Long term rental on Samui - 2 questions

[ding]

We're moving to Samui in a couple weeks. 

 

There's no Multiple Listing Service like in my country. No problem.

But I need to contact multiple agents to get info on different villas without MLS. Commissions aren't shared and villas are not in a shared inventory.

No problem again. 

BUT... One agent today told me Samui is a small island and she knows I've been talking to multiple agents.... and that I actually want to see the villa before putting a deposit down. That is the preferred route, obviously.

 

Also, villas advertised as "available" are never available - so far.  And there are villas available that are NOT advertised.

 

So, I'm aware I'm getting talked about there. No problem, this should be business and communication is part of it.

I've been a landlord for many years and want agents vigorously trying to rent or sell my property.

 

Everything seems to be renting out on Samui and 12 months is not possible due to being rented for Dec-Jan, or villas are just filling up fast - and causing prices to double.

 

My questions:

1) How do I do the footwork on finding a new home without offending agents there?

2) Do people put deposits down, and sign a 12 month contract, without seeing a property?

3) How do people find available inventory without "pestering" multiple agents?

 

We're actually considering another location now, so we're open to other suggestions too.

 

[Don Chance]

Try facebook Samui Apartment rental

[khunPer]

6 hours ago, ding said:

My questions:

1) How do I do the footwork on finding a new home without offending agents there?

2) Do people put deposits down, and sign a 12 month contract, without seeing a property?

3) How do people find available inventory without "pestering" multiple agents?

Your best choice is to get to Samui with or without pre-booking for something on short term, and search locally, you might see a nice house with a sign outside "For Rent", something that is not available on the Internet or through an agent. There are plenty available bungalows and villas on long term, but it might be depending of what you are looking for; i.e. price, location and size.

 

Some, if not many, villas comes with inventory, but you have numerous possibilities to buy your own; there are plenty of furniture shops with stuff available from cheap to relative high quality.

 

I've been renting on Samui during 6 years - before I build my own house - and when I found something that I like and a kind landlord, I used to negotiate a one year prepaid agreement, and I could save quite a bit doing that. I never had any problems with my landlord and the rented property, but I checked both the villa and the neighborhood before I rented it...????

[ding]

7 hours ago, khunPer said:

Your best choice is to get to Samui with or without pre-booking for something on short term, and search locally, you might see a nice house with a sign outside "For Rent", something that is not available on the Internet or through an agent. There are plenty available bungalows and villas on long term, but it might be depending of what you are looking for; i.e. price, location and size.

 

Some, if not many, villas comes with inventory, but you have numerous possibilities to buy your own; there are plenty of furniture shops with stuff available from cheap to relative high quality.

 

I've been renting on Samui during 6 years - before I build my own house - and when I found something that I like and a kind landlord, I used to negotiate a one year prepaid agreement, and I could save quite a bit doing that. I never had any problems with my landlord and the rented property, but I checked both the villa and the neighborhood before I rented it...????

Good advice. I've been tracking Thai real estate since the 90's and seriously for 2 years -especially since retiring early.

 

The Samui rental market seems very hot now.

 

Have you seen it heat up there, or are there that many owners who don't use the regular Fawaz, Hipflat etc sites?

 

Properties advertised on FB, and the main RE sites are taken, and rentals are very thin now.

Prices doubling in just a few months. And...

I'm thinking it will get more expensive as the June holiday crowd surges and the summer vacation in the west hits.

This is the only reason we're considering grabbing something sight unseen - which is against my DNA!

[Don Chance]

1 hour ago, ding said:

Good advice. I've been tracking Thai real estate since the 90's and seriously for 2 years -especially since retiring early.

 

The Samui rental market seems very hot now.

 

Have you seen it heat up there, or are there that many owners who don't use the regular Fawaz, Hipflat etc sites?

 

Properties advertised on FB, and the main RE sites are taken, and rentals are very thin now.

Prices doubling in just a few months. And...

I'm thinking it will get more expensive as the June holiday crowd surges and the summer vacation in the west hits.

This is the only reason we're considering grabbing something sight unseen - which is against my DNA!

Seriously? It is such a dumpy place. I don't get the attraction.

[ding]

4 minutes ago, Don Chance said:

Seriously? It is such a dumpy place. I don't get the attraction.

Where do you recommend? We're open.

[Don Chance]

Songkhla is nice thai town with a  windy beach.

If you are looking for quiet, there are tons of beach north of Ao Nang.

[The Hammer2021]

Just get there and look around!!!!

 

[Sparktrader]

I think mainland gives you more options. 

