Seaview condos - high or low floor?

[brucec64]

5 hours ago, newnative said:

     I think, as with most real estate questions, the correct answer is it all depends.  My partner and I have owned seaview condos in about a dozen condo projects in Pattaya.  What floor is best has a lot to do with how close the condo is to the ocean and what the seaviews are.

     In one project, the condo was direct ocean front and less than 50 meters from the beach--low-rise and probably one of the closest projects to the beach in Pattaya.  The project sat on a small cliff and our condo, on floor 4, was probably about the same as 7 floors from the beach.  Being so close to the ocean, it was an advantage being on a low floor because we could see not just the ocean but the beach and trees, the waves, and also boat activity, people wind surfing, etc.  If you are right on the ocean with no buildings in front of you, a lower floor can have advantages over a higher one.  If you get too high, from inside your condo you will sometimes just be looking at sky and distant ocean.  You have to go out to the balcony and look down to see the beach.  

     If your condo is back from the ocean or has both ocean and shoreline views, then higher is usually better--and, usually the farther back the higher you want to be.  We had condos on the 33rd and the 29th floors at Centric Sea and Unixx and beautiful ocean and shore views from both of them.  Ditto for our top floor condo at The Base.  If possible, there's no substitute to experiencing the views from the actual condo in person before you buy.  

     Buying today, I would avoid new and newer projects that are around 1000 units or more.  Too many of these projects have been over-run with illegal daily renters.  Having lived in several of these projects myself, I can say it is not a pleasant residential experience for someone living here year-round.  Others may disagree but I hated the elevators always being full of loud strangers dragging suitcases and the pools and gyms crowded with strangers often behaving badly and not obeying any of the condo rules.  Plus, bothering the staff all the time when they had problems with their illegally rented rooms and the owner was nowhere to be found.  

     Instead, I would look for an older project of around 500 units or less.  The project you mentioned, Reflection, would fall into that category, being built in 2013 and having 300 some units.  All projects can be vulnerable to daily renters but older and smaller projects are less likely to have owners who have bought 20 or 30 units and set up illegal boutique hotels within the confines of the project.  In Jomtien, another candidate might be Cetus.  Aeras is newer but also not large at around 300 units.  

     Central Pattaya is limited.  Northshore would be the strongest choice.  Wongamat has Zire, Northpoint, Wongamat Tower, Baan Plai Haad, The Palm, and Ananya, plus some older projects.  There are a number of projects in Cosy Beach but I haven't lived in any of them.  The Sands, at less than 300 units, might be a possibility in Pratamnak.  Cosy, Pratamnak, and Wongamat by the beach have limited public transportation choices and are off the regular baht bus routes.  Good luck!

   

     

This is an excellent response and should be pinned. I was going to respond but you hit all my points and a lot more!

[newnative]

14 minutes ago, brucec64 said:

This is an excellent response and should be pinned. I was going to respond but you hit all my points and a lot more!

Thanks!

[balo]

I have lived on the 22nd floor, nice view but when the lift does not work or the power is off you will regret it. As we all know that happens frequently in Thailand.  Then what do you do? Try the stairs, not very funny. 
Also if there is a fire you do not want to live on the top floor.  So for me I choose lower floors up to 6th floor. It's high enough to get away from most of the noise. 

 

Edited June 21, 2020 by balo

[Destiny1990]

I would choose one with an high balcony railing !

[Airalee]

2 hours ago, balo said:

I have lived on the 22nd floor, nice view but when the lift does not work or the power is off you will regret it. As we all know that happens frequently in Thailand.  Then what do you do? Try the stairs, not very funny. 

In 8 years of living in elevator access buildings here in Thailand I have never had to take the stairs.

[Delight]

An associate of mine had to abandon a  condo on the 20th Floor. The condo was close to the  sea, Superb views.

The problem was too much wind and too intense sunshine.

[samtab]

I used to stay at VT 7 on jomtien road high floor, nice view but facing the sun all day is a big problem and must keep curtains closed, even with a big corner unit, sun was everywhere. I won't repeat facing the sea, it would be better to have a unit on the side of the building.

 

Also, if you swim everyday before breakfast, it's really not convenient to live at high floor, better be at ground floor in a building that has unit facing the pool. Many understand this too late.

 

High floor is good, no noise and no mosquito.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 21, 2020 by samtab

[samtab]

6 hours ago, balo said:

I have lived on the 22nd floor, nice view but when the lift does not work or the power is off you will regret it. As we all know that happens frequently in Thailand.  Then what do you do? Try the stairs, not very funny. 
Also if there is a fire you do not want to live on the top floor.  So for me I choose lower floors up to 6th floor. It's high enough to get away from most of the noise. 

