Real estate: Foreigners told that 2021 is a Golden Year for investment in condos

[condobrit001]

The recent and continuing crash of the Thai baht when combined with the covid effect on condo prices supports the Golden Year forecast. I would wait a little longer before buying though until the baht falls another 10% to the dollar, which will probably be around September this year.

[Dialemco]

Buying Condo in Thailand potentially waste of money far better to rent and then you know exact cost and can move you whenever you want

[Guderian]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Woradech Rukhaphan of VBeyond Development stressed now was a great time for foreign buyers. 

 

"2021 is a golden year (for them) and the best in the last 30 years", he said.

 

They should really be writing this in Mandarin and posting it on WeChat, nothing major is going to change on the farang front in Thailand as far as I can see.

[Lingba]

Nobody in their right mind should invest in this place

[Crusader]

Well, okay I guess - if you are a condo person.  Not all of us choose to live in these concrete towers - with hoards of others from who knows where.

[kg1947]

3 hours ago, Pilotman said:

a golden opportunity then? ????????????

2013 - B. 1.8 Million  new .

2021 - B. 2.0 Million up to B. 2.5 Million , after reposession .

I think this is NOT a good deal .... 8 yrs old property & abandoned.

Given the cost of renovation & rehabilitation of the unit ,

B. 1.0 Million look like a more reasonable price .

[ttrd]

4 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

Why? Because of the amount of available properties being huge and the Areas being overbuilt.?

 

The real killer is the inflated exchange rate topped with political unrest and visa challenges. Then it helps little to entice with free furniture or gold to close property deals .... 

[Destiny1990]

Lets say u managed to sell a condo in Thailand and now you like to buy another nicer condo then what is easy about being forced to send ur Money abroad exchanging it and then sending it back in and exchanging the currency again??

[Surelynot]

16 minutes ago, Lingba said:

Nobody in their right mind should invest in this place

Agree........renting is the only sensible option.

[Dogbarker]

4 hours ago, PatOngo said:

Well, sign me up for three! Sounds too good to be true!

Well I have 3 for sale in Bangkok . Interested it is a Golden opportunity!! Discount for thaivisa farang 

[SymS]

I went to check some condo last month in Chiang Mai. The rental yield would be around 4%. No thank you!

[miamiman123]

But I paid 50,000,000 baht 10 years ago and I won’t reduce it…. Yeah it

needs a redo 

cognitive dissonance alive and well 

[Paul Henry]

Great time for foreigners to buy condos. Why differentiate between foreigners and locals if its a good time to buy why not target the domestic market? A good deal is a good deal doesn't matter who you are or can the locals see a con quicker than a foreigner?

[bougnat]

to live in Chiang May you need two spare lungs...

[Rael007]

Looking out for how things will be later this year or even next year, but as far as right now is concerned, speaking from personal experience:  

 

I have a great condo in a desired area of Bangkok.  It's in excellent condition and currently unoccupied though fully furnished.  I've owned it for five years and I'm now trying to sell it for a VERY reasonable price.  It is being marketed on many different websites and I've enlisted several agents.  Yet, there has been zero - that's ZERO - interest.  (which is more or less what I expected in the current climate).

 

So if this is a "golden opportunity" for those looking to get nice condos in nice areas for good deals - I've yet to experience that.   I think this is a lot of PR spin.  Like, "Come to the Fyre Festival; it's going to be the greatest music festival ever!"

[robsamui]

1 hour ago, Paul Henry said:

Great time for foreigners to buy condos. Why differentiate between foreigners and locals if its a good time to buy why not target the domestic market? A good deal is a good deal doesn't matter who you are or can the locals see a con quicker than a foreigner?

I rather think 'renting a condo' is a predominantly American (and Russian) thing: while they seem to think it's quite normal to be squashed up in a shoe box that's one tiny unit inside a giant rabbit hutch, Brits and Europeans would much rather take a house rental.

In Bangkok I rented a 3-floor 3-bed townhouse for 30K a month; in Pattaya I had a 2-bed bungalow for 10K, and on Koh Samui I now have a lovely Thai-style concrete and wood house in the middle of grassland and trees - nearest neighbour 60 metres away - for 6,000B All house were/are modernised and at a fraction of the price of renting a condo.

Buying a condo? What percentage of owners/buyers are Thais? This is very much a farang thing and what with the mess that the USA is in (and will be for the foreseeable future) and the shaky stability of the ruling junta in Thailand (plus a Baht which looks unstable, too) I can't see anyone rushing to snap up a condo 'bargain' for a very long while to come.