[Tropicalevo]

20 minutes ago, Sparktrader said:

I think mainland gives you more options. 

I would hope so seeing as the mainland is quite large.

Koh Samui is a small tropical island popular with domestic and International tourists.

Most of our rental villas have been booked throughout 'Covid' - with guests coming from the mainland.

We are still fully booked now and this is low season here.

[ThailandRyan]

1 hour ago, Don Chance said:

Songkhla is nice thai town with a  windy beach.

If you are looking for quiet, there are tons of beach north of Ao Nang.

Krabi is a great place and Villas are available.  I have been looking in that location as well as out in Phang Nga.  Samui is OK, but to get anywhere you need to fly or ferry out.

[gearbox]

Just post in the Samui related Facebook groups what type of property you are after, usually there are a number of replies.

At the moment Samui has only a small fraction of tourists compared to pre-covid times, hard to believe they've ran out of rentals.

 

[gearbox]

1 hour ago, Don Chance said:

Songkhla is nice thai town with a  windy beach.

If you are looking for quiet, there are tons of beach north of Ao Nang.

The beaches from Khanom to Songkhla are pretty good, however the water is far from crystal clear.

 

Otherwise I think Songkhla is a great place, was there again 2 weeks ago. Very very few foreigners to be seen in the area. I used quite a bit the Google translator, in the small villages around pretty much nobody speaks any English.

[khunPer]

3 hours ago, ding said:

Good advice. I've been tracking Thai real estate since the 90's and seriously for 2 years -especially since retiring early.

 

The Samui rental market seems very hot now.

 

Have you seen it heat up there, or are there that many owners who don't use the regular Fawaz, Hipflat etc sites?

 

Properties advertised on FB, and the main RE sites are taken, and rentals are very thin now.

Prices doubling in just a few months. And...

I'm thinking it will get more expensive as the June holiday crowd surges and the summer vacation in the west hits.

This is the only reason we're considering grabbing something sight unseen - which is against my DNA!

It's depending of what you are looking for, i.e. price, size and location.

 

Many houses are available right now, but might be that you are looking for something else. Luxury easily get booked in advance and often through agents. AirBnb is also a place to search, many uses that, but photos and description can be slightly different from real life...????

[ding]

28 minutes ago, gearbox said:

Just post in the Samui related Facebook groups what type of property you are after, usually there are a number of replies.

At the moment Samui has only a small fraction of tourists compared to pre-covid times, hard to believe they've ran out of rentals.

 

I can't believe it either! I'm told the owners make more $ doing short term rentals. I don't understand that unless they have high occupancy rates and low turnover expenses... no idea.

 

Anyway - Economies will probably crash soon and we can just wait it out somewhere else if needed. I'm checking out areas that I stopped researching a year ago. Thing is, where we start a new life will likely remain our home for many years.

 

[ding]

3 minutes ago, khunPer said:

It's depending of what you are looking for, i.e. price, size and location.

 

Many houses are available right now, but might be that you are looking for something else. Luxury easily get booked in advance and often through agents. AirBnb is also a place to search, many uses that, but photos and description can be slightly different from real life...????

Airbnb is short term focused, very hard to get 12 month rentals there, in my short experience.

 

We want a seaview pool villa or beachfront. The holiday crowd breaks up the 12 month possibilities now. Far fewer choices now. By the time an agent gets back to me ...wherever we want is not available for 12 months. This is why I'm even considering reserving by deposit from abroad, otherwise no way.

[khunPer]

1 minute ago, ding said:

Airbnb is short term focused, very hard to get 12 month rentals there, in my short experience.

 

We want a seaview pool villa or beachfront. The holiday crowd breaks up the 12 month possibilities now. Far fewer choices now. By the time an agent gets back to me ...wherever we want is not available for 12 months. This is why I'm even considering reserving by deposit from abroad, otherwise no way.

Sea view pool villas, and especially beach front, are of high demand; and private beachfront villas are little rare and often also little expensive, if they are not too old. I live beachfront, and there are rental villas close to me, but at the moment they seems booked on long term.

 

However, there are tons of sea view villas all over Samui, many of them - if not most - are for rent.

[gearbox]

48 minutes ago, ding said:

Airbnb is short term focused, very hard to get 12 month rentals there, in my short experience.

 

We want a seaview pool villa or beachfront. The holiday crowd breaks up the 12 month possibilities now. Far fewer choices now. By the time an agent gets back to me ...wherever we want is not available for 12 months. This is why I'm even considering reserving by deposit from abroad, otherwise no way.

