Houses In Chiangmai

[JimmyTheMook]

Will be going to CM very soon and would like to know how the housing market is doing up there for "2nd Hand Houses".

Looking for at least a 3 bedroom in a nice area.

If you are not a realtor and know of something please let me know.

BTW - I am in Pattaya and looking to move my family away from here.

The market here has taken a nose dive and the inventory of property is imense, yet the prices are still inflated waiting for the odd punter to purchase.

[mcgriffith]

Will be going to CM very soon and would like to know how the housing market is doing up there for "2nd Hand Houses".

Looking for at least a 3 bedroom in a nice area.

If you are not a realtor and know of something please let me know.

BTW - I am in Pattaya and looking to move my family away from here.

The market here has taken a nose dive and the inventory of property is imense, yet the prices are still inflated waiting for the odd punter to purchase.

Same Same here, my friend. I have been casually pricing property (condos) to buy over the last 6 months. Not working with real estate agents/brokers; just looking at classified ads in local glossy magazines, and calling the sellers.

My sense of the market is that there is a lot of inventory, with quite a few new buildings in the finishing stages. There are houses for sale here; prices are high and haven't gone down at all despite political/economic uncertainty.

My advice is: RENT...

[swain]

I would not agree with the statement prices have remained high... I think they have dropped like a stone. PM me and I can give you some details on some houses. First my neighbor ... building his new house selling his old...Old house is a 3 bedroom, two bath, office area, nice kitchen, well groomed garden, water tanks, and pump, air con through out.. started at 2.7 mil baht and dropped along the way to 2.5 then down to 2.4 ... all the way down now to 1.9 but at that price he takes the air conditioners for his new house..

Though rents have gone down as well.. but if your looking to dig in... now might be a good time... There are always going to be the people that sit on the property and wait it out.. but there are alot that are cutting bait and bolting.. as good as it is.. I think it will get better.. or worse depending on your take.. I think the market in Chiang mai will slide further and even better deals will there for the taking...

Might rent first.. and wait for someone to make you an offer you cant refuse.

[ProThaiExpat]

Swain and I might have the same neighbor, I am at the old location and his property description is spot on.

The distinction I would make is that Thai owned houses are rarely lowered in price while falang houses, like my former neighbors, are often realistically priced and well maintained to make them more attractive to buyers.

There are at least 10 houses in my project for sale, none have sold in the five years I have been here except one, which I believe was sold by the developer as its owner bought another within the project.

My advice would be to come to CM, pick the project you are interested in, then drive them, looking for the for sale signs, get the telephone numbers listed and go from there.

If you want to buy a house outside of a project, the same approach would apply, however, you wouldn't have true comparisons to judge by.

[jaideeguy]

It's a 'buyer's market' for sure, but don't be in a hurry to buy and check all details CAREFULLY [preferably thru an attorney]. When buying property, you are in shark infested waters and they [agents] will push you into a quick sale that you will probably regret later.

Advise above, 'to rent first' is quite sound as it's a rentor's market as well and plenty of inventory to choose from out there. Best advise [in LOS] is to move slowly, look 5 times before crossing the street.

Good luck.....

[BossHogg]

what about doing it yourself? have land prices dropped? have been thinking of looking for for land and having a house built.Or is this too perilous an idea?

[richard10365]

Most available new houses are north and northeast of the city. 3 bedrooms in fairly nice estates are available for prices starting at 1.2 million and up. The nicest estates will put the houses up over 2 and 3 million baht. One of them offers swimming pool with slide, tennis courts, and convience stores all on the estate property.

Going southwest towards Hang Dong you will find a lot more 2nd hand houses available. There are new houses out that way as well but the estates didn't seem as nice when I looked at them. There are a lot of good deals to be had if your willing to fix up a house.

