The actual value of land in a Thai person's thinking

[beautifulthailand99]

My wife's sister has inherited about 1/3 of a rai of land near Hat Yai airport. it is reached by a dirt road of about 300m connected to a paved road and has electricity via poles but no water connection or sewerage. Looking at the Land Office map there seem to be loads of small parcels of land all in the jungle. She seems to think that land is worth about 5 million a rai in this area so would give a nominal value of around 1.5 -2  million.

 

I can't see why anybody would want to buy this land - a big developer would be looking for large plots next to existing facilities and small pockets are of no real use to them and there is no developed neigjbour who would want to add this to their footprint. So the only value I can see is it has some value for someone rich enough to buy up cheap land for their own landbank and would only do so if it was very cheap. Am I roughly right in my thinking and what would be a very cheap 0.5 of a mill maybe? I suspect she won't want to accept a price that isn't aligned with her current thinking and so will never sell and therefore has no actual value. Or is it a bit like Bitcoin but a tangible asset in and of itself?

Edited December 21, 2023 by beautifulthailand99

[Celsius]

10 minutes ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

So the only value I can see is it has some value for someone rich enough to buy up

 

Enter beautifulthailand99

[beautifulthailand99]

Just now, Celsius said:

 

Enter beautifulthailand99

Nope, we won't my wife is divesting assets now for cash. We sold a studio condo in Hat Yai last year and the last thing we want is any more immovable difficult-to-shift assets. We are taking her there in the new year though to sort out her name on the deeds and talk to some agents. I suspect most won't be interested in bothering. Her sister will be looking probably to borrow against this as it's the only thing of value that she owns but my missus will do her usual tough love. The family bank is closed.

[Celsius]

5 minutes ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

Nope, we won't my wife is divesting assets now for cash. We sold a studio condo in Hat Yai last year and the last thing we want is any more immovable difficult-to-shift assets. We are taking her there in the new year though to sort out her name on the deeds and talk to some agents. I suspect most won't be interested in bothering. Her sister will be looking probably to borrow against this as it's the only thing of value that she owns but my missus will do her usual tough love. The family bank is closed.

 

My wife owns almost the exact plot of land very very similar to what you describe. She bought it almost 10 years ago for 300k baht. Today she values it at 300k baht.... if she can sell it.

 

My ex wife owns many rai of land in Surat Thani with mature rubber trees and different kinds of fruit. That land is valued at 3 million baht per RAI today. Your wife is dreaming.

Edited December 21, 2023 by Celsius

[beautifulthailand99]

10 minutes ago, Celsius said:

 

My wife owns almost the exact plot of land very very similar to what you describe. She bought it almost 10 years ago for 300k baht. Today she values it at 300k baht.... if she can sell it.

 

My ex wife owns many rai of land in Surat Thani with mature rubber trees and different kinds of fruit. That land is valued at 3 million baht per RAI today. Your wife is dreaming.

Wise words and aligns with my thinking. There is no such buyer that wants such a thing and so it has no real value in the real world in the absence of the greater fool. That said my wife seems to think a pig's head, pineapples, assorted fruit and joss sticks may spur the land spirits to bring in a new owner.

Edited December 21, 2023 by beautifulthailand99

[soi3eddie]

46 minutes ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

I suspect she won't want to accept a price that isn't aligned with her current thinking and so will never sell and therefore has no actual value.

Correct as happens over and over again. Or until they are forced to accept whatever someone offers when they are destitute and need money to pay debts.

 

[Scouse123]

13 hours ago, soi3eddie said:

Correct as happens over and over again. Or until they are forced to accept whatever someone offers when they are destitute and need money to pay debts.

 

 

In Isaarn the Thais have dreams that somebody is going to come along and buy it to put a petrol station and service centre on it, so their land, in their thinking, is worth a fortune.

 

We have loads of shut down rusting sites on plots of land near the main road that were once small petrol stations, but they never learn.

 

Nobody will pay any more their dream figures for their little plots of land.

 

They just cannot compete with the big boys at PTT etc obviously, with great big service centres, public toilets, Supermarkets, 7-11s, and Amazon coffee etc.

 

Separately, on a different note.

 

Adjacent to where I live, we ourselves have 4 Rai walled in, I made an offer on some vacant land, (2.5 Rai) to ensure we never had neighbours.

 

The old woman said she would sell it, the land is not roadside, it is in the village, and they have been growing sugar cane illegally, and the land is not much use.

 

She first asked 600K, then 750K baht, then 1 million baht, then 1.5 million baht.

 

It changed so much regularly, I walked away. I would have given her the 750K for 2.5 Rai. She was putting the price up every time my partner spoke with her.

 

To cut a long story short, she struggled with money and borrowed from the Chinese moneylenders who have just taken her land for the borrowed 350K debt.

 

So, she is out of pocket 400K for being greedy and an idiot.

 

The daughters have been stopping my partner and calling at the house for weeks, trying like hell to sell to us to pay the moneylenders and get something out of it.

