Construction Progress Northpoint Pattaya?

[nobody65]

Recently i purchased an apartment in the Northpoint Pattaya Project.

does anybody know how the construction is going?

[JonnieB]

Recently i purchased an apartment in the Northpoint Pattaya Project.

does anybody know how the construction is going?

What construction?? Showroom and model rooms like nice though. When I was up there a few weeks ago, the saleslady said they should start digging the hole next month (September). Take if for what's worth.

[steveromagnino]

Recently i purchased an apartment in the Northpoint Pattaya Project.

does anybody know how the construction is going?

What construction?? Showroom and model rooms like nice though. When I was up there a few weeks ago, the saleslady said they should start digging the hole next month (September). Take if for what's worth.

AFAIK they are somewhere around 40% sold, but that is total hearsay; based on this a few more sales and they should be ready to get financing and construction will commence; my own guess is a start sometime in the high season as this is going to be their golden time to sell units, so people will want to see something going on.

I'd pick that they start last week of Oct/early Nov. But total guess.

[jbaldwin]

This is one aspect of Thai property development that I really cannot understand. It seems to be fairly common for banks financing developments to make their committment conditional on selling a certain number of units (often as much 30%). However, I cannot understand why anyone would agree buy from a developer who has not already got financing in place. I would never consider buying at least until building had started

[nobody65]

This is one aspect of Thai property development that I really cannot understand. It seems to be fairly common for banks financing developments to make their committment conditional on selling a certain number of units (often as much 30%). However, I cannot understand why anyone would agree buy from a developer who has not already got financing in place. I would never consider buying at least until building had started

In case you wait until building had started the best units (or even all units) are all sold out. Thats the problem

[Crash999]

My friend's apartment overlooks the Northpoint site. Until about a month ago there was a fair amount of activity and noise but when I was there a few weeks back the equipment was gone. Beautiful showrooms though.

PS- May be a bit late but I'm selling my place in Northshore if you're interested!

[wpcoe]

Maybe they're waiting for final resolution of the View Talay 7 situation?

As I understand it, VT7 is waiting for the court-ordered map to be drawn up with a definitive "tideline" from which to measure 200 meters. I recall reading that Northpoint (and a few other high-profile projects) might be afoul of the 200-meter measurement, depending where the point of measurment is taken.

[JonnieB]

PS- May be a bit late but I'm selling my place in North Shore if you're interested!

Does anyone actually live at Northshore? Or are all the units owned by speculators and condo flippers now trapped in a liquidity squeeze? I mean, when I look at the building a night, it seems that only 5-10 units have any lights on in them

Have also heard that the construction quality at NS is pretty bad. Wouldn't be surprised about that, however, considering that the building's foundation and steel & concrete shell stood abandoned and exposed to the brutal Thai weather for something approaching 10 years before Raimon bought it and finished it up a couple years ago. I suppose the pretty sales-bunnies at Northshore "forgot" to mention that fact to all the newbie tourists and expats who snapped-up units in that development

Edited August 26, 2007 by JonnieB

[thaigene2]

This is one aspect of Thai property development that I really cannot understand. It seems to be fairly common for banks financing developments to make their committment conditional on selling a certain number of units (often as much 30%). However, I cannot understand why anyone would agree buy from a developer who has not already got financing in place. I would never consider buying at least until building had started

In case you wait until building had started the best units (or even all units) are all sold out. Thats the problem

Didn't you mean to finish the sentence like this?....

"....by speculators - usually Thais - who need only put a small amount down to 'buy' the unit (e.g. "sold out"), then pay small amounts per month till they can flip as building nears completion. Standard practice means they only pay around 15-20 % of the purchase price - prior to completion. WHAT HAPPENS IF THEY DON'T COUGH UP THE REST UPON COMPLETION OF THEY CAN'T FLIP???

Wake up you guys. These same developers are launching more and more 70-80 story buildings there. Even though only 40% sold in the last place. Doesn't that make you wonder WHY?? (answer: To take YOUR money to fund the other ones and ensure the bank approval on funding - you have no protection here from that).

Good luck to those who have bought a place that is still a greenfield.

