How do you feel about this?

[Nikkijah]

I've already looked at the rental websites and they are ridiculous, high prices or no availability.

I just want to know how much I should expect to pay for a nice little 2 bedroom detached house in a nice and quiet area, preferably a modern(but not ugly) building>

Any ideas from those of you who live there?

Thanks in advance

Nikkijah

[earlofwindermere]

It really ranges on who you are dealing with. I would guess that most would fall between 8 000-20 000 baht. Location is a big factor (usually the farther away from the city, the cheaper they get). Always try to deal directly with the owner as well. In my moobaan, the owner was asking 7000 baht for his 2 bedroom. He rented it to some farangs (through an agent) for 12 000.

Edited April 16, 2007 by earlofwindermere

[Nikkijah]

It really ranges on who you are dealing with. I would guess that most would fall between 8 000-20 000 baht. Location is a big factor (usually the farther away from the city, the cheaper they get). Always try to deal directly with the owner as well. In my moobaan, the owner was asking 7000 baht for his 2 bedroom. He rented it to some farangs (through an agent) for 12 000.

Thanks earlofwindermere, common sense I suppose, I currently live in a house next to the river about 5km west of Banglampoo in Bangkok, how much would a house with similar spec cost in Chiang Mai?

Is housing cheaper in Chiang Mai than in Bangkok?

Edited April 16, 2007 by Nikkijah

[Tywais]

I rent a house in a moo bahn about 6 kms outside of Chiangmai for 7,000 B/month. 2 stories, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, living room and dining room - fully furnished. It was found by my wife by driving around the many moo bahns and looking for rental signs or going to the moo bahn management office and ask. Though this was several years ago and entry prices for rent may be higher but for a 2 bedroom (single story) should be found in the 5-10k mark.

[PeaceBlondie]

This is also just anecdotal, but I also live several km out of the city in a nice moobahn, paying 7000 baht (includes neighborhood maintenance fee), two bedrooms, two baths, huge outdoor kitchen-dining area next to the klong, totally shaded, mostly furnished, private drive, even a free dog. I'll think it's a good value until somebody says they got twice the house for half the price, with three dogs.....

We did not go through agents. My former landlady has places all over the place, so she had a place open here when I needed another place to place my things in place.

[chanchao]

I'm pretty expert at this thing by now.

First of all: 2 bedroom is usually a very small house. Mostly a single floor house. Most 2 floor houses would have 3 bedrooms.

Currently I rent a detached, 2 floor, 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom house for 5000, which is a VERY good deal. You'd expect to pay a bit more, 6K, 7K, 8K. Often as soon as a couple basic sticks of furniture or an old airconditioner is present the rent goes up by an unreasonable amount. So might as well rent mostly unfurnished and pick up some furniture somewhere.

BUT for just a 1 floor 2 bedroom house that would be a bit less. 5000-6000 is a posibility there. I think this is VERY affordable.

I assume your inquiry is about RENT right, not buy? Then 1 floor 2 bedroom houses are mostly between 1 and 2 million. (if 2 mil they'd either have to be nice or in a really nice location) 2 floor 3 bedroom houses start just under 2 million, and go up to 3.5 or so. For bigger houses with more bedrooms/bathrooms the prices could be higher still, I'm looking at a 5 bedroom house around 4.2 mil at the moment. (Some of it to be used as office space, so that's 2 office rooms downstairs, living room, dining room, 2 kitchens, 4 bedrooms upstairs, 2 maid rooms and I still keep discovering new bathrooms every time I look at the place.

Of course, if INSIDE the city AND in a non-defunct estate, then prices can be much higher. Still there's a lot of reasonable compounds inside or just outside the superhighway ring that go for the prices I mentioned earlier.

Edited April 17, 2007 by chanchao

[worldtravel76]

Hi interested in the Moo bahn location and phone number. Please.

WorldT

I rent a house in a moo bahn about 6 kms outside of Chiangmai for 7,000 B/month. 2 stories, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, living room and dining room - fully furnished. It was found by my wife by driving around the many moo bahns and looking for rental signs or going to the moo bahn management office and ask. Though this was several years ago and entry prices for rent may be higher but for a 2 bedroom (single story) should be found in the 5-10k mark.

