How Much Can Be Made By Building/selling Villas?

[skipdivils]

Hi all,

Just bought 6 rai of land on Samui. It south of Lamai, a little inland near Namuang waterfalls. Just curious, does anyone know how much money can be made by devloping the land. I have electricity, water, and have just had a road put in. Now am considering selling villas. I would guess the best way would be to pre-sell them based on blueprints and designs.

Only thing is, I am new to the whole developing thing, and have yet to get serious about researching the process. So my question is very general.

If I were to take one rai of land per villa, and have nice places designed, how much profit is there to be made for each villa I sell? I know there are a lot of factors involved here but I am looking for the general overall numbers. Say it costs 6 million to build the villa/pool on a one-rai plot. Then there is the cost of the land (2 million) and road/electric/water (which I have already done) and then the cost of selling it (agency fees, advertising, etc.).

If anyone could give me a rough breakdown of how much profit there is to be made for each villa sold, it would be greatly appreciated. Also, any suggestions on what you think would be the best way to develop the land, that would be great too. Thanks.

[limbos]

Why don't you get some information before you start stuff like this.

This is what Samui really needs, some more clowns who come down here, buy some land, build some villas, don't have a clue at all and than <deleted> off again.

Welcome to the English circle of local real estate crooks.

No thanks for your insight and understanding skipdivil.

[taxexile]

go limbo go !!!

i am inclined to agree with you.

it seems as if half of the uk is here , all of them have got a few rai of land and all of them are putting up villas to be sold.

when you talk to them and mention the word oversupply they laugh at you.

maybe they know something i dont.

but i see dozens of villas for sale , some of them quite nice too , and they have been for sale for a long time.

where are all the buyers going to come from?

well , lots of big hotels are opening up and lots of business is coming onto the island and so all the workers will need accommodation , the managers and business owners will need high end housing , but i think they would rent rather than buy. hong kong and singaporeans may buy holiday homes here , thais would certainly not.

the ownership laws here are confusing to say the least , accurate legal advice just does not exist and if the thais decided to change the 30 year company lease scam tomorrow they could.

if i had a few rai to develop , then i would put rental bungalows on the land.

there is a shortage of good rental housing in the 15000 to 20000 bracket.

and it would be easier to sell a bungalow rental business than sell homes.

finding a building outfit that wont skin you alive and will complete the job without holding you to ransom will be your main problem.

you need a relable thai partner..... rarer than hens teeth.

what this island needs is a community of falangs who will settle here , not people who come for a year or two , strip a hillside and then bugger off.

there is no continuity here and its hard to build up any kind of relationships (either personal or business) with people who cant , or wont commit themselves to life here.

its all transients here. and there are a lot of big empty houses that are built , bought and immediately put back on the market again for profit.

nobody seems to ever live in them.

with respect skipdivils , samui doesnt need any more developments yet.

sit on your land and enjoy the beaches and food (cause there is little else to do on this cultural vacuum of an island ) until there is a housing shortage.

[naomisri]

Well said tax, I'm sick and tired of driving through Samui, off the main road, and seeing these huge scars on the hillside where they've just burnt away any sign of life. No sympathy what so ever. I also agree with you about the transient life here. Even some of the families that I have seen move here more recently don't seem to stay for long.

It's an expensive place to live and it's only going to get more so. We could only wish for a but of culture here. Samui is the casino of the South. Everyone arrives with dollar signs in their eyes hoping ot get rich quick regardless of the consequences for what is home for some of us.

I have a couple of bungalows for rent, I haven't even completed on the deal yet, but already the brother of the owner is pressuring her to listen to farang who apparantly have a couple more million to offer. If we'd waited any longer Samui would have been out of our price range. I can't see how it's going to stop until every inch of Samui is covered with shop houses going for 4-6 million baht.

[Khun Jean]

Instead of going through the trouble of house developing it, which by the way you can't because you are a foreigner, just sit on it a few years and sell it. You changes are good you make a decent profit without any work at all. Land is easier to sell than already finsihed houses, believe me, i know.

What you can do now is split it into smaller plots. There is a demand for plots of 0.25 rai and up. 1 Rai plots is for most people too big.

When you split it into smaller pieces the prices per square meter can be higher. That is your profit. If you start building houses be prepared for a long long big headache.

Other possibility is to build a sporting complex, again the problem of you being a foreigner, have to start a company, laywers etc...

Tennis courts, public swimmingpool, fitness center, mini golf, running tracks, etc.. There is very little or nothing of that on the island and if you have the patience it can be very profitable. People who live here will get bored and with a place like that they have something to do. You can develop it step by step.

So many things you can do instead of just building a few bungalows like the rest. Imagine what all those people who eventually buy those bungalows are going to do in their spare time.

