Anyone trying to sell condo?

[from the home of CC]

2 hours ago, blackcab said:

This happens time and time again.

 

One reason is that mortgages for second hand property are not easy to get for a lot of people.

 

On the other hand, if they buy a new condo the developer can help them obtain a mortgage, and sometimes the developer will throw in a furniture pack or some other inducement.

 

That leaves cash buyers, of which there are not many. Cash buyers have their pick of literally thousands of units, so they tend to choose units priced at a deep discount.

from what I've noticed in the last 20 years is that Thais like to buy 'new' - from cars to homes, which can explain some of the horrendous personal debts to banks. It's almost seems that they believe buying second hand is loso, so imo it's not just a financial consideration though considering the state of affairs presently, that may change...

[Peterw42]

The OP says

"fortunately not with my money."

So any speculation about exchange rate gains/losses is a moot point

[OneMoreFarang]

14 minutes ago, from the home of CC said:

from what I've noticed in the last 20 years is that Thais like to buy 'new'

I guess one of the reasons is that it is not easy to find qualified and trustworthy people to do repairs and renovations. I heard enough stories from unprofessional repairs and money wasted or stolen.

[Airalee]

4 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

Probably many in the same situation.

There is an old adage in real estate "That you make the money when you buy, not when you sell", so the property was probably over priced 11 years ago and reflected in trying to realise a profit today.

I imagine your wife is probably way ahead from not paying rent or a rental income for 11 years,

Maybe factor in the no rent or income and set a price accordingly. There are more ways of realising a profit than just resale.

Yes, that old adage is correct, however, one must also consider opportunity costs (if a cash purchase), the cost of money (if mortgaged) and the fact that return of capital is also important to consider above and beyond the return on capital (if rented).

[Yellowtail]

1 minute ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I guess one of the reasons is that it is not easy to find qualified and trustworthy people to do repairs and renovations. I heard enough stories from unprofessional repairs and money wasted or stolen.

 

There are places that are not cheap that are easy to find and that do quality renovations.

 

There are also places that are cheap that do quality renovations but they are difficult to find. 

 

There are also places the do lousy work, regardless of the price.

 

 

[OneMoreFarang]

5 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

 

There are places that are not cheap that are easy to find and that do quality renovations.

 

There are also places that are cheap that do quality renovations but they are difficult to find. 

 

There are also places the do lousy work, regardless of the price.

That reminds of of that quote with the part: "and give me the wisdom to know the difference"

[Airalee]

6 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

That reminds of of that quote with the part: "and give me the wisdom to know the difference"

But sometimes (as I found), that wisdom is only gained after it is too late…which reminds me of the quote….”if you want something done right, you’re better off doing it yourself”.

[scubascuba3]

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

11 years ago I was getting 50 to the pound .......... so 10%.

Yes Aug 2009 it was 56

[from the home of CC]

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I guess one of the reasons is that it is not easy to find qualified and trustworthy people to do repairs and renovations. I heard enough stories from unprofessional repairs and money wasted or stolen.

you could be right, if the market for this type of labor isn't there why invest your time learning the craft?

[OneMoreFarang]

10 minutes ago, from the home of CC said:

why invest your time learning the craft?

I am sure there is a market for high quality labor.

But I think that many people don't want to be craftsmen. It seems being a craftsman is for many too low on that pecking order. Office manager sounds so much better... 

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, Airalee said:

”if you want something done right, you’re better off doing it yourself”.

I would love to do that.

But we are all getting older. I.e. falling from a ladder has different consequences with 20 or 50. 

[HAPPYNUFF]

Thai logic.....A two storied house diagonal from us   has been empty and for sale over 5 years now. Original sale price was 1,250,000 baht.  Seller was offered 1,100,000   and refused it.   Seller then decided as property was obviously desirable, upped the price to 1,400,000.  Never had another offer last 3 years, and the place is rapidly deteriorating/

[Tubulat]

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I guess one of the reasons is that it is not easy to find qualified and trustworthy people to do repairs and renovations. I heard enough stories from unprofessional repairs and money wasted or stolen.

An other point to mention is, (its my experience) when they, the Thai in particular, don't like to spent much more money after they owns the apartment/house, or whatever else.