[thaimiller]

i have just this week rented a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house. a nice garden area also, for 7500 thb a month. Im behind the rimping on Maejo road on a quiet estate.

but like you said i looked at the estate agents for the last month and there prices are incredible, the best thing to do is get on a bike for the day and have a good look round, most of the houses for rent will have telephone numbers on them.

[ProThaiExpat]

thaimiller is spot on!!. There are many houses for rent in our "village/development" 8 km north of Super Highway on the way to Mae Rim, where large 200 sq.meter two story houses, about five years old are for rent at 8k a month. I suspect they have four bedrooms.

[iainiain101]

The missus and I have spent the last 3 weeks looking at over 25 houses around CM through both agents, friends and ones we found ourselves.

We wanted 3 bedrooms, one bathroom to have a tub, a western style kitchen and not too far out of town (say 2-5 km). Not all easy to find in the same house!

Firstly all adverts refer to room numbers and not size. We saw 3 bedroom houses from 7k to 25k Baht per month, and these would vary in size from 90 sq m to 335 sq m. There is vast differences in the inteiors as well. some would need a months work to make habitable. No aircon and outside kitchen cooking areas are common.

The properties varied so greatly that the rent expectancies seemed almost justifiable.

I started to work on the basis of what they where asking for to sell the proerty, or what they claimed to have paid for the land and building it for new ones.

I found that 0.4% of the asking price / cost seemed to be a good indication of monthly rent. ie. a 3 bed house down the Lampun Road that cost 2m Baht for the land and build would cost around 8k baht per month. a 3 bed house near Chiang Mai Land for sale at 6M Baht was being quoted at 25k Baht per month ( or 0.416%) I choose these examples as they were both direct with the owners and in excellent / new condition.

This rule semed to work quite well until the property value increased and an owners return would decrease. We saw one, unfortunately well out of our range, 4 bedrooms, about 300 m frm the city walls (outside) and 12m Baht to buy or 35k per month to rent. (0.291%)

I agree to be very wary of agents. They can help in finding properties if you dont have the time, but will invariably be trying to 'shaft' you. Try to meet the owners if you can.

We unfortunately were in a hurry....met the owner 20 minutes too late and confirmed my general distrust of Antipodeans!

Iain

[Greenside]

We've been looking around for several months, visited almost every Moo Bahn around the city (no, really), viewed dozens of houses and decent two bedroom houses are in the minority if you want anything even remotely modern with a useable kitchen. All agents and most owners have a vastly inflated idea as to what their house is worth and we've called agents/owners of houses that have stood empty for four months plus who still won't negotiate the price down to something competitive - "we've lost six months' rent so we'll put the price up to compensate" the logic around here often goes.

Our mission was to find something in a very particular area for a single year's rental and have just signed up for a tidy three bedroom three bathroom house with mostly decent furniture and a nice garden on an old development. It's probably really worth 13 - 15K a month and we paid a little over the odds but about 30% less than the asking price. Not perfect, but the best we could find in the area and it'll do for a year.

[Blinky Bill]

We did not go through agents. My former landlady has places all over the place, so she had a place open here when I needed another place to place my things in place.

Hi PB. Do you know what type of fish this is? Why it is a PLAICE. BB

Edited February 17, 2008 by Blinky Bill

[lotus eater]

I rent a house in a moo bahn about 6 kms outside of Chiangmai . ...It was found by my wife by driving around the many moo bahns and looking for rental signs or going to the moo bahn management office and ask. ...

Should one expect a mark up if the driving around and asking is done by a non-thai speaking farang?

i have just this week rented a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house. a nice garden area also, for 7500 thb a month. Im behind the rimping on Maejo road on a quiet estate.

but like you said i looked at the estate agents for the last month and there prices are incredible, the best thing to do is get on a bike for the day and have a good look round, most of the houses for rent will have telephone numbers on them.

I don't know if you did also look at houses through agents (ie not merely at their websites). If you did I'd be interested to know what sort of differences in rent you found on an actual or comparable house - as between agent and landlord direct.

thaimiller is spot on!!. There are many houses for rent in our "village/development" 8 km north of Super Highway on the way to Mae Rim, where large 200 sq.meter two story houses, about five years old are for rent at 8k a month. I suspect they have four bedrooms.

Grateful if you'd specify or in a pm directions to your mooban.

Does looking around mean essentially driving systematically into every soi off a main road, eg the road to mae rim?