TG2

[steveromagnino]

This is one aspect of Thai property development that I really cannot understand. It seems to be fairly common for banks financing developments to make their committment conditional on selling a certain number of units (often as much 30%). However, I cannot understand why anyone would agree buy from a developer who has not already got financing in place. I would never consider buying at least until building had started

This is not just Thailand; almost everywhere the general approach of real estate development is to have all terms agreed upon starting construction which will for sure usually include minimum sale points needed for the bank to continue providing lending facilities to the developer during the ongoing construction.

Very few developers use the complete then sell method; for housing Land and House are a bit of a market leader in introducing the build then sell method; but there are other factors that have forced them to do this.

If the developer is any good, they usually will not have problems meeting their sales targets as part of their development plan.

[midas]

This is one aspect of Thai property development that I really cannot understand. It seems to be fairly common for banks financing developments to make their committment conditional on selling a certain number of units (often as much 30%). However, I cannot understand why anyone would agree buy from a developer who has not already got financing in place. I would never consider buying at least until building had started

This is not just Thailand; almost everywhere the general approach of real estate development is to have all terms agreed upon starting construction which will for sure usually include minimum sale points needed for the bank to continue providing lending facilities to the developer during the ongoing construction.Very few developers use the complete then sell method; for housing Land and House are a bit of a market leader in introducing the build then sell method; but there are other factors that have forced them to do this.

If the developer is any good, they usually will not have problems meeting their sales targets as part of their development plan.

Yes but the big difference is that in " other places " you at least

have decent consumer protection laws ( or better than LOS anyway )

if something goes wrong

[backflip]

"Recently i purchased an apartment in the Northpoint Pattaya Project.

does anybody know how the construction is going?"

You bought a condo without visiting the construction site or the showroom. That's really funny!

[nobody65]

"Recently i purchased an apartment in the Northpoint Pattaya Project.

does anybody know how the construction is going?"

You bought a condo without visiting the construction site or the showroom. That's really funny!

i was there several times but it was in may when they started piling. as they did not update their webpage regarding construction progress i was confused.

[Ground Engineer]

Went to the site a couple of days ago and took this photo with my camera. THe red box sections in the background are the tower crane. THe 2 large silos are for cement and the hopper is for aggreage to make concrete. You also have to rememeber the 40m deep piled foundations are already in for the north and south tower. All construction is being carried out by first class European contractors. The foundations are by Bauer (very good German outfit) and the superstructure by Bouyges (French, one of the biggest contractors in the world). YOu may not think there is much going on but all the preliminaries have to sorted being they start the superstructure. Theres the utilities like electricty and water supply, site drainage, welfare facities for the workers, materials have to be delivered. Being in the construction industry myself I would say construction is going ahead as planned. I also know from experience that the likes of Bauer and Bouyges dont come cheap, in fact they are very expensive, but you get what you pay for.

[nobody65]

<br />Went to the site a couple of days ago and took this photo with my camera. THe red box sections in the background are the tower crane. THe 2 large silos are for cement and the hopper is for aggreage to make concrete. You also have to rememeber the 40m deep piled foundations are already in for the north and south tower. All construction is being carried out by first class European contractors. The foundations are by Bauer (very good German outfit) and the superstructure by Bouyges (French, one of the biggest contractors in the world). YOu may not think there is much going on but all the preliminaries have to sorted being they start the superstructure. Theres the utilities like electricty and water supply, site drainage, welfare facities for the workers, materials have to be delivered. Being in the construction industry myself I would say construction is going ahead as planned. I also know from experience that the likes of Bauer and Bouyges dont come cheap, in fact they are very expensive, but you get what you pay for.<br />

<br /><br /><br />

sounds good. thanks a lot for the info and for the picture. lets keep in touch.

[Ground Engineer]

Just found out today that there will be a Northpoint 2 getting built on the thin strip of land adjacent to Northpooint point. Another 350 units are to be built. Not sure how this will impact on Northpoint which has 170 units in the South tower and 250 units in the north tower. My feeling is that we will be forced to share facilities like the beach front swimming pools access roads etc.

[nobody65]

Just found out today that there will be a Northpoint 2 getting built on the thin strip of land adjacent to Northpooint point. Another 350 units are to be built. Not sure how this will impact on Northpoint which has 170 units in the South tower and 250 units in the north tower. My feeling is that we will be forced to share facilities like the beach front swimming pools access roads etc.

