Apartment Depression :-(

[Rorycook]

Hello to the usual posters, I'm back and in need of somewhere to vent my frustration and ask for more advice, tips & general knowlege..

I am currently staying in rented apartments in the Pin Klao area of BKK, however, after spending some happy days there with my wife and baby I have slowly seen the apartments fall apart around us, first the gym closed, then the snooker hall then the restaurant, then one of the two lifts and now they are upping the price of electric to 8 Baht per unit and the water to 6 Baht per unit, one more thing, they aparently don't clean the pool anymore which is disgusting, I guess we are lucky we still have one but this does not make me any happier as I am still paying the same rent as before everything closed down!..

I'm not sure what the electric & water rates are in a regular house or apartment but I am aware that we are paying more than most, I forgot to mention one more thing - we are not allowed to make or recieve international calls anymore, maybe they can blame that on feul prices??..

What I'm after is some recommendations, I want to spend no more than 7,000 Baht per month before electric & water and preferably no more than 10,000 Baht after bills, we use the aircon quite regularly and our rent is doubled because of it, see what I mean?? I am sure we are already being screwed for our money!

I would love to stay in the Pin Klao area of Bangkok but anywhere in the surrounding areas I would consider, I have looked at all the websites and listings around here but nothing for less than 15,000 Baht ever appears

Does anybody live near here who has a nice apartment?? Why is it so hard to find somewhere without getting on the back of a motorbike and telling the driver to go forwards in search?

PLEASE HELP

p.s. the new prices come into effect at the beginning of August so swift replies are appreciated! Thanks :-(

[Nam Kao]

First off, turn off all your electrical appliances, then go find your meter

and see if its still turning, someone may have tapped into your line, happens

more than you think.

good luck

nam

[baht&sold]

After you've taken Nam's sage advice (hey, he's right, it happens) maybe have a look in the aprtments section here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=34228

If you're trying to stick to a budget, maybe have a look at the easyhorpak site. Regardless, there's places under 15k with direct electric and phone/water and you don't have to live in the boonies to find them.

PM, if you're really stuck. Good luck!

[haha]

for 7k baht, in the city proper, you are looking at mostly studios. if you want something bigger for that price, you need to either live further out, or buy a place. since you are married with a thai, you may be able to get financing from a bank.

I saw this place on sukhumvit soi 77, onnut soi 3 about 6 months ago that was selling for about 700k baht. it's not too big, but for a 3 person family, I think it would be ok.

at least for me it would.

according to the folks there, if I could get financing, the monthly payments would be about 4k baht excluding utilities of course.

along that same area, I heard that there was a place (studio condo) where you could buy a unit for about 200k baht. it wasn't the greatest place, but it was yours. heard it sold out really quickly. sukhumvit soi 77, onnut soi 25.

traditionally, the best deals for apartments in the city are rachada, onnut, and prakanong.

there are many small studio apartments out in rachada for around 2k baht a month. out in the suttisan area. sorry I can't help you with the footwork.

oh. one last possibility... I remember seeing a place in the pratunam area called ratchaprarop towers - ratchaprarop road, soi boonprarop. had 1 bedrooms going for about 7k-9k. has swimming pool, on-site pharmacy. next to pratunam area, and all the shopping around there.

good luck.

[otherstuff1957]

I live at Ratchaprarop Tower Mansion, the place Haha mentioned. It's ok, the pool is nice and clean and I use it a lot. The location is fairly good - lots of busses go by, the BTS is less then 5 minutes away by motorbike and there's lots of shopping nearby. The thing I like best is that it's relatively quiet -it's on a small soi about 1/2 a km off the the main road.

I don't know what a one bedroom costs, but studio is less than 6k for base rent. My total bill varies from about 7,000 to 8,500, BUT I don't use the AC much!

[Khutan]

<snip>What I'm after is some recommendations, I want to spend no more than 7,000 Baht per month before electric & water and preferably no more than 10,000 Baht after bills<snip>

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was totally shocked yesterday, the Condo next door in Suk 23 for a fairly standard appt is 100K a month + outgoings, + Maid and service.

Don't think I will be moving there.

[griser]

If you want to live somewhere thats reasonably priced, try places like Nonthaburi. It really isnt that far from the city and the aparment rents are around 5k for a studio and 6k for a two room unit.

I live in a town house in nonthaburi and used to pay 4500 a month, it went up tho after a refurbish of the house to 5500 a month..Not too bad.. ;-)

I know of one place with apartments here called PSP, those go for 5k for a studio. they do have larger units as well.

greg

[bkkmadness]

Did you stay at Nateetong appartments by any chance?