I remember the wooden railings of the balcony are made of wood.

By the sea these balustrades are quickly in need of maintenance so the management  suggest to change for stainles steel.

Forget it, no way, they have to pay for it and they don't have the money for this.

[from the home of CC]

8 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I am sure there is a market for high quality labor.

But I think that many people don't want to be craftsmen. It seems being a craftsman is for many too low on that pecking order. Office manager sounds so much better... 

that's the same thing in my country - tradesmen have always been considered 'blue collar' with most kids aiming for higher education which ironically has meant there are a lot of $20 /hr workers with 250k of student debt. Still today, skilled trades are woefully undersold as a career which has led to labor shortages, the last project I worked on three years ago (15 billion/4000 workers) looked like a united nations convention. It's a real shame that working with your hands is looked down on by many because at least where I'm from it can afford you real job security and a good wage. Counseling in school should be where it starts, I believe the UK has excelled in this. 

[Yellowtail]

1 minute ago, Tubulat said:

I remember the wooden railings of the balcony are made of wood.

That is amazing indeed. 

 

Does seem to be an awful lot of higher end home stores for a country full of people with no money. 

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, scubascuba3 said:

Yes Aug 2009 it was 56

That's 12 years ago!

[Airalee]

39 minutes ago, HAPPYNUFF said:

Thai logic.....A two storied house diagonal from us   has been empty and for sale over 5 years now. Original sale price was 1,250,000 baht.  Seller was offered 1,100,000   and refused it.   Seller then decided as property was obviously desirable, upped the price to 1,400,000.  Never had another offer last 3 years, and the place is rapidly deteriorating/

It’s unfortunate that the seller hadn’t been acquainted with the saying “the first offer is usually the best offer”.

 

https://merrimackvalleymarealestate.com/first-offer-usually-best-offer/

 

[Thomas J]

6 hours ago, Pravda said:

Lets talk about the experience.

 

Wifey bought a new project 11 years ago. Paid almost 1.6mil baht - fortunately not with my money.

 

Now trying to sell for 1.3mil.

From what I see there is a glut of condo's for sale and that would depress prices.  Also the property your wife purchased was "new" then and now it is used.  The only way it would maintain its value is if similar new properties were selling for substantially more money.  

Now as to timing.  You have a strong baht which makes exchanging into baht more expensive.  You have the severe travel restrictions so foreign buyers who may have been interested in a condo are reluctant to purchase for fear of not being able to come or such as now where they have to spend 15 days in quarantine. You are also competing against rentals.  People who might have purchased a condo to stay in Thailand for a few weeks or months now are seeing beautiful condo's and homes renting at bargain basement prices.  Why own, be stuck paying common maintenance charges when you can rent cheaply and just turn the keys in at the end of the rental. 

With the constant building of even more condo's the developers will also be under pressure to get some of them sold and recoup some of their money.  I am afraid that those selling condos or homes in Thailand today are going to either have to hang on for a long time or bite the bullet and take a significant loss. 

 

[vangrop]

5 hours ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

That would rely on sellers exchanging their felang money to buy a Condo when the Baht was sky high a few years ago .

   I would suggest that the majority of felangs bought their Condos when the Baht was much lower than it currently is 

You better hurry, because the bath is slowly going down specifically compared to the euro

[Pravda]

4 minutes ago, Thomas J said:

The only way it would maintain its value is if similar new properties were selling for substantially more money.  

 

Now this is the thing. New condos with same square footage are selling for twice the price. These are the cheapest ones and they do sell. Not much... probably 1 every 3 months, but they do sell. This area is popular with international students, but of course students are nowhere in sight. Now the rents are depressed as well, so for investment only it would make more sense to buy used than new as new condo costs twice the price, but are rent is only 20% more.

Edited July 10, 2021 by Pravda

[OneMoreFarang]

59 minutes ago, HAPPYNUFF said:

Thai logic.....A two storied house diagonal from us   has been empty and for sale over 5 years now. Original sale price was 1,250,000 baht.  Seller was offered 1,100,000   and refused it.   Seller then decided as property was obviously desirable, upped the price to 1,400,000.  Never had another offer last 3 years, and the place is rapidly deteriorating/

I guess for some people its a mind-game.