 

My other half said, he is no longer interested. Now, they give me 'dirty looks 'when I drive past.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Scouse123

[Kwaibill]

In a parralel vein my wife was disappointed I didn't get a fortune when selling thirty five acres in an off grid area in US southwest. Hard for Thais to imagine how much vacant space there is in the rest of the world. I think they all take Bkk e.g. as the “ standard.

[Asquith Production]

2 years ago I bought a small piece of land next door to me for 400000 baht. 2 years previous to that the guy who had inherited it was proudly advertising at 1.2 million. I saw people come and go but because of restricted access I knew he would struggle. I would talk with him but showed no interest. He said he would sell to me for 800000. Over time we reached what I thought was fair. 

[Thingamabob]

Thais seem to be wildly optimistic re land and house prices. A guy with a townhouse near to me In Ratchayothin, Bangkok is wanting to sell for 9m but the top price for his property should be 5m max.

[cracker1]

16 hours ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

My wife's sister has inherited about 1/3 of a rai of land near Hat Yai airport. it is reached by a dirt road of about 300m connected to a paved road and has electricity via poles but no water connection or sewerage. Looking at the Land Office map there seem to be loads of small parcels of land all in the jungle. She seems to think that land is worth about 5 million a rai in this area so would give a nominal value of around 1.5 -2  million.

 

I can't see why anybody would want to buy this land - a big developer would be looking for large plots next to existing facilities and small pockets are of no real use to them and there is no developed neigjbour who would want to add this to their footprint. So the only value I can see is it has some value for someone rich enough to buy up cheap land for their own landbank and would only do so if it was very cheap. Am I roughly right in my thinking and what would be a very cheap 0.5 of a mill maybe? I suspect she won't want to accept a price that isn't aligned with her current thinking and so will never sell and therefore has no actual value. Or is it a bit like Bitcoin but a tangible asset in and of itself?

 

[cracker1]

I think your thoughts are about right. It's value will be greater if it has a Chanote but many small parcels as described, do not.

[stoner]

2 hours ago, Scouse123 said:

 

So, she is out of pocket 400K for being greedy and an idiot.

 

The daughters have been stopping my partner and calling at the house for weeks, trying like hell to sell to us to pay the moneylenders and get something out of it.

 

My other half said, he is no longer interested. Now, they give me 'dirty looks 'when I drive past.

 

she sure showed you eh. 

[it is what it is]

 

land is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.

[it is what it is]

2 hours ago, Scouse123 said:

 

In Isaarn the Thais have dreams that somebody is going to come along and buy it to put a petrol station and service centre on it, so their land, in their thinking, is worth a fortune.

 

We have loads of shut down rusting sites on plots of land near the main road that were once small petrol stations, but they never learn.

 

Nobody will pay any more their dream figures for their little plots of land.

 

They just cannot compete with the big boys at PTT etc obviously, with great big service centres, public toilets, Supermarkets, 7-11s, and Amazon coffee etc.

 

Separately, on a different note.

 

Adjacent to where I live, we ourselves have 4 Rai walled in, I made an offer on some vacant land, (2.5 Rai) to ensure we never had neighbours.

 

The old woman said she would sell it, the land is not roadside, it is in the village, and they have been growing sugar cane illegally, and the land is not much use.

 

She first asked 600K, then 750K baht, then 1 million baht, then 1.5 million baht.

 

It changed so much regularly, I walked away. I would have given her the 750K for 2.5 Rai. She was putting the price up every time my partner spoke with her.

 

To cut a long story short, she struggled with money and borrowed from the Chinese moneylenders who have just taken her land for the borrowed 350K debt.

 

So, she is out of pocket 400K for being greedy and an idiot.

 

The daughters have been stopping my partner and calling at the house for weeks, trying like hell to sell to us to pay the moneylenders and get something out of it.

 

My other half said, he is no longer interested. Now, they give me 'dirty looks 'when I drive past.

 

 

 

 

 

 

you havne't finished the story... have you bought the land from the moneylenders?

[VocalNeal]

7 minutes ago, it is what it is said:

 

land is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.

 

Then she can go to a bank and try to borrow money against it.

[beautifulthailand99]

14 minutes ago, it is what it is said:

 

you havne't finished the story... have you bought the land from the moneylenders?

And then we are back to the farang price money stand-off where the price of face (which is more real than the land) comes into play. Some great anecdotes on this thread thanks for sharing.

[Scouse123]

29 minutes ago, it is what it is said:

 

you havne't finished the story... have you bought the land from the moneylenders?

 

No. Not yet 

 

Those guys are in the habit of acquiring land cheap and selling expensive 

[Eric Loh]

Checked with the district land office to find out what the land can be used for. Industrial land is valued more than agriculture land. Some land can only be used for homes which has low value. 

[crazykopite]

You can’t get a small plot of beach land in Samui for under 25 million baht and you would be extremely lucky if you got a plot for that amount try upwards of 30 million and if it’s got a house on it you can double the price 

[beautifulthailand99]

9 minutes ago, Scouse123 said:

 

No. Not yet 

 

Those guys are in the habit of acquiring land cheap and selling expensive 

Plus they will know you want it. It takes a long time for sober realism to set in. The true price is the walk-away price.