Try this site

I haven't had a full look through it and its fairly new so lacks a lot of pics but may help you find the cheaper appartmnents out there.

[Rorycook]

I couldn't possibly comment on the name of the apartment...

My rambling might be built up frustration because I found out the other day that we are paying the same as most and in fact our apartments have not upped the rates for a long time, still the place is a shit hole!

I want to say thanks to everybody who has sent advice on this subject, especially the huge list of links to other apartments in BKK, I have been out looking and there is either dark & dirty apartments for cheap prices OR adequate & expensive condos, is there any moderation here? Ok, so I have only looked in my area so far and Pin Klao is a small area of BKK as far as I'm concerned, I would love to move out further to Nonthaburi as someone suggested but my commitments would be compromised if I had to travel too far in every day...

I'll keep looking and kepp everyone posted, thanks again

Rory

[simcity]

Rory if you like the pinklaow area i am sure you can find better value there ! just take the time to look around , perhaps cross the bridge to wisutacsa or end of balhampuu .

[lambous]

BKKMadness: I'm sure it is Nattetong, my friend lives there and Rorycook's description fits perfectly

[donna]

I used to live in Teerin Mansion in Pinklao. In between PATA and Major. I paid 6K a month there for a studio which had a balcony. The staff were OK, they had a restaurant and a security guard who seemed to get a great nights sleep on the desk at the bottom of the elevator.

[LaReina]

Why not look to rent a house. Ask your Thai friends to help you find one, and rent from the owner. You can find nice houses for no more than 15,000 /mo. Water should not be more than 500 baht/mo, and electricity (if you only use it at night) is around 3,000 /mo.

[OxfordWill]

I live at Ratchaprarop Tower Mansion, the place Haha mentioned.

[...]

I don't know what a one bedroom costs, but studio is less than 6k for base rent.  My total bill varies from about 7,000 to 8,500, BUT I don't use the AC much!

I just moved out of here, the one bedroom cost is 6,400 I am pretty sure, and my bill ended up at 13,300 for one month (total for two month stay was about 22000 which included a 25% penalty for staying less than 4 months) which included tv rental (400), fridge rental (600), sheets rental (500) and an aircon bill of 3,300 baht!! Arg! Electricity is 5 baht per unit and water is cheaper.

Nothing to say against the place except that there is no lift in the second building and the motocy drivers in the soi just outside gossip FAR too much.

[Rorycook]

Good advice everybody, thanks, I'm still looking but not rushing as there are so many option aren't there!!

Regarding financing - what would I need to provide to qualify for financing in BKK?

Thanks in advance

Rory

[TheAceFace]

Hello to the usual posters, I'm back and in need of somewhere to vent my frustration and ask for more advice, tips & general knowlege..

I am currently staying in rented apartments in the Pin Klao area of BKK, however, after spending some happy days there with my wife and baby I have slowly seen the apartments fall apart around us, first the gym closed, then the snooker hall then the restaurant, then one of the two lifts and now they are upping the price of electric to 8 Baht per unit and the water to 6 Baht per unit, one more thing, they aparently don't clean the pool anymore which is disgusting, I guess we are lucky we still have one but this does not make me any happier as I am still paying the same rent as before everything closed down!..

I'm not sure what the electric & water rates are in a regular house or apartment but I am aware that we are paying more than most, I forgot to mention one more thing - we are not allowed to make or recieve international calls anymore, maybe they can blame that on feul prices??..

What I'm after is some recommendations, I want to spend no more than 7,000 Baht per month before electric & water and preferably no more than 10,000 Baht after bills, we use the aircon quite regularly and our rent is doubled because of it, see what I mean?? I am sure we are already being screwed for our money!

I would love to stay in the Pin Klao area of Bangkok but anywhere in the surrounding areas I would consider, I have looked at all the websites and listings around here but nothing for less than 15,000 Baht ever appears

Does anybody live near here who has a nice apartment?? Why is it so hard to find somewhere without getting on the back of a motorbike and telling the driver to go forwards in search?

PLEASE HELP

p.s. the new prices come into effect at the beginning of August so swift replies are appreciated! Thanks :-(

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi RC

If you dont mind moving to near Srinakarin Rd there are some very nice apartments very close to Seacon and (livable) with your family for under 8000thb per month 2beds also.

I have a friend who lives there, if you are interested please PM for more info and I will contact him for you.

Good luck on the search.

TAF

[Rorycook]

Cn anybody recommend a good website for maps of Bangkok so I can get a rough idea of all these places that are being recommended to me?

Thanks

Rory

[simcity]

http://www.into-asia.com/bangkok/maps/

http://www.bangkokbob.net/city_map.htm