Cost of building house in village vs buying in development in expat/tourist town?

[marc26]

This may be a stupid question.............

So I was looking at listings in Hua Hin and saw houses I liked in the 5-7mil baht range(example links attached)

 

Now, my question is, would building the same type of house be significantly cheaper in a village? 

Or does it not matter, because materials/labor would be the same?

 

My thought is that the house is an expat/tourist area is inflated, so it might be much cheaper building similar in the village?

 

Thanks for any replies, I have always wondered that.............

 

 

https://pro-real-estate.com/property/aria-hua-hin-luxury-3-bed-pool-villa-off-plan/

https://pro-real-estate.com/property/the-heights-2/

 

[baansgr]

Land cost would be far cheaper in the village and no developer fees if you build yourself...just remember, a village house is practically worthless if you fall split with your partner or fall out with the locals

[bwpage3]

11 minutes ago, baansgr said:

Land cost would be far cheaper in the village and no developer fees if you build yourself...just remember, a village house is practically worthless if you fall split with your partner or fall out with the locals

Any house anywhere is worthless if you fall split with your partner

[marc26]

3 hours ago, baansgr said:

Land cost would be far cheaper in the village and no developer fees if you build yourself...just remember, a village house is practically worthless if you fall split with your partner or fall out with the locals

Been with her 18 years

I consider any house build "time served " for her 5555

[marc26]

3 hours ago, baansgr said:

Land cost would be far cheaper in the village and no developer fees if you build yourself...just remember, a village house is practically worthless if you fall split with your partner or fall out with the locals

Land costs in her village aren't as cheap as other places 

And hard to get just 3 rai

Usually only sold in big parcels 

 

We just saw 3 rai for reasonable 400k but was sold 

 

Thanks 

[bwpage3]

2 minutes ago, marc26 said:

Land costs in her village aren't as cheap as other places 

And hard to get just 3 rai

Usually only sold in big parcels 

 

We just saw 3 rai for reasonable 400k but was sold 

 

Thanks 

Sounds like farang prices? If they know she is married to you, price will be much higher.

[Airalee]

4 hours ago, marc26 said:

Land costs in her village aren't as cheap as other places 

And hard to get just 3 rai

Usually only sold in big parcels 

 

We just saw 3 rai for reasonable 400k but was sold 

 

Thanks 

Land costs are certainly less expensive in her village compared to somewhere like HuaHin....far less expensive.   The first home you link to is built on just over 1/4 rai.  A 3 rai buildable plot in Huahin would be very expensive.

[Guderian]

As you seem to want a western-style house rather than an Isaan shack, you'd probably still have to get a reputable builder in from one of the big cities or you'll end up with a complete shambles of a house. You can save money on the land by building away from the cities, but I wouldn't try to save money using a builder who didn't have a proven track record of putting up houses of the sort you want. Remember, also, that living in the boondocks in Thailand can be pretty lonely for a farang, people are willing to pay more for land and houses in the cities because they want to be near other people they can meet up with for a beer, and also near to the good restaurants and shops. I have a mate who lives in Amnat Charoen, and it's a 110 km round-trip to Ubon just to get a loaf of farang bread from the Tops supermarket there. Be sure you know exactly what you're letting yourself in for.

[1FinickyOne]

1 hour ago, Guderian said:

you'd probably still have to get a reputable builder in from one of the big cities or you'll end up with a complete shambles of a house.

That surely wasn't so for us...  local builder was fine and was surely concerned about his reputation...

 

Being in a moo bahn you are subject to the rules and fees of the moo bahn... 

 

[Speedhump]

11 minutes ago, 1FinickyOne said:

That surely wasn't so for us...  local builder was fine and was surely concerned about his reputation...

 

Being in a moo bahn you are subject to the rules and fees of the moo bahn... 

 

I doubt there's a single Thai builder outside of a major city that digs foundations as deep as farang. Just because your house is still standing doesn't mean it always will. 10 years or so may be the test....

[4MyEgo]

14 hours ago, marc26 said:

This may be a stupid question.............

So I was looking at listings in Hua Hin and saw houses I liked in the 5-7mil baht range(example links attached)

 

Now, my question is, would building the same type of house be significantly cheaper in a village? 

Or does it not matter, because materials/labor would be the same?

I live in a village in Isaan, nearest City is an hours drive, 2 towns either way are a 20 minute drive.