Thats bad news. Would be unfair having to share anything because 420 units are already a lot and nobody was told when signing the contract. everybody expect just to share within these 420 units. i cannot imagine they will and can do this. also np2 buyers would be stupid to purchase in case they would have to share with us.

we will see

i was told that a few month ago they planned to sell approx. 100 units of b tower to a hotel but now it was cancelled. would also have been unfair for the buyers. in ase you send such a lot of money you dont want to share your property with hotel guests..............

can you please explain the location of np2 more detailled? is it in the north or in the south of np1?

[Ground Engineer]

Its a thin strip of land on the west side which runs from the beach to the road adjacent to np1 but its only about 25m wide. When I bought in Decemeber I quizzed the sales agent what it was for. They said dont worry its too narrow to build anything on. It was going to be for parking boats or jet skis etc.

[Crash999]

PS- May be a bit late but I'm selling my place in North Shore if you're interested!

Does anyone actually live at Northshore? Or are all the units owned by speculators and condo flippers now trapped in a liquidity squeeze? I mean, when I look at the building a night, it seems that only 5-10 units have any lights on in them

Have also heard that the construction quality at NS is pretty bad. Wouldn't be surprised about that, however, considering that the building's foundation and steel & concrete shell stood abandoned and exposed to the brutal Thai weather for something approaching 10 years before Raimon bought it and finished it up a couple years ago. I suppose the pretty sales-bunnies at Northshore "forgot" to mention that fact to all the newbie tourists and expats who snapped-up units in that development

A lot of the units now are owned by folks in Bangkok (or elsewhere) who use them for weekend trips. On my floor two units (mine and a 'type 1') are for sale. Three are occupied by folks year-round, one is under massive renovation for some folks who are going to move into the penthouse, and the others are owned by folks who use them from time to time. There are about 20-25 units for sale which is about 15% of total.

In the beginning there were a couple of construction issues- most units had a bad smell because they forgot to cap drainage pipes not used if folks didn't install a dishwasher. Raimon went into each unit and capped them. Another problem seems one of design- some of the folks on the corner south-facing units have been complaining loudly of insufficient aircon and were at a deadlock with Raimon as to how to fix the problem. The crux of their disagreement is the owners (well, one in particular) insists that the aircon should be strong enough to cool the room down to a certain level during a certain time with all curtains open in full sun in summer. As for me, I have 2 aircon units and only ever need to run 1 at medium to cool the condo- maybe I'm lucky.

For the most part whenever there was a problem Raimon went in and fixed it. My issues were relatively minor- a couple of scratched floor tiles, sloppy paint finishing on the ceiling of the balcony, a paint drip on the balcony glass- and they took care of it all right away. A couple of owners (strangely enough, those who live there full time) seemed to have problems that went unfixed for some reason.

I'm happy with the place and if I was able to use it more often (now about once every 2-3mo) I'd keep it.

[nobody65]

Its a thin strip of land on the west side which runs from the beach to the road adjacent to np1 but its only about 25m wide. When I bought in Decemeber I quizzed the sales agent what it was for. They said dont worry its too narrow to build anything on. It was going to be for parking boats or jet skis etc.

i am not sure whether i realy got it. but in case it is the part (street) from whitch you reach the show room right now this could also influence the view from b tower and the view from the h and k untis in a tower

[jonniebkk]

quote]

i am not sure whether i realy got it. but in case it is the part (street) from whitch you reach the show room right now this could also influence the view from b tower and the view from the h and k untis in a tower

And what's new about that...just ask the people who bought in the Jontien Complex. They were told that the parcel of land in front of their building (between them and the beach/ocean view), which was owned by their developer at the time, would later be developed as a low-rise hotel. Therefore their expensive ocean views would be protected. So what happens, the developer sells the parcel to the View Talay folks and they want to build another one of their 20-30 story condo monstrosities on the plot. This would completely block the views of many/most of the ocean-side owners at Jomtien Complex. So, welcome to Thailand

By the way, this happens all the time in Bangkok or anywhere where tall buildings are built. Property directly on the beach in Pattaya or the River in Bangkok would be safe from this however.

PS: View Talay's project is currently tied up in court because of the laws restricting building heights within 200 meters of the beach.