Advice for a newbie buying farm land in Thailand

[Steve910]

I have found some land me and my wife like (1 rai) which is on slight downward slope with a small hill 1 rai away. The entire area is pineapple farm and dirt road. I am now in the process of surveying the local area, seeing if it matches our needs and if there are any red flags.

The goal is to farm privately for ourselves (nothing commercial), for everyone who has a farm land, can you please advise a newbie on other things I should take into account because I am sure there are many things I am not considering, so I would greatly appreciate your inputs. 

[djayz]

Just my 2 cents worth;

Is there water on the land (stream, borehole, mains)? 

Is there fencing around the property (to keep out neighbours who forage and stray dogs). 

[kickstart]

One rie is not a lot of land, but enough for your needs, and relatively easy to improve without a lot of investment, first thing to look at is the fertility of the soil.

I do not know where you are ,but see if your local agriculture office can do fertility test on your soil, take them a sample see if they can check on soil mineral's and more impotent the soil organic matter, or if they cannot do it, ask your local agriculture collage to see  if they can do it .

Thai soil is almost renowned for not being over fertile monoculture of rice, sugar cane, cassava, takes it toil on the soil.

Have a word with our soil Gure  drtreelove he can give you some good advice.

I would say put in some Sun hemp or Mung Beans, let them grow up. then plough them in as a green manure, it would do the soil a lot of good.

Then I would find a local farmer, probably a sugar cane farmer and get him with his sub-soiler to sub-soil the land it would break up the pan underneath help drainage and give the soil a chance to breath. 

[jvs]

On 5/18/2023 at 8:47 AM, djayz said:

Just my 2 cents worth;

Is there water on the land (stream, borehole, mains)? 

Is there fencing around the property (to keep out neighbours who forage and stray dogs). 

This,make sure there is enough water other wise forget it.

[KhunLA]

First, are you farmer ?  If not, forget it.

 

Water, if not there, working well/bore hole, put one in before buying, condition of purchase.  If not, forget it.

 

Many more red flags,  but if you can get pass those 2, chime back in.

[3NUMBAS]

avocados of course 

[still kicking]

What happens if he split up with his wife won't he lose the land?

[greeneking]

Just now, still kicking said:

What happens if he split up with his wife won't he lose the land?

Yes.  No-one has asked yet about the cost.  

[Celsius]

It is always a good idea to buy something you can not own

[Hummin]

1 hour ago, Celsius said:

It is always a good idea to buy something you can not own

It is a good investment for the wife, and I would not care much about a few rai lost. 

 

What kind of title do the land have? How far from infrastructure like electric and road! You intend to build on the land? 

 

Have the neighbours vorehole, and how deep did they have to go? Any salt water at any depts? 

[connda]

Who are the closest neighbors?  How isolated will you be.
If you're isolated, how long do you plan to stay alive?
TIT.

[Hummin]

where do you live in Thailand?

[swissie]

Inspite of all the possible "legal aritmetics" offered by lawyers, in the end your wife will own the land.

If worse comes to worse, 1 Rai of land will not possibly break you financially, if things "go wrong" eventually. Granted, that the property is in rural Thailand.

More important: As opposed to Thai Wifes, asking the Farang to buy hundreds of Rai, your wifes damand seem modest. This speaks in favour of  the charackter of your wife.

- As long as neighboring farmers can farm their land, so can you. Close your eyes and go for it under the motto "damm the torpedos". A "modest wife" at your side is a greater asset than the price of 1 Rai of land.

 

[Steve910]

Thanks for all the comments so far. To answer everything above in this post

1. My Thai wife will buy the land not me
2. We are farming only for ourselves, we want to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, chilies, morning glorly and other easy to grew veggies in Thailand and have 5-6 chickens. We do not want to grow at scale to sell or make a profit. We only want to grow what we will eat (think of an allotment type of farming) 
3. We are only looking to buy 1 rai as that is enough for our needs.
4. We are considering both types of land with electric and without, the land is near a dam and there is lots of water access.
5. Within a 1km radius there is about 5 houses, two are directly next to the land we are looking at. 

We have shifted our view deeper into the country as we realized that the land is more fertile, the land we saw that was closer to the beach needs to be worked on quite a bit, where deeper in we have seen land where people are growing durian, coffee beans, tomatoes, sunflower, papaya and coconut on the same plot.

Chanote will be red. 

Thank you so far for all your comments they are much appreciated. 
 

[Hummin]

2 hours ago, Steve910 said:

Thanks for all the comments so far. To answer everything above in this post

1. My Thai wife will buy the land not me
2. We are farming only for ourselves, we want to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, chilies, morning glorly and other easy to grew veggies in Thailand and have 5-6 chickens. We do not want to grow at scale to sell or make a profit. We only want to grow what we will eat (think of an allotment type of farming) 
3. We are only looking to buy 1 rai as that is enough for our needs.
4. We are considering both types of land with electric and without, the land is near a dam and there is lots of water access.
5. Within a 1km radius there is about 5 houses, two are directly next to the land we are looking at. 