You are targeting properties which are also in demand by the two week millionaires, this would make it a bit harder. Not that the two week millionaires are here, but there are some expectations that they'll return any time soon, which IMO is not going to happen.

I was talking to some people here, a landlord of a restaurant on Chaweng beach road wants cool 4 million bahts rent per year for his now dilapidated property. Insane, there are a number of vacant properties around it. Greed is coming back, but prematurely????

 

My advice is to lower your bar and come and rent something for 3-6 months, that's enough time to have a look around and even decide if you want to stay here. Most of the foreigners living here permanently don't rent beachfront villas, there are tons of properties only for long term rental.

[Tropicalevo]

8 hours ago, gearbox said:

a landlord of a restaurant on Chaweng beach road wants cool 4 million bahts rent per year

To the OP - most locals and expats avoid Chaweng. Over-priced and thanks to Covid, it is now a total mess.

Recovering slowly but it will be some years before it is back to 'normal'.

Chaweng beach is great - for tourists. Lousy sunsets but great sunrises (faces east).

As others have said - book somewhere for a month or so  and then look around.

My wife and I spent six months driving around Thailand looking for somewhere to live. She said "I do not care where but sunset and swimming pool".

Think about the north and west coasts.

 

[khunPer]

@ding, be prepared that beachfront villas for long term rent could be in the level of 60,000 baht a month for an old house without pool - such a house needs a good hand before it's worth living in, there are a couple close to me, but they still get quickly rented out, because it's cheap for the location - and from around 100,000 baht a month (normal short time price would be 125,000) for a newer small two-bed with a tiny pool. More luxurious beachfront pool villas comes at 15,000 baht (or more) per day (cleaning may be included), but might probably be negotiable for a all-year-rent discount.

 

You can rent nice sea-view pool villas on the hills from around 70,000 baht - or perhaps even less - per month.

 

When living in the hills you need transportation, and then it's worth also considering north coast or western view, as @Tropicalevo suggested. In general good areas to look for hill villas are Lamai and Chaweng Noi, both facing east; Plai Laem or the whole "Big Buddha peninsula"; Bo Phut hills and Bang Por hills, both facing north. There are some major hill developments on the south-western part of Samui, but I'm not familiar with any details...????

[ding]

Thanks for the input all!

 

We got a place on Samui up from Chaweng, less spectacular - but under budget.

All agents were very decent and helpful.

 

The market has changed dramatically, however, and everything I pursued was rented out before I could react, or the tenant extended.

 

So I had to take a place sight unseen, against my DNA. It was important to lock this in and the location is great for us.

 

We like the safety, it's close to a good hospital, the shopping we need to do, and also a great beach.

It has a functional little gym and the clincher was the Netflix! lol

Plus the development is surrounded by jungle - no cell towers, planes, or power lines - which is important to us.

[MrJ]

On 5/18/2022 at 9:16 PM, ding said:

Thanks for the input all!

 

We got a place on Samui up from Chaweng, less spectacular - but under budget.

All agents were very decent and helpful.

 

The market has changed dramatically, however, and everything I pursued was rented out before I could react, or the tenant extended.

 

So I had to take a place sight unseen, against my DNA. It was important to lock this in and the location is great for us.

 

We like the safety, it's close to a good hospital, the shopping we need to do, and also a great beach.

It has a functional little gym and the clincher was the Netflix! lol

Plus the development is surrounded by jungle - no cell towers, planes, or power lines - which is important to us.

out of interest - any link, details or pictures from this property?

[Pmbkk]

On 5/14/2022 at 10:38 PM, ding said:

2) Do people put deposits down, and sign a 12 month contract, without seeing a property?

 

Only if you're mad ! ????

 

I would massively advise against this.

[Hummin]

On 5/15/2022 at 2:57 PM, ding said:

Where do you recommend? We're open.

I prefer Koh Phangan a bit outside the busy areas. Pretty much got everything you need, and the food quality in the restaurants on the Island is very good. Surprisingly good for decent money. However my experience have been during covid, and I haven’t experienced the Islands the last 10 years in High Season, but for sure gave me an better impression than Koh Samui, and was not disappointed after two months stay this high season. 

[ding]

On 5/21/2022 at 4:04 PM, MrJ said:

out of interest - any link, details or pictures from this property?

I'll send the Fazwaz link in PM to you. It was 60K and I had to secure it prior to leaving the US. It worked out and I did as much due diligence as possible. It's good that I did because a lesser unit is now 75K and everything is filling up.

 

Economies will likely crash the market, I think, and demand along with prices may return to covid levels in time.