 

 

Really ? some ridiculous properties still do not have a generator for lifts ?

Even View talay 1 has a big one for all lifts to work when power is off, so i was thinking that all high rise condo had one ?!

maybe some people should learn how to choose a better property where to live ?

 

 

 

[samtab]

12 hours ago, newnative said:

Others may disagree but I hated the elevators always being full of loud strangers dragging suitcases and the pools and gyms crowded with strangers often behaving badly and not obeying any of the condo rules.

 

Another reason why i want to be at ground floor now.

I could buy a house but a house with a pool as big as any condo is out of budget, especially when not possible to put it in my name.

 

 

 

[Pattaya46]

39 minutes ago, samtab said:

I used to stay at VT 7 on jomtien road high floor, nice view but facing the sun all day is a big problem and must keep curtains closed, even with a big corner unit, sun was everywhere. I won't repeat facing the sea, it would be better to have a unit on the side of the building. //

I agree that sun can be a serious problem, so you must choose your condo carefully.

- VT7 is in north Jomtien and facing the bay towards South-West. It get a lot of afternoon sun!

- I lives in Center Condo, in south Pattaya, facing the bay towards North-West. Probably the best orientation to get a minimum of sun ????

 

 

[AlexRich]

Not ground floor, but low enough to escape a fire ... with high balcony to avoid joining the flying club. 
 

On a more serious note I would rent, as a place can change quickly. 

[HauptmannUK]

Over the years my wife (Thai) and I have stayed at a lot of condos around Pattaya. About three years ago she finally bought a condo.  In no case would she stay higher than about 5/6th floor. Her argument that "fire department in Pattaya is no good. If we stay high up and there is a fire then we die".  Personally I have no strong feelings about high or low floors - so just go with the flow.

[Henryford]

5 hours ago, HauptmannUK said:

Over the years my wife (Thai) and I have stayed at a lot of condos around Pattaya. About three years ago she finally bought a condo.  In no case would she stay higher than about 5/6th floor. Her argument that "fire department in Pattaya is no good. If we stay high up and there is a fire then we die".  Personally I have no strong feelings about high or low floors - so just go with the flow.

Is that really an issue? How many condo fires have their been in Pattaya or Thailand. I can think of only the odd small fire and no one was hurt.

[HauptmannUK]

26 minutes ago, Henryford said:

Is that really an issue? How many condo fires have their been in Pattaya or Thailand. I can think of only the odd small fire and no one was hurt.

Statistically I'm sure its not really an issue, but its about perceptions and feelings etc.

[Trillian]

13 minutes ago, HauptmannUK said:

Statistically I'm sure its not really an issue, but its about perceptions and feelings etc.

There are lots of large organisations that won't let their employees stay in rooms higher than the sixth floor when travelling on business, mine included. The rule varies from country to country based on the ability of that countries fire department to evacuate people from higher floors but in Thailand it's a definite no-no. Most fire departments have ladders that can evacuate up to the sixth floor.

Edited June 22, 2020 by Trillian

[jacko45k]

37 minutes ago, Henryford said:

Is that really an issue? How many condo fires have their been in Pattaya or Thailand. I can think of only the odd small fire and no one was hurt.

Someone died in one last November.

100 were evacuated from Laguna Beach condo in Jomtien, January.

There was a fire at the Majestic in April.

[Kerryd]

29 minutes ago, Henryford said:

Is that really an issue? How many condo fires have their been in Pattaya or Thailand. I can think of only the odd small fire and no one was hurt.

In the last year (last 8 months actually) :

1 Nov 2019 - (can't link Bangkok Post articles) - norwegian-dies-in-pattaya-condo-fire

                    https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30377959
                     
5 Dec 2019 - (can't link Bangkok Post articles) - Pattaya condo fire causes panic

6 Jan 2020 - Over 100 evacuated from Pattaya condo fire

25 Jan 2020 - Central Pattaya condo fire results in 2 million baht damage

6 Apr 2020 - Swiss man left gasping in Pattaya fire, life saved by an alert neighbour as his condo is ravaged by the blaze

[newnative]

9 hours ago, samtab said:

I used to stay at VT 7 on jomtien road high floor, nice view but facing the sun all day is a big problem and must keep curtains closed, even with a big corner unit, sun was everywhere. I won't repeat facing the sea, it would be better to have a unit on the side of the building.

 

Also, if you swim everyday before breakfast, it's really not convenient to live at high floor, better be at ground floor in a building that has unit facing the pool. Many understand this too late.

 

High floor is good, no noise and no mosquito.