We have shifted our view deeper into the country as we realized that the land is more fertile, the land we saw that was closer to the beach needs to be worked on quite a bit, where deeper in we have seen land where people are growing durian, coffee beans, tomatoes, sunflower, papaya and coconut on the same plot.

Chanote will be red. 

Thank you so far for all your comments they are much appreciated. 
 

I can guarantee you now, you will feel the need for more land. We started out on same idea with almost 4 rai.

 

 

If close to a dam, look for flooding signs. 

[CharlieH]

I would say "what paperwork comes with it" ? there are varying degrees of "ownership" and purpose etc.

Check its actually theirs to sell.

 

Who borders it and what are they doing with it (chemicals etc likely in use)

 

What are you paying forthis ONE rai ?

[patman30]

if you plan to live on the land also
buy a BIGGER plot.
1 rai is pretty small
have you done any planning to scale on skethup or anything?
how much is the 1 rai?
how set are you on the location?
chanote?
will any planning be needed for building or are you far out enough?

Edited May 22, 2023 by patman30

[Steve910]

9 hours ago, CharlieH said:

I would say "what paperwork comes with it" ? there are varying degrees of "ownership" and purpose etc.

Check its actually theirs to sell.

 

Hi Charlie, are you referring to the type of chanote and what can be done with the land? Is the best way to check if its theirs to sell is by seeing if their name matches the choante and if the land office confirms it is their land?

We are looking to pay 350k for 1 rai.

We are quite set on the location, we like the distance it is to a big city (Hua Hin) and to Bangkok. Far enough south that during pollution season PM2.5 doesn't reach sky high numbers for too long.

Edited May 22, 2023 by Steve910

[Steve910]

9 hours ago, patman30 said:

if you plan to live on the land also
buy a BIGGER plot.
1 rai is pretty small
have you done any planning to scale on skethup or anything?
how much is the 1 rai?
how set are you on the location?
chanote?
will any planning be needed for building or are you far out enough?

Edited 9 hours ago by patman30

Thank you for your comments, we are in the idea stage, we are just starting to sketch up the layout, the concept is outdoor living, the actual house we want fairly small (50-60sq meters), with most of the time spent outdoors. Thankfully part of the land has cracking shade cover with big trees where we can relax outside in a sala. 350k for 1 rai, next door owns the land we plan to buy, does pineapple farm, we hope if we want more land and the owners want to sell there is the option of getting more land.

 

Chanote is red.

Our plan is to use a knockdown house or container for living quarters, with a concrete outdoor kitchen and large sala area for relaxing. have not looked at if any planning will be needed for that.

Thank for all for your comments saying that 1 rai may be too small, I have met other couples in my age demo (mid 30s) and they often complain that 2 rai is too big because the amount of gardening that is required.  May I ask those who have bigger plots of land what you do with the extra space, grow more food for profit?

I should add the land we want is close to a national park where you have camping and an array of outdoor places to visit each day, we are only 10 mins away from this park and we plan to spend a few days a week there so we figure the 1 rai is a good size for us.
 

Edited May 22, 2023 by Steve910

[CharlieH]

20 minutes ago, Steve910 said:

Hi Charlie, are you referring to the type of chanote and what can be done with the land? Is the best way to check if its theirs to sell is by seeing if their name matches the choante and if the land office confirms it is their land?

We are looking to pay 350k for 1 rai.

We are quite set on the location, we like the distance it is to a big city (Hua Hin) and to Bangkok. Far enough south that during pollution season PM2.5 doesn't reach sky high numbers for too long.

 

Obviously areas/provinces vary, but 350k for 1 rai seems VERY high for farmland you described.

 

As for the "chanote" do they have one  or do they have other classification like "Dok Yar" where a chanote isn't available.

[KhunLA]

On 5/22/2023 at 8:16 AM, Steve910 said:

Thanks for all the comments so far. To answer everything above in this post

1. My Thai wife will buy the land not me
2. We are farming only for ourselves, we want to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, chilies, morning glorly and other easy to grew veggies in Thailand and have 5-6 chickens. We do not want to grow at scale to sell or make a profit. We only want to grow what we will eat (think of an allotment type of farming) 
3. We are only looking to buy 1 rai as that is enough for our needs.
4. We are considering both types of land with electric and without, the land is near a dam and there is lots of water access.
5. Within a 1km radius there is about 5 houses, two are directly next to the land we are looking at. 