Edited May 20, 2007 by richard10365

[tigerbeer]

my house is for sale towards san kampheng. brand spanking new. pm for details.

problem with buying land and building your own house is that you almost every time have problems with the contractors. i know people who has had their house delayed by a year now and nothing done as yet. unless you have contactors you know very well, be ready for some headaches. and i mean massive headaches. you know how it goes!

[likite]

my house is for sale towards san kampheng. brand spanking new. pm for details.

problem with buying land and building your own house is that you almost every time have problems with the contractors. i know people who has had their house delayed by a year now and nothing done as yet. unless you have contactors you know very well, be ready for some headaches. and i mean massive headaches. you know how it goes!

Not a truer word said.

I rent on a mooban and the absolute horror stories I've seen and heard of the standard of building make buying a big no no. Thats forgetting about all the other minus points about building and owning property in Chiang Mai or Thailand.

[jackmuu]

How do you guys who live in those places in CM find the security side of things? I am considering buying (been renting for years in BKK) and work away a lot and worry about the Mrs being alone in the house or when we both go away and leave the place empty for a few weeks.

[chanchao]

My advice would be to come to CM, pick the project you are interested in, then drive them, looking for the for sale signs, get the telephone numbers listed and go from there.

Completely agree.

And, one thing to keep HIGHLY in mind is that similar houses may command vastly different prices depending on where they're located. So that means the area of town, or the area out of town (basically there's Mae Rim (North), Mae Jo/San Sai, Doi Saket (North East), Sankamhpaeng (East), Saraphee (South), Hang Dong & Canal Road (South - South-West). Then, for each of these regions, some compounds are MUCH more successful/desirable/popular than others; For the really defunct ones, houses are real real cheap, mostly because you wouldn't want to live there. But there's a lot of in between ground as well.

So my guess is you'll spend a year at least before you figure out which area suits you, then you shortlist the compounds (or properties of a compound) and then go hunt for available houses..

A nice website to start is the following: http://www.jasminehomes.co.th/

It's a real estate site of course, but WHY is this one better than everything else:

1. They don't play games with you on where the property is. Most other sites have a bunch of pictures of nice houses, but don't say where it's located. Given the importance of location and the particular development, this just won't do. With some of them, even after calling or emailing they STILL try to hide where the property is.. "Are you going to tell me where it is before I transfer the money then?".

2. Prices are reasonable. They make a percentage of course, but I think it's not over 5%. So cut a couple 100-300K (negotiation, etc) and you're at pretty much the price that is mostly a fair one.

That said, I think the RENTAL properties ARE overpriced, like everywhere else at agents. You can do MUCH better looking around yourself if you want to rent.

And, I'm NOT saying it's good or otherwise to actually buy from them; merely that this SITE will give you a good overview of what's typically available and a ballpark figure for the price.

Cheers,

Chanchao

Edited May 20, 2007 by chanchao

[likite]

How do you guys who live in those places in CM find the security side of things? I am considering buying (been renting for years in BKK) and work away a lot and worry about the Mrs being alone in the house or when we both go away and leave the place empty for a few weeks.

Obviously it depends on the mooban. If you just drive into the mooban with no checks then it's not going to be secure as one where they ask for ID cards etc. Having said all that the vast majority of moobans like Chiang Mai itself are pretty safe. Not something to worry about.

[garp]

My 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house is also for sale. Kitchen extension to the rear.

2 and a half years old.

nice village including swimming pool and gym.

pm me if you are intersted in more details.

[DrFisher]

Just my opinion I think houses and property in Thailand are way over priced taking the instability of....... well I don't want to say it use your imagination and the average income of Thai people. I look at the housing market in the USA and it is affordable for the average American to be a home owner no matter how good bad or indifferent the home is but the truth is a house costs almost the same here as it does in the area I am from in the USA (of a good quality that is).

[ProThaiExpat]

Dr.Fisher, what part of the U.S. are you from where you can buy a custom made home of 200 sq. meters, 2000 sq. ft. for 50,000 USD like I did here in Chiang Mai?

[Ulysses G.]