Much cheaper building in a house in the village, on the outskirts is even better as you don't get the associated noise from neighbours, festivals, bands etc etc, so on the outskirts, is perfect for us, and neighbours at least 20 metres away from you either side would is ideal, no one behind us or across the road too.

We travel to Hua Hin a few times a year, it's about a 10-11-12 hour drive, we also fly to Phuket.

To build or buy there would be far more expensive than in a village.

We had a local builder build our place for 500,000 baht, we purchased the material for 1.5 mil which worked out to be about 6,250 a square metre all up built, however that didn't include insulation, air cons etc etc.

I know of a farang in a neighbouring village who built a house through a company for about 1.7 mil, it's about a 3rd of the size, it's nice and has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, also didn't include insulation, air cons etc etc.

If I wanted to be near the beach, I would spend the 5-7 mil, but I prefer to invest kinf of money and also have the same amount in the bank as a back up, after all, even though I have been with the Mrs for 14 years, if it ever went south, which I seriously doubt, it would all be hers, so 10% of my worth to her is feasible for me while we are together, she can get the lot when I croak it as it's in the will and the life insurance is here too.

I enjoy the tranquillity of the village life for the outlay, pretty much keep to myself in the house most of the day which is cool because of the way we designed it and insulated it and when I want to socialise, there are some bars 20 minutes away which I can go to in the evenings and have some drinks, plenty of restaurants around as well.

All depends on how much your prepared to invest or lose, flights are also cheap to most costal places, as are hotels, so you can stay in nice expensive places on the cheap, compared to what you would have laid out to buy in a costal place like Hua Hin or Phuket, but if you like to walk along the beach everyday and have the money to spend on the build on the coast, then as long as your prepared to walk away from it if it ever went sour, at least then you knew what you got yourself into, as they say, nothings forever, even life, and I like to think as much as I trust my wife, I like to keep my finances separate as it provides me with a back up of "comfort and security" and if I invited her to share in that, I would only be exposing myself, so I tend to think like banks, e.g. what security do you have to provide me with for the money I am about to
advance you ?

[GreasyFingers]

34 minutes ago, Speedhump said:

I doubt there's a single Thai builder outside of a major city that digs foundations as deep as farang. Just because your house is still standing doesn't mean it always will. 10 years or so may be the test....

You should have seen the size of the footings for our extension, 4 metres wide with a tin roof. Could have built a 4 storey building on them.

[Antonymous]

I had a look at both those listings. Similar to 1,000's of other overpriced 'pool villas' in Hua Hin. I have stayed in one for a month and found it quite depressing. Cheap white porcelain tiles, single course walls, cheap kitchen furniture, open plan (aka no architectural integrity) warehouse style living room/dining room/kitchen room/study area.

Anyway, you might like all that so I won't comment further on that score.

As for price, both those bungalows with pool can be built for around 3,500,000 to 4,000,000 if you put in quality materials and fittings. PLUS the price of the land. That is if you find a reputable building crew with a foreman that allow you to supervise materials purchases and you are on site daily to manage everything. You should scout around the area that you plan to build in and knock on the door and ask the owners of recently built decent houses who they used. I have found folk quite happy to tell you. You'll quickly discover who is the best locally.

Or if you don't want to be involved in the process much if at all, you'll have to go to a construction company and have them quote for your building from the plans. They'll estimate the above and then add their mark up, which could easily be another million baht.

An advantage of building your own place is that you can plan it just as you like. Instead of cookie cutter style farang mubaan type houses, you can design something more interesting.

So actually your first port of call is an architect to turn your drawings into a plan. He'll need an engineer to check and sign off on it. Both the architect and the engineer, if they are reasonably local are bound to know and recommend a building crew for you.

Then get planning permission.

Buying a ready built house saves alot of hassle. Building your own can be hard work, but you'll get exactly what you like and pay less for it. Tough choice.

Best of luck.

[KarenBravo]

The true cost is that one house you can sell, the other you can't.

[EVENKEEL]

40 minutes ago, Speedhump said:

I doubt there's a single Thai builder outside of a major city that digs foundations as deep as farang. Just because your house is still standing doesn't mean it always will. 10 years or so may be the test....

Deep enough??

 

[GreasyFingers]

3 minutes ago, Antonymous said:

Buying a ready built house saves alot of hassle. Building your own can be hard work, but you'll get exactly what you like and pay less for it. Tough choice.