We have shifted our view deeper into the country as we realized that the land is more fertile, the land we saw that was closer to the beach needs to be worked on quite a bit, where deeper in we have seen land where people are growing durian, coffee beans, tomatoes, sunflower, papaya and coconut on the same plot.

Chanote will be red. 

Thank you so far for all your comments they are much appreciated. 
 

That all sounds much better, red chanote & all.

 

Go for it, good luck ... ENJOY

[seajae]

I have a friend that has quite a bit of property near Hua Hin on the southern side, she told us that she is lucky as her land has fresh water under it while there is a lot with salt water below them(for bores etc), would pay to find out if anyone close by has a bore and if it is fresh water as last thing you want is salt water in the bore

 

[Steve910]

18 hours ago, CharlieH said:

Obviously areas/provinces vary, but 350k for 1 rai seems VERY high for farmland you described.

 

As for the "chanote" do they have one  or do they have other classification like "Dok Yar" where a chanote isn't available.

You're right 350k for farm land is on the high side in general. The location is Pranburi, most land here is selling for around 1m or more per rai as it's located very close to the beach. This land is 30mins away from the beach. It's quite rare for us to find land that is lower unless we are buying many rai.

The chanote is red, they have showed us a copy and it checks out on the app where you can view land and the bounderies, I am unaware of the name of the app but the wife has confirmed. 

Edited May 23, 2023 by Steve910

[Steve910]

5 hours ago, seajae said:

I have a friend that has quite a bit of property near Hua Hin on the southern side, she told us that she is lucky as her land has fresh water under it while there is a lot with salt water below them(for bores etc), would pay to find out if anyone close by has a bore and if it is fresh water as last thing you want is salt water in the bore

 

Thank you, the next door has told us we'd need to dig about 5 meters to get water but we'll confirm that with an actual test, there is also a lake nearby that we can draw from, and our nextdoor neighbor draws from the government and we'll just need to connect a pipe according to the care taker.  Thank you for your reply.

[Hummin]

13 minutes ago, Steve910 said:

You're right 350k for farm land is on the high side in general. The location is Pranburi, most land here is selling for around 1m or more per rai as it's located very close to the beach. This land is 30mins away from the beach. It's quite rare for us to find land that is lower unless we are buying many rai.

The chanote is red, they have showed us a copy and it checks out on the app where you can view land and the bounderies, I am unaware of the name of the app but the wife has confirmed. 

350k for chanote in Pranburi is not bad price at all. I would buy more to avoid neighbors, and you never know who is going to your neighbor or what they would build or do with the land. Pig farm next door? I have a friend it happened to. 

 

The more land, the more trees and shodow you can produce around your house, as well having a pond and chickens a bit further away from your house. 

 

Buying land is never lost money and a good investment for future, especially for your wife. But 350k for chanote in that area is great price in my opinion. Im eiger to go down and check the area myself. 

[kickstart]

23 hours ago, Steve910 said:

Thankfully part of the land has cracking shade cover with big trees where we can relax outside in a sala. 350k for 1 rai, next door

This caught my eye, shade is ok, nice to sit down with a beer in the evening etc.

But. Big trees will use a lot of water and nutrient and they can draw them from a fair way, the land near the trees will need a lot of work done to get it fertile enough to grow something on.

Also, a lot of plants do not like a lot of shad and will not grow, we have a row of Gratin trees, tall legume trees on our border with our neighbor, we grow Nappier grass for the cattle in places 3-4 meters form the trees nothing grows just too much shade, you will only have 1 Rie you could be losing a lot of growing land .

But you could keep your chickens they.

[MrJ2U]

On 5/18/2023 at 8:27 AM, Steve910 said:

for everyone who has a farm land, can you please advise a newbie on other things I should take into account

Don't buy farmland in Issan.  

 

You'll end up being bored shi**ess.

 

Not much money or glory farming in Thailand.   Think of the long term.  You'll want to be close to civilization and beaches. If you want fresh produce go to a market, skip growing it unless it's a few tomato plants. 

[Hummin]

20 minutes ago, MrJ2U said:

Don't buy farmland in Issan.  

 

You'll end up being bored shi**ess.

 

Not much money or glory farming in Thailand.   Think of the long term.  You'll want to be close to civilization and beaches. If you want fresh produce go to a market, skip growing it unless it's a few tomato plants. 

He is not buying farmland in Isaan, but Prachuap Khiri kan, and if you do not have the dicipline to get up in the morning, or work for yourself and your wife, or have resources to leave the place when you need a holiday, small farming anywhere will be dead boring  as you say anyplace. Just living in Pattaya will be boring by time to, just saying 

[MrJ2U]

14 minutes ago, Hummin said:

Prachuap Khiri kan,

Excellent!

 

 

[Plern]

Immediately knew this was 0 poster. Lol