I think it's a sign of increasing desperation that the govt is making insane tourism predictions almost every other day, completely unworkable schemes are being proposed with laughably-similar regularity, and now this - 'condo-sale-silliness'. 

 

The only thing that's consistent across all these pie-in-the-sky hopes and silly schemes is that, in all cases, the Thai administration has no idea at all that their precious tourist income isn't going to return for very many years . . . because it has no idea at all what life is now like for people living outside of Thailand.

 

They just can't grasp the thought that although many farangs might want to come/return to Thailand, they're mostly not able to. Unemployment, reduction of income, furloughs, travel restrictions, mismatched quarantine restrictions (out and back) increased international flight prices, family concerns, and an uncertain future with new regulations being imposed all the time as nations ride-out new Covid waves . . . these are all now piling up on the table.

(Not to mention the utter lack of care and concern for pollution and the destruction of the environment that the Thai people traditionally display - huge areas of Thailand are now unfit to live in.)

 

But all the Thais can blindly think of is 'grab grab grab gimme gimme gimme'.

Edited April 2, 2021 by robsamui

[Maverick jnr]

5 hours ago, BritManToo said:

As far as I can see no property sales prices have been reduced over the COVID period.

It's just become more difficult and expensive to enter the country.

 

What if COVID never goes away, but gradually gets worse, with more restrictions and deaths?

(The current deaths, infections, variants worldwide seem to indicate this to be the case)

 

What if the air quality in Chiang Mai just gets worse?

(the current forest fires in the mountains indicate this to be the case)

 

Now is not the time to buy anything, anywhere, unless you have money to burn.

(Sorry for the negative feelings, buy I wish I hadn't bought a house in Chiang Mai Thailand)

I know what you mean, I bought land and intended building on it but after spending time there through Feb/march for the last 2 years enduring the smog, I've given up on the idea, I had no idea it got so bad, bon voyage Chiang Mai...

[barney42bb]

With FREEHOLD ????

 

Yeeeeaaahhh .... I thought NOT.

[bougnat]

The only serious opportunity at the moment is Thaie laundry which also kills viruses ... exclusively....????

[SGD]

5 minutes ago, Rael007 said:

Looking out for how things will be later this year or even next year, but as far as right now is concerned, speaking from personal experience:  

 

I have a great condo in a desired area of Bangkok.  It's in excellent condition and currently unoccupied though fully furnished.  I've owned it for five years and I'm now trying to sell it for a VERY reasonable price.  It is being marketed on many different websites and I've enlisted several agents.  Yet, there has been zero - that's ZERO - interest.  (which is more or less what I expected in the current climate).

 

So if this is a "golden opportunity" for those looking to get nice condos in nice areas for good deals - I've yet to experience that.   I think this is a lot of PR spin.  Like, "Come to the Fyre Festival; it's going to be the greatest music festival ever!"

 

Sorry to give you the wake up call but if it was priced well, it would have generated interest and would probably have sold.

If your neighbours have theirs advertised for 150k per sqm it doesn't mean yours is worth 150k per sqm because theirs is simply overpriced. The price to move it in this market is perhaps 50k per sqm but you would think that stupidly undervalued. Yet that is the market price.

You may get more in the future and you will if the baht FX rates improve but contrast this. I have a near 100sqm condo in central London which is worth perhaps £1m. That makes it about £10k per sqm. You have your Bt200k per sqm condo in Bangkok which you think is worth £5k per sqm.

In which universe is London only worth twice the price of Bangkok ?

[IamNoone88]

I have been in the real estate business in Thailand for over 15 years and I have never read such nonsense as in the above article.

[Crash999]

Seems the trend in men’s suit pants is now a “left them in the dryer too long and they shrank three sizes” look. 

[Surelynot]

2 minutes ago, IamNoone88 said:

I have been in the real estate business in Thailand for over 15 years and I have never read such nonsense as in the above article.

Dare you give us the unabridged truth?

[Phuketboy]

Property prices have fallen. There are also a lot of properties for sale which doesn't help the sellers.  Not just condos and houses, but even hotels and resorts are on the market in vast numbers. Not all are advertised or have huge signs, however, look around and speak with people and there are bargains to be had.  As for the reasons, well this varies depending on the owners situation. Some have fallen on hard times, some can't get back to Thailand and don't know the they will, some maybe offloading assets to be able to better monitor and keep funds closer to home.  