I agree with what @Antonymous says but if you know anything about building you will loose your temper many times when you see how they do it. What they do will work but it is not the way you expect/want it to be done.

[GreasyFingers]

3 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

Deep enough??

 

Same as my earlier post.

[Stevemercer]

Building a decent western-style 200 square metre house would cost you at least 2.5 - 3.5 million Baht. As others have said, you can use a full time building company from the nearest big city to ensure you get adequate quality.

If you can find a decent local builder you may pay less, but you will need to be involved a a lot more selecting the fittings (tiles, bathroom fixtures, kitchen cabinets). This means the house and fittings will be more individualised to your taste.

The contract will normally specify the cost per room (e.g. 750 Baht per square metre for tiles, 30,000 Baht for fittings in the main bathroom etc. - these are higher end costs). You will select the various items..

These costs are without a pool. This will be an expensive addition if you want to add one later (maybe 400,000 Baht).

[millymoopoo]

9 hours ago, bwpage3 said:

Sounds like farang prices? If they know she is married to you, price will be much higher.

Yep, certainly does.

We built in the other halfs village on land we already owned.
3 bed, 2 bath, large lounge and veranda, kitchen out the back, not as flash as in the links but still OK, 1 mill bht.

The key to avoiding 'farang' prices was to remain completely removed, partner engaged architect, then I modified the plan to suit, which is the plan the builder got.
Partner submitted the plan to 3 local builders, ensuring they all knew it had been submitted to the others, we didn't select the cheapest, we did check out other houses the builders had built and selected the one that looked to be the best quality.

Then when it was being built I kept a close eye on proceedings, when foundations were not to the depth specified, the partner told the builder to comply, when the slab was being prepared, (they use concrete tiles on mini foundations and pour the slab ontop) I watched how thick they were pouring it, 60mm, again under specs so builder was told to comply to design (100mm).

There were many other things eg: 1.2mm spacing on roof rafters that should be 1m, no S traps on drains, amongst many, all of which I spotted and the builder was told to rectify all of them at the time.

Don't let these faults slide and think you can get the builder to fix them later, because once built, he's out of there.

As all of the men in my partners family have died the builder thought 'oh a bunch of women, they wouldn't have an idea', thought he could get away with it, what he didn't expect was a knowledgeable farang.!

Stay in the shadows until everything is signed, then come out into the light and ensure you get what has been agreed on.

[OneMoreFarang]

4 minutes ago, Stevemercer said:

As others have said, you can use a full time building company from the nearest big city to ensure you get adequate quality.

If you can find a decent local builder you may pay less, but you will need to be involved a a lot more selecting the fittings (tiles, bathroom fixtures, kitchen cabinets). This means the house and fittings will be more individualised to your taste.

I wonder how the locals would react if you hire builders from "outside".

Personally I have no experience with this but the way I understand Thais I wouldn't be surprised if the locals wouldn't like if you hire outsiders.

[4MyEgo]

10 minutes ago, GreasyFingers said:

I agree with what @Antonymous says but if you know anything about building you will loose your temper many times when you see how they do it. What they do will work but it is not the way you expect/want it to be done.

Fortunately for me, I never once lost it with the builder as we told him from the outset that he was the builder, but I was the overseer as I was paying for it and have a very good knowledge of buildings being built, having signed off on many over decades gone past, and if I wasn't happy with something or wanted something changed or added to, he would accommodate, suffice to say, I didn't really need to say much, he added extra support to one steel beam that I wanted, not that it was really required, but I wanted it as the span was 5 metres wide and it was to support a load bearing wall, so I wanted extra support.

He did witness me lose it once, when I told my father in-law, much to the delight of my wife who was present, that if he didn't like the way I planned the design of the house, he could F off, i.e. he wasn't welcome coming here to keep breaking the builders balls when I was out getting materials to try and alter things, he saw I was hot and where my arm was stretched out to and finger was pointing, i.e. the front gate, must have been my load tone and angry look on my face, he left in a hurry, yes I lost face, boo whoo, wife apologised, I said no need, I understand your culture, i.e. you can't talk back, but I sure can and did, builder gave me the thumbs up while standing on the roof after he saw the father in-law go in a hurry, ball breaker.

