

[gk10002000]

On my recent trip to Thailand last month I saw endless advertisements for condo purchases that "guaranteed" 5 or 8 % investment return every year from renting it out.  Highly skeptical be me on this one.    I can envision a group of chinese investors for example, building the building, then arranging constant and massive chinese tour groups to stay there.  So you pay for the unit which covers the building construction cost.  They rent out your unit.  Seems possible but I think the Russians in Pattaya tried that about 10 years ago.  Huge numbers of Russian tour groups and expats steered to stay in Russian owned or controlled buildings.  Not so sure it worked out. Many things can change.  While I can envision a company renting out your unit, I doubt you could collect on their guarantee if they did not rent the unit out.  Then you would be stuck with a unit you had no intention of living in, possibly could not easily sell, building income falls off and the place goes to <deleted>

[sanemax]

12 hours ago, gk10002000 said:

On my recent trip to Thailand last month I saw endless advertisements for condo purchases that "guaranteed" 5 or 8 % investment return every year from renting it out.  Highly skeptical be me on this one.    I can envision a group of chinese investors for example, building the building, then arranging constant and massive chinese tour groups to stay there.  So you pay for the unit which covers the building construction cost.  They rent out your unit.  Seems possible but I think the Russians in Pattaya tried that about 10 years ago.  Huge numbers of Russian tour groups and expats steered to stay in Russian owned or controlled buildings.  Not so sure it worked out. Many things can change.  While I can envision a company renting out your unit, I doubt you could collect on their guarantee if they did not rent the unit out.  Then you would be stuck with a unit you had no intention of living in, possibly could not easily sell, building income falls off and the place goes to <deleted>

I think that it works by , they add the rental money to the price that you pay for the Condo and then give it back to you every month as rental income

[moontang]

5 minutes ago, gk10002000 said:

On my recent trip to Thailand last month I saw endless advertisements for condo purchases that "guaranteed" 5 or 8 % investment return every year from renting it out.  Highly skeptical be me on this one.    I can envision a group of chinese investors for example, building the building, then arranging constant and massive chinese tour groups to stay there.  So you pay for the unit which covers the building construction cost.  They rent out your unit.  Seems possible but I think the Russians in Pattaya tried that about 10 years ago.  Huge numbers of Russian tour groups and expats steered to stay in Russian owned or controlled buildings.  Not so sure it worked out. Many things can change.  While I can envision a company renting out your unit, I doubt you could collect on their guarantee if they did not rent the unit out.  Then you would be stuck with a unit you had no intention of living in, possibly could not easily sell, building income falls off and the place goes to <deleted>

The president of the CM expat club was guaranteeing 9% on the Australian property fund he was pushing, and collecting a 20% commission off the front...it was a sheep slaughter..never invest with pretentious a-holes..the expat community has plenty, so does every church and country club, and apparently quite a few school administrations.  Saving and investing is how you build wealth, real estate works for many.  Calculating returns based on nightly rates is beyond stupid, as is doing business with known criminals.  The Chinese are awful, and the Russians are nearly as bad...you could still have worse neighbors than that, and the tourist areas are going to be loaded with them.  You need to take 40% of annual rent for expenses, before calculating yield.

[moontang]

1 minute ago, sanemax said:

I think that it works by , they add the rental money to the price that you pay for the Condo and then give it back to you every month as rental income

More or less, yep..pay 2.5 for a 1.5 condo, and they make it work on paper..it is BS.  Buy REITs, of which there are some great ones listed on the SET, and elsewhere.  I am in my 10th home I purchased, the last six for cash..it pays a very solid return, tax free, in savings on rent...I would never be a landlord here, though, and I don't think expats, Thais, or Chinese would be a pleasure to deal with.  Private prison REIT: CXW, yielding about 9%...  business is good.

[gk10002000]

42 minutes ago, sanemax said:

I think that it works by , they add the rental money to the price that you pay for the Condo and then give it back to you every month as rental income

Ha!  Now isn't that beautiful!  Not surprised that you would be fronting all the costs!  I wasn't buying so I didn't stop to read the fine print.

[gk10002000]

42 minutes ago, moontang said:

The president of the CM expat club was guaranteeing 9% on the Australian property fund he was pushing, and collecting a 20% commission off the front...it was a sheep slaughter..never invest with pretentious a-holes..the expat community has plenty, so does every church and country club, and apparently quite a few school administrations.  Saving and investing is how you build wealth, real estate works for many.  Calculating returns based on nightly rates is beyond stupid, as is doing business with known criminals.  The Chinese are awful, and the Russians are nearly as bad...you could still have worse neighbors than that, and the tourist areas are going to be loaded with them.  You need to take 40% of annual rent for expenses, before calculating yield.

Completely agree.  I am 62  now and made it to a single millionaire.  Just a basic engineer although with an Air Force background.  No ex wife sucking alimony, no child support.  I put stuff away every year, then had about 5 years of really good earnings.  Conservative investing returning 5 % in dividends and interest and tax free (USA) municipal bonds and funds.  Never chased real estate although probably missed an opportunity in the last USA housing bust in 2008-2009.  But my money is safe, I get 60k a year now in dividends and interest and I have social security waiting in the wings.  So "slow and steady sets the pace, slow and steady wins the race"  Said the tortoise to the hair.  So many nightmare or bad stories I have read about Thailand investors being screwed.  I wouldn't invest any amount of significant money in Thailand.  In retrospect I almost bought a Pattaya Condo way back in 2005.  About 1 million baht which at the time 40 baht to 1 USD would not have been too bad.  I really didn't travel enough to make it a great hotel cost saving investment.  Might not have been a horrible investment over all, 15 years on now.  But that assumes the place stayed livable, no neighbor or building issues, etc.  I am content with having rented there and here in the USA.  When I retire (imminently or semi retire) I will get a small modest place here in the USA, and go back and forth to Thailand.

[gk10002000]

40 minutes ago, moontang said:

More or less, yep..pay 2.5 for a 1.5 condo, and they make it work on paper..it is BS.  Buy REITs, of which there are some great ones listed on the SET, and elsewhere.  I am in my 10th home I purchased, the last six for cash..it pays a very solid return, tax free, in savings on rent...I would never be a landlord here, though, and I don't think expats, Thais, or Chinese would be a pleasure to deal with.  Private prison REIT: CXW, yielding about 9%...  business is good.

I do own a fair amount of NLY Annaly Capital.  Love the 10% dividend payout in my traditional and ROTH IRAs.  No people or tenants or neighbors to deal with.  I used to hold Chimera and some AGNC.