Edited December 22, 2023 by beautifulthailand99

[radiochaser]

2 hours ago, Thingamabob said:

Thais seem to be wildly optimistic re land and house prices. A guy with a townhouse near to me In Ratchayothin, Bangkok is wanting to sell for 9m but the top price for his property should be 5m max.

A condo in Nonthaburi was up for sale by the developer for 5 years.  Asking price was 9 million baht for a 2 bedroom 2 bath, 2 balcony condo on the 26th floor of a building, overlooking the river, 2 swimming pools, 2 exercise rooms.  Strange how all that is in 2's.   The wife wanted to see it and it looked nice.   But she thought the price was too high.  

A few months later our son's wife told her the price dropped to 4.9 million baht.   Wife flew Thailand and bought it.  It is a nice place. 

[beautifulthailand99]

The studio condo I'm in (15th floor Jomtien side) I'm in View Talay 2A started at 1.9 mill from the owner (Thai company name) in 2017 - he sold to us (or strictly speaking to my wife for Thai chanote) in 2019 just before Covid for 1.2. We got a walk away price.

[radiochaser]

21 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

Checked with the district land office to find out what the land can be used for. Industrial land is valued more than agriculture land. Some land can only be used for homes which has low value. 

15 or 20 years ago a Japanese firm wanted to buy the 10 rai of land my mother in law owned.  They offered her $2,000,000.00 U.S. for it.   Mother in law turned them down.  

My wife now owns the 10 rai and has a signed contract with her cousin who farms rice on it.  It is worth more than she gets for the lease.  

[Dan O]

17 hours ago, beautifulthailand99 said:

My wife's sister has inherited about 1/3 of a rai of land near Hat Yai airport. it is reached by a dirt road of about 300m connected to a paved road and has electricity via poles but no water connection or sewerage. Looking at the Land Office map there seem to be loads of small parcels of land all in the jungle. She seems to think that land is worth about 5 million a rai in this area so would give a nominal value of around 1.5 -2  million.

 

I can't see why anybody would want to buy this land - a big developer would be looking for large plots next to existing facilities and small pockets are of no real use to them and there is no developed neigjbour who would want to add this to their footprint. So the only value I can see is it has some value for someone rich enough to buy up cheap land for their own landbank and would only do so if it was very cheap. Am I roughly right in my thinking and what would be a very cheap 0.5 of a mill maybe? I suspect she won't want to accept a price that isn't aligned with her current thinking and so will never sell and therefore has no actual value. Or is it a bit like Bitcoin but a tangible asset in and of itself?

That's common here to have land values unrealistically high in general. I think its partially because its the only real asset most thais, especially rural farmers have. I think they see it as their retirement fund sort of. Land sits on the market here a long time unless there's really some real desirable aspect to its location currently or coming in the near future. 

 

Thais also don't mind having tiny lots if the build their own homes with minimum distance between houses if its in or near a village setting. It gets crazy how their minds work some times. Same with new developments being built often have house so close that the rain run off from the roof falls into the neighbors yard

[beautifulthailand99]

44 minutes ago, radiochaser said:

15 or 20 years ago a Japanese firm wanted to buy the 10 rai of land my mother in law owned.  They offered her $2,000,000.00 U.S. for it.   Mother in law turned them down.  

My wife now owns the 10 rai and has a signed contract with her cousin who farms rice on it.  It is worth more than she gets for the lease.  

Ouch - my wife adds that the locals might not have liked their area being industrialised and her local community reputation may have been more important than mere money. Indeed a local hero.

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by beautifulthailand99

[Jackbenimble]

35 minutes ago, Dan O said:

That's common here to have land values unrealistically high in general. I think its partially because its the only real asset most thais, especially rural farmers have. I think they see it as their retirement fund sort of. Land sits on the market here a long time unless there's really some real desirable aspect to its location currently or coming in the near future. 

 

Thais also don't mind having tiny lots if the build their own homes with minimum distance between houses if its in or near a village setting. It gets crazy how their minds work some times. Same with new developments being built often have house so close that the rain run off from the roof falls into the neighbors yard

a good guttering salesman/woman could make a killing here. 

[digger70]

What the land is worth and what people want/think that it is really worth are 2 major different things .

The true value off the land is valued by the Lands office every few years.   

 Land Office's 'assessed' value.   

What people want when they sell land is normal an exaggerated price.

Lady Digger bought a small plot . Lands department charged her a transfer fee  according to their appraised value ,

That was some amount  less then the asking /value sale price.

[spidermike007]

Dreamers are just that. Thinking it, does not make it so. Anyone can ask anything for anything they have. Does not mean a thing.

[zyphodb]

6 hours ago, Thingamabob said:

Thais seem to be wildly optimistic re land and house prices. A guy with a townhouse near to me In Ratchayothin, Bangkok is wanting to sell for 9m but the top price for his property should be 5m max.

 

Secondhand cars and motorbikes too...