Take Coco as an example. They have a sailing company, coco blues reataurant/bar, coco chinese restaurant an dprobably working on more hings. Don't know the whole history but i guess they started with Coco land & house in the time Samui was not like it is now. But they developed many other interesting things. Things that are also an asset to the island.

[skipdivils]

Why don't you get some information before you start stuff like this.

This is what Samui really needs, some more clowns who come down here, buy some land, build some villas, don't have a clue at all and than <deleted> off again.

Welcome to the English circle of local real estate crooks.

No thanks for your insight and understanding skipdivil.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You sure are one ignorant ######er. You know absolutely NOTHING about me yet you take time out of your apparently miserable day to berate me and judge not only my business sense, but my character as well. Please tell me...how the ###### do you know that I am going to build some villas, then ###### off? Please explain to me how you know what my life plans are. You ignorant piece of shit. And while you're at it, please explain to me why I am a real estate crook?

And also, how long have you been living on Samui? Were you born there? Or are you just another old cynical foreign piece of shit who pretends that they discovered this island, and have sole rights to live there and enjoy it. And by the way, do you live under a coconut tree? On the beach? In the jungle? Oh, that's right, wait a minute, you live in a place with four walls and a roof. I guess you are just part of the problem of which you speak...that being people coming in to enjoy the life on Samui and needing a house to shit in like everyone else. See, the problem with losers like you is they are way too stupid to see the hypocrisy of their silly thoughts and ideas. It would make me puke, but I am too busy laughing at what a miserable existance you must lead, thinking yourself so almighty and so priveliged to have been granted sole access to the island.

I hope when I go there to live you will grant me a tourist visa as apparently it is up to you who else can now go and live on the island. Thanks for the help and kind words, you ignorant &lt;deleted&gt;. The only problem with permanent life on Samui will be trying to avoid people just like you! But that will be tough, cause it seems like there are lots of you...or maybe just the ones on this forum.

[taxexile]

when you start to market your project make sure to employ a good customer relations manager.

[Totster]

Best laugh I've had in ages....

totster

[taxexile]

thats the trouble with samui , its rapidly filling up with loud mouthed and agressive real estate marketing types mostly from england , these people are just the opposite of those who have come here for a quieter less commercial existence.

these developer characters are obnoxious and devious enough back home , but at least there they are regulated and have to do what they promise. they smile and schmoose and the oil literally drips from their pores.

here they promise the earth , but they have absolutely no control over what they are promising , they are puppets in the hands of their thai masters.

most of the ones i have come across are all bluster and grossly incompetent and totally reliant on their thai office staff.

put these money hungry characters together with those on samui who have come here for a simpler and less commercial existence and you are bound to have trouble.

hippies and realtors were never meant to co-exist.

with any luck we will have a civil war here soon.

only the thai landowners are laughing as they become millionaires and buy german cars and gamble and send their kids abroad for a decent education.

but sadly money will always win.

[skipdivils]

Some of you people really are funny. Hippies??? A true hippie would sure not judge someone by reading a post that they had bought a piece of land and want to build and sell some villas. A true hippie would have a more open mind and perhaps listen more to the plans that this person may have for the land, rather than accusing the person of being a crook.

By the way, I don't remember any of you answering the question, are you native Samui folk? Oh no? Really? But yet you lay claim to the island that you have been a part of destroying. Strange really.

And for all of your information:

1. I am not from England, but I am not even sure why that would matter.

2. I don't plan to destroy the environment. In fact, my plan is to have 1 rai lots per villa built into the natural environment in order to retain as much of the natural beauty as possible when developing land.

3. I plan to move to Samui with my wife and baby girl and live there for a very long time. I would say forever, but who knows what tomorrow brings. It must be nice though to accuse others of flying in, 'stealing' money by destroying land and then flying away when most of you have probably been there less than 10 years yourselves.

4. Although I am a hippie at heart, I do admit to being a total hypocrite. If any of you took the time to think about your own lives, you would probably come to the same realization. That is if you are not too self-righteous and cynical. As a matter of fact, I used to live in a hippie commune on Vancouver Island in order to protest the logging going on out there. Now I am buying and developing land. As I said, I am a hypocrite, just like all of you. Only difference is, I can admit it.

5. If you don't like the commercialism and development of Samui, then it is real easy...LEAVE. That's right, you weren't born there, you don't own the place, and the development that is happening is inevitable now (already crazy developed) and unstoppable. The only thing to hope for is some responsibility by the part of the developers, which I hope to be able to bring to my projects. And if I succeed in builiding in a way that harms nature as little as possible, than i feel I am being more responsible to the island than just sitting around bitching and complaining about it like many of you seem to do. If you don't like what is happening, do something about it. And if the place is too commercial for you, move. Find another island that suits your 'hippie' lifestyle a little better. Or are you happier with your little conveniences and plastic bottled water, but just can't accept the fact that this makes you a hypocrite.