 

 

 

 

     I agree regarding the sun issues.  The Centric Sea condo I had faced directly west and the sun was brutal in the afternoon.  We had to keep the blinds down and the interior walls facing west got very hot to the touch--and were slow to cool down.  The sea views were great but I hated having to have the blinds down so much.

     My last condo and my current one face northwest and I am much happier.  I still get a nice  seaview looking northwest but less sun.  I like the interesting view seeing the coastline, too, and, except for right now with the sun at its northern most point, I don't get any direct sun.

[newnative]

14 hours ago, Airalee said:

In 8 years of living in elevator access buildings here in Thailand I have never had to take the stairs.

Me, neither.  And, many projects have generators that will operate the elevators if the power goes out.  

[newnative]

10 hours ago, Pattaya46 said:

I agree that sun can be a serious problem, so you must choose your condo carefully.

- VT7 is in north Jomtien and facing the bay towards South-West. It get a lot of afternoon sun!

- I lives in Center Condo, in south Pattaya, facing the bay towards North-West. Probably the best orientation to get a minimum of sun ????

 

 

Agree.  I think northwest is best, too.

[Pattaya46]

4 hours ago, Kerryd said:

4 hours ago, Henryford said:

Is that really an issue? How many condo fires have their been in Pattaya or Thailand. I can think of only the odd small fire and no one was hurt.

In the last year (last 8 months actually) :

...

All these "condo fires" are in fact "one unit fires"

The poor guy who died last year was a case of "smoking in bed when drunk". This could happen in any kind of accomodation.

The important thing to me is that in all these recent small fires, and even if it fully destroyed one unit, it didn't spread to other units or to the condo itself. ????

[scubascuba3]

I vaguely remember a fire at Nirun condo last year, it improved the place

[balo]

13 hours ago, samtab said:

Really ? some ridiculous properties still do not have a generator for lifts ?

Yes we had a generator, but it stopped working after a few hours.  The longest I had to wait for the power to come back was 15 hours. 
So I have walked down the stairs a few times. 
 

[wpcoe]

It was mentioned a couple times about noise being louder at high floors.  I forget the exact science, and the math depends on the distance of the noise source, but noise travels upward along a high-rise in a sine-wave motion.  I remember living on the 13th floor of a building facing an intersection, and neighbors on the 17th floor had much louder noise than mine, as did folks living on around the 10th floor.  I happened to luck out and be in a "sweet spot" where the sine wave of the traffic noise had the noise farther from my unit than those neighbors.

 

tl;dr -- It's the luck of the draw which floors will be noisiest/quietest.

[bbi1]

On 6/21/2020 at 12:40 PM, kenk24 said:

A high floor gives you a better view and a low floor should be cheaper... but you know that - right? 

 

I also do not know how much time you have spent in Thailand or Pattaya, but I would surely suggest renting first... Pattaya, for me, would be tiresome after a short while... [ in which case, a higher floor would also be preferable in that it is further away... ]

Two Pros of low floor - Easier and quicker to run down the fire escape if the building is on fire. Quicker to get out of the lift when going up.

 

Two Pros of high floor - Views and less chance the lift is full when you get in it if you are going down.

[bbi1]

On 6/21/2020 at 3:14 PM, OneMoreFarang said:

High floor = no mosquitos

That is one of the things which are easy to forget for people who live already in high floors.

How many floors up do you have to be so mozzies won't be able to fly up to your room window/balcony? How many metres above ground is their flying high limit their wings will take them up?

[bbi1]

On 6/21/2020 at 5:24 PM, Kerryd said:

Because apparently that's as high as Thai fire trucks can reach in an emergency. And they have a few too many "hi-rise" fires here (condos, apartment buildings and hotels) to leave things to chance. They've had fires in apartment buildings where people died in the stairwells because the emergency exits were chained and locked (to prevent tenants from sneaking out without paying supposedly). 
(They also had people die in nightclubs for the same reason, like the Route 66 Nightclub fire a few years ago.)

Route 66 Bangkok had a fire a few years ago??? Never heard of it. Do you have a link as proof?

[Zikomat]

 Proximity is the most important factor when it comes to sea-view apartments. At some distance it becomes quite useless and I would not recommend to pay any additional money for it. 

[1FinickyOne]

18 minutes ago, bbi1 said:

How many floors up do you have to be so mozzies won't be able to fly up to your room window/balcony? How many metres above ground is their flying high limit their wings will take them up?

I have heard 8 floors and up is good... 

[Trillian]

21 minutes ago, bbi1 said:

How many floors up do you have to be so mozzies won't be able to fly up to your room window/balcony? How many metres above ground is their flying high limit their wings will take them up?

Mossies take elevators too!