If your neighbor would have sold it for 1.1m then probably he would think for years: that was a bad deal, I lost lots of money.

Now he probably thinks: I have this valuable house which is worth 1.4m 

[Thomas J]

8 minutes ago, Pravda said:

Now this is the thing. New condos with same square footage are selling for twice the price.

Are they "selling" or asking at twice the price.  There will always be a premium for new since everything is up to date and sparkling.  I can only say that I see lots of condos advertised.  My fiance backed out of a condo purchase two years ago.  She was going to pay 1.6 million for it.  Today I see the same condo, in the same building still not sold out, and they are asking, 1.1 million for the identical units so I suspect it can be purchased for less than that. 

[alex8912]

19 hours ago, sucit said:

This isn’t the time to sell. I would be patient. RE is booming in the west. It stands to reason that pattern may work it’s way here in the near term. 

Omg 

[KarenBravo]

19 hours ago, Henryford said:

I bought my condo for 3.5 million 15 years ago. Would be lucky to get 3 million now. That would be a disaster in the West but with exchange rates changes i suppose i could make a 33% profit.

Only if you transferred the money back to your home country and spent it there.

If you are still staying in Thailand and spending Baht, you will eat the loss.

[AJBangkok]

16 hours ago, from the home of CC said:

from what I've noticed in the last 20 years is that Thais like to buy 'new' - from cars to homes, which can explain some of the horrendous personal debts to banks. It's almost seems that they believe buying second hand is loso, so imo it's not just a financial consideration though considering the state of affairs presently, that may change...

It’s not always that Thai’s like to buy new, a lot of it is that they are forced to buy new due to the lending practices. If you buy a condo or house from the developer a bank will loan 90% of the price. If you buy 2’nd hand they will loan 50-60% of the price. Add to that you have developer financing where you get 3 years or more to pay the 10% deposit. Same goes for cars, banks and finance companies will loan 90-95% on a new but only around 50% maybe 60% on a second hand car depending on how old it is.

 

Then you have to factor in demand and as the demand pool for condos that you only have to pay a 10% deposit eclipses the demand for condos that you have to pay a 40% or 50% deposit so the people wanting to sell a 2’nd hand condo have further drop selling prices to make their condo more attractive to the buyer.

 

[robblok]

Think it is about location in my area i can easily get 1.5 the value of what i paid for it originally. But then again a big shopping center and a sky train were build. Those were not there 15 years ago. Now its a far more desirable place. I think its often the luck of a draw how an area develops.

[Pravda]

5 minutes ago, robblok said:

Think it is about location in my area i can easily get 1.5 the value of what i paid for it originally. But then again a big shopping center and a sky train were build. Those were not there 15 years ago. Now its a far more desirable place. I think its often the luck of a draw how an area develops.

 

Her place is close to HuaMak airport link and literally a step from upcoming skytrain (or is it monorail) station.

 

In the past few years I learned a lot about how condos are managed. The condos that seem to be doing ok are the builders who manage their own condo. Sena, for example, rarely lets outsiders in so the money is never misappropriated or stolen. A lot of developers like Ananda will hire Lumpini to manage everything and those condos also seem to be doing ok. The others torn to trash and have their accounts emptied.

[BE88]

 

 

He probably did not want to travel with the Covid situation, a very difficult situation now for business, it takes patience to sell a property, now even more.

[kynikoi]

20 hours ago, sucit said:

This isn’t the time to sell. I would be patient. RE is booming in the west. It stands to reason that pattern may work it’s way here in the near term. 

RE market is on the way down in Thailand.

 

US in particular is in a bubble not a good gauge. Besides, Thailand is a planet in its own solar system.

 

Looked at overpriced condos just this morning, people are lost. Build quality, lack of windows, ugly interiors, furnishings I wouldnt want in a crack house. location!! Hot... 40-60+% overpriced.

[Yellowtail]

1 hour ago, KarenBravo said:

Only if you transferred the money back to your home country and spent it there.

If you are still staying in Thailand and spending Baht, you will eat the loss.

Or you could look at it as him paying ~12K a month for rent. (at 3%)