I can't wait to come to Samui to live. I have some beautiful friends there (both Thai and foreign) and although I would love to live in a forest and not harm mother nature in the least, I have a wife and baby who aren't quite game for that, so I gotta get by doing the best I can. And yes, I need and want to make decent money (as do all of you) and yes, I need a place to live, and yes, I will build other places to live and welcome new people to this island that I have fallen in love with over the past 12 years.

And my number one goal in all of this: to -NO MATTER WHAT- never end up a bitter and cynical ex-pat who hates everyone (foreigners cause they come in and destroy things) and Thai (cause you just can't trust 'em). Must be a long and lonely life living that way. Never want a part of it.

[skipdivils]

Instead of going through the trouble of house developing it, which by the way you can't because you are a foreigner, just sit on it a few years and sell it. You changes are good you make a decent profit without any work at all. Land is easier to sell than already finsihed houses, believe me, i know.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

By the way Khun Jean. Thanks very much for the response. This is exactly what I was hoping to get out of this post. I feel bad that it has degenerated into such insanity. I really do appreciate your advice.

If anyone else out ther has any constructive advice that would be great. Thanks

[naomisri]

Skip - glad to hear that you're into doing things the right way. I would agree with Khun Jean and Tax though and say there are 100 other things you could be doing with the land. Yeah you have to support your family, but building expensive villas might not be the best way to do it.

It riles me to think that

a) people who arrive with the kind of money your talking about in their pockets often don't do things the right way as you plan to, their main aim being making a bunch of cash - at any costs

most of my friends who are Thai can't even afford a m2 of land on Samui let alone enough money to buy the land to live on (and will never be able to in their lifetimes)

c) the Thai people that are selling their land are often left with very little themselves. Sure 4 million baht sounds like enough now, but when prices of land have risen year on year soon enough you're priced out of the market yourself. They you truly do have beef with the big investors. They then are the ones willing to do anything to make a buck. Not to mention the fact that they burn all the vegetation to begin with.

My husband has lived here for 12 years. His son was born here, but even if he becomes a doctor or a teacher it's unlikely he will be able to buy anywhere by the time he is ready to have a family of his own. So okay, I'm not from Samui, but my family are so you can appreciate why you provoked so much of a response. A lot of us aren't hippies, but just average people all too aware of the lack of power we have to change things

[taxexile]

skipdivils , my references to hippies was meant to be taken tongue in cheek.

most developers here just make a mess i'm afraid , just drive around some of the developed parts of the island and you will see half finished developments , huge mounds of builders rubble , half demolished labourers shacks and the litter from those sites , small dirt roads through the forests being churned up by builders trucks etc.etc.etc.

houses that have been built are surrounded by tall concrete walls as if its beverly hills or some urban high end house. this is a rural environment , high concrete walls are visually offensive.

its all so ugly.

the slow and not so slow felling of trees on the hills will lead to erosion , after each rainfall here , the water just pours down the hill and the ring road gets temporarily flooded with red muddy water , its the soil from the hill.

it wont be too long before there are landslides here.

this never used to happen.

its no wonder that developers are coming to be despised.

nobody denies the need for new housing , and nobody can deny the right for someone to build a 20 million baht house if they so desire , but on an island with no zoning and few or no planning rules its all to easy for outsiders to come in and take advantage of the situation and build purely for profit with no concern for the land or the neighbours.

its as if the island has been over run by foriegners who are intent on removing all vestiges of thailand from it and changing it into a western style "paradise"

imagine how you would feel if foriegners came into your country and started doing what we are doing here.

ive been here for the best part of three years , we bought a piece of land and planned to put a home on it. the land was in a beautiful natural location with stunning views , the house would have blended in.

since buying the land, the hillside has been virtually denuded of trees , and some (to my eyes and sensibilities) totally inappropriate palatial homes have gone up , of course nobody lives in these homes , there will never be any community on that hillside , already one house has had to be refurbished because of poor quality initial construction.

it will become a european ghetto , the only thais there will be there to clean the pools and mow the lawns , i hate it and its wrong.

and do you know what , in spite of all that , the value of our land has tripled.

i dont know whether to laugh or cry.

and as you said , we can leave.

and we intend to.

we arent comfortable with whats happening here and its just getting too busy

so we are in the process of buying a home ,( notice i use the word home , not house , there is a big difference) in another part of the country , and as soon as the deal completes we will leave the island.

this place was definately a better place before all the development , along with all the building and business and traffic come all the other ills of urban society , and samui is definately becoming urban , but you cant stop it , it happens all over the world.

but its not for me.