Hi,

Has anyone here bought a condo as an investment property in Bangkok whilst still living overseas?

I'm in Australia and am thinking of purchasing a condo in BKK (Sydney is way too expensive). I was thinking of buying something in the 1.5 million TB range but wanted to know your experiences.

Is return good in BKK?

What are the pitfalls I should be looking at?

Thanks guys,

Tom Yum Cha

Also, what areas should I be looking at?

Thanks again!

Hey Tom,

Assuming your intention is to remain in OZ whilst this little investment provides you with a token rental income. I say token because your investment level will just about elevate you onto the first rung of the Thai property market, at least in Bangkok. The expected rental income will be around Bt.10-12,000 per month gross. A well chosen condo building with good management will arrange rental payments usually into a Thai account. Foreign account arrangements will be a little trickier and certainly more expensive to administer. But all in all it is possible to achieve.

You are allowed to own a condo/apartment outright as long as collectively within the building, unit ownership for farangs does not exceed 49%. This is a question you must have satisfied before proceeding with any purchase.

However apart from the level to which you are contemplating entering is probably likely to be the least affected by the impending bubble burst. That is about all the good news.

On the negative front, condo's valued at less than Bt.3m do not gain in value to any great degree as they are starter homes and remain at an affordable range for that reason. Also, they are small 1 bed normally and give little room for refurbishment/improvement plans.

If you intend using it yourself for part of the year, this will seriously affect annual rental income.

Capital gain at this level is almost non existent for the reasons mentioned above so the question why you are doing this needs to be clarified, at least in your own mind. There are other ways of course of greatly improving your end yield though. PM me if you need more info.

Teach