Later that night wife was having diner at the parents house and her father said to her, I like this guy, if he is prepared to stand up to me, he will stand up to anyone for you.

Sometimes you got to put them in their place, never had an issue since and that was over a decade ago, we both smile at each other and he knows, his daughter is my wife and listens to me as does his wife listen to him, although mine will give me the bird if she doesn't agree with me on something, that's what I love about her.

[Blue Muton]

It should be cheaper to buy your own, but of course it's not just about the money.

We designed and our own home built and I have to say it was one of the most satisfying and pleasurable experiences of my life. Ploughing through hundreds of plans online and not finding any that ticked all of our boxes was just the start. We found one that had nearly everything we thought we wanted but even then when our then prospective builder showed us a couple of places that were coming to completion we got more ideas. We made lots of changes to the original plans and got the architect to produce sets of plans accordingly.

We discovered that Mrs BM made an incredible project manager and negotiator for all of the materials. We've been in our new hope nearly six years now and really love it.

[bolt]

For me the 2 biggest differences are

• Gated security front entrance villages typically have tiny gardens, you can almost touch your next door neighbor they are so close
• Owning a standalone plot of land, has some security issues, but you will have far more land to use for garden or veggies etc.

We’re currently in a gated village and been here for last 12 years, we want more space now we’re both older, and we have more time to spend relaxing rather than working 24/7

Will you have any young kids running around?, A gated village is great for that, you can kick them out the house  and not worry where they go, as they always stay inside the village.

[unblocktheplanet]

13 hours ago, bwpage3 said:

Any house anywhere is worthless if you fall split with your partner

She gets the gold mine, and you get the shaft...

[1FinickyOne]

2 hours ago, Speedhump said:

10 years or so may be the test....

I was surprised how deep they dug and mostly by hand... very solid foundation... no signs of problems and that 17 years ago... and 6 hours drive from Bkk... maybe just lucky but I know others in the area w/similar luck... and don't think I know anyone who had problems.. 

[1FinickyOne]

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I wonder how the locals would react if you hire builders from "outside".

I am sure it would not have been an issue for us.. the larger issue would have been that someone outside the area would have wanted significantly more for the inconvenience. We got a quality build locally. 

[Lacessit]

I don't know what building costs are now. 6 years ago, my GF and I had a comfortable 2br house built on land in her village left to her by her mother. All up, including aircons, insect screens and furnishings, 750,000 baht.

[marc26]

12 hours ago, bwpage3 said:

Sounds like farang prices? If they know she is married to you, price will be much higher.

No, her village and province, Suphan Buri, is one of the best areas for rice.........has 3 harvests

Land prices have always been high there...............has nothing to with farang pricing

 

Wish they weren't! But 135k/rai that we just saw is extremely cheap for that area

And, as I said, 3 rai very rarely come for sale.............only 9-10/15-20 rai plots and they refuse to break them up

[marc26]

8 hours ago, Airalee said:

Land costs are certainly less expensive in her village compared to somewhere like HuaHin....far less expensive.   The first home you link to is built on just over 1/4 rai.  A 3 rai buildable plot in Huahin would be very expensive.

Of course, I understand that

But not taking in account for the land price, I am wondering if the build cost would be much cheaper in her village

[marc26]

5 hours ago, Guderian said:

As you seem to want a western-style house rather than an Isaan shack, you'd probably still have to get a reputable builder in from one of the big cities or you'll end up with a complete shambles of a house. You can save money on the land by building away from the cities, but I wouldn't try to save money using a builder who didn't have a proven track record of putting up houses of the sort you want. Remember, also, that living in the boondocks in Thailand can be pretty lonely for a farang, people are willing to pay more for land and houses in the cities because they want to be near other people they can meet up with for a beer, and also near to the good restaurants and shops. I have a mate who lives in Amnat Charoen, and it's a 110 km round-trip to Ubon just to get a loaf of farang bread from the Tops supermarket there. Be sure you know exactly what you're letting yourself in for.

Her village is 15-20min drive to a pretty lively town, Singburi

Plenty of entertainment there(Thai, don't know if many expat places), any big shop you want, fun bars, good restaurants

But I would never live in the village(or Thailand full time), would split between US and Thailand, with a decent amount of Asian travel when in Thailand

I could never live in a situation like your friend, even for just 4-5 months............but some would like that

Edited March 16, 2021 by marc26