Can anyone give a rough ballpark figure as to the cost of building some low cost housing for the purpose of renting at low cost to Thais?

Yes, i know the pitfalls of such a project, such as the tennents not respecting the property, etc, etc but its not going to be my money, but that of a friend of mine, who i am actively trying to discourage, whose wife's family have convinced him that such a place as described below would only cost between 50-75,000 Baht per unit!!!!!!! These would be built on her parents land, with him providing the cash for their construction.

He (or should that be they) are thinking along the lines of single storey units of between 6 and 10 studio rooms per unit, with the possibility of upto 12 per unit. The studios being simple afairs, with one main room of about 6 Metres X 6 Metres, with bathroom and kitchen alongside, plus an outside porch/verandah to each unit.

I think he is barking mad to even contemplate doing such a project, as i would spend the above ammount on just a pair of doors , front and back, let alone a full dwelling, even if they were made of mostly wood (the dwellings that is).

Does anyone know of a website (in English, preferrably) that can be refered to, that has building costs per sq metre, for instance.

I know there are different grades material wise, but, surely, at the pricepoint he is being advised at, would mean the place falling down around his (or his tennents') ears in less than 12 months, and that he is going to get burned badly if he proceeds. The location is Northern Banglamung somewhere

Penkoprod

Budget Bt6k/m2 for a single floor. Make sure walls between room units are built with blocks and go right to the underside of the roof, else, a fire in one unit will quickly spread to all the other units. I think local building code will not allow a building of more than 8 units like townhouses, and free space between buildings is min. 4 metres.

Something like this, 10 rooms??

One of the free plans from here http://www.dpt.go.th/download/PW/house_model/framehome.html I have the plans if you want, just drop me a PM or download directly, if you use Google translate on the Thai only site this is "Home Victims 3".

This has outside ablutions, but should be easily modified.

Floor plan:-

Estimated cost on the site is 1.7 million Baht HOWEVER this is about 5 years old.

Thanks for that

I thought he was getting a WAY optimisic estimate, and ehat you both said tends to agree with it

Once again, thanks, and i will be sure to pass on the info to him

Penkoprod