[spidermike007]

No doubt a number of people in development, who continue to aspire to get high prices. Well guys, the world has changed. Demand is way down. The Chinese market is nearly gone, Russians and others are very hesitant to commit. And the long term tourists are gone too. So, who does that leave? Wealthy Thais, many of whom see the market collapsing, and would rather wait and see how all of this shakes out, and ex-pats, many of whom are smart enough to be shopping for bargains right now.

 

I anticipate condo prices to drop by half. A friend of mine recently moved to Pattaya. He looked at condos in Jomtien. He walked into one of the nicest towers, looked at a 36th floor unit with panoramic views, and when he was quoted 26,000 a month, he offered 10,000. They settled on 13,000. He said the agent more or less admitted the building was nearly empty, and they could not rent or sell anything, at this time. Another friend was in contract long before Covid broke, on a 16 million baht condo in BKK. He has put down roughly 2 million baht on it. They are expecting him to close, as the building is finished now. He told them to drop their price by 8 million baht, or he will seek legal remedies to get his deposit back. He told me he would rather walk away from that 2 million baht, than invest in something that has already gone down in value, by many millions of baht. How many others feel that way? He also told me that another friend of his works as a senior level manager for one of Thailand's biggest developers. She told him that they have reduced their building by 90% of what it was pre-Covid, which was around 100 developments a year. 

Anyone interested in buying a condo right now, would be better off waiting awhile. Timing is on your side. Time is now your ally. The economy is going remain devastated here, for a very long time to come. And the longer this goes on, the more people are going to be affected by it, and the more desperate some will become. For the wealthy it barely matters. But, there are many middle class who have money invested, and there are alot of Chinese and Russians who bought, and cannot even visit Thailand. Some of them will want to unload their properties. Wait. The condo market is severely overbuilt. And demand is low, for all but the top buildings.

 

Another consideration is Samui, Phuket, Bangkok, CM, and Pattaya were grossly overdeveloped, with little to no planning, or traffic mitigation. What to do with all of those new apartment buildings, condos, and hotels? The vacancy factor will remain high for years to come. Much of the speculation was done, without much in the way of market research, and dependent on the idea that tourism always goes up, and more and more Chinese would be looking for homes, and apartments long term. How things change. Fairly hard to muster up compassion for many of these greedy developers, but it does leave a bit of a blight on the city. In Phuket and Samui, businesses are closing at a rate never seen before. 

 

 

So, this may be a golden opportunity. At 40-60% off the asking price. 

Edited April 2, 2021 by spidermike007

[hotchilli]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Woradech Rukhaphan of VBeyond Development stressed now was a great time for foreign buyers.

Millions of baht for a shoe box sized condo, designed like chicken coups that you can't get your name on?

 

[natway09]

These developers are getting desperate to SELL, SELL, SELL.

The unsold inventory is way over the danger levels for an almighty realignment of prices

pretty soon.

I have made 3 offers on apartments less than 25% less than asking for & all refused.

They just sit there EMPTY

[robsamui]

14 minutes ago, Crash999 said:

Seems the trend in men’s suit pants is now a “left them in the dryer too long and they shrank three sizes” look. 

I think the personalities revealed in those four in the photo speaks volumes. Two young kids, one of them blisteringly trendy, and two semi-comatose hunched geriatrics; one in Android Land, on his phone. If any one of those tried to sell me anything, I'd do a smart about-turn.

[robsamui]

19 minutes ago, natway09 said:

These developers are getting desperate to SELL, SELL, SELL.

The unsold inventory is way over the danger levels for an almighty realignment of prices

pretty soon.

I have made 3 offers on apartments less than 25% less than asking for & all refused.

They just sit there EMPTY

Ahhh - now we're getting onto another (Thai) stumbling block - loss of face.

 

A short distance away from where I live some Thai guy built a nice new house. That was almost 3 years ago and he's still waiting for the first tenant. He's priced it at almost double the rent of the houses nearby. This is obviously aimed at tourists/farangs, as no Thai would pay that much for a small house. My landlord has told me that he's (the new house guy) had several offers but won't come down on the rent. 

 

Eventually - after seven or eight years - he'll find a taker. But only because during that time rents will have crept up. Then he'll have saved face and can tell his friends " . . . see? I TOLD you I'd get that price for it!"

 

(I see this happen all the time with Thai people trying to sell houses they've built.)

Edited April 2, 2021 by robsamui

[brian2f2f]

6 hours ago, Surelynot said:

I think is true for advertised prices.......but get into serious negotiations and I think there are some good deals to be had.

When in phuket dec 26 and 27 in the mall thwubhaf condos around 2 million discount desperate to sell.