Opinions About A Few Housing Developments

[dunder]

Hi All

I am going to move from Bkk to Chiang Mai in april next year and recently I was in CM looking for houses. I looked at/in plenty of moo baans but I never contacted anyone to have a look inside the houses. I was mostly there to get a feel for different developments.

Could anyone tell me about their experiences from looking at houses or living in either of these developments:

Laguna homes (either of the phases)

Urbana

Siwalee land and houses (canal road)

The Emperor 1 (canal road)

Home in Park

Koolpuntville 12

The TwoGether (canal road)

Closeness to a bilingual or international school, ease of travelling to the city, internet connection possibilities, noise level, quality of the buildings, pricing (rent!) etc etc.. actually you can tell me about anything that springs to mind. I want to hear you personal reflections.. Thank you beforehand!

Cheers,

Dunder

Edited December 19, 2010 by dunder

[LivinLOS]

Hi Dunder.. I also just moved up here and like you (I am guessing) it was in part for the roads and riding. I spent a couple of months this summer getting a feel.. And am a bit fussy about my home and having some space around me (I work from home and need a decent sized place). Most of the moobaans were horribly close together, without any privacy to the gardens, and a big turn off. Went into many on the ring roads east and knew from the moment of going in they didnt fit.

Home in Park.. OK homes but starts to get a bit of a way from town. Same 'stepford wives' suburbia.

Emperor.. Great location (I love that canal south and am looking for land there) but the ones we were shown not good value.

Flora Ville out on the 118 had some nice ones for us.

Lana Tara and Baan Wang Taan were my favorites.. Tho Lanna Tara suffers the small plot effect (some properly impressive homes tho) and both do have some airport noise.. BWT has a real peaceful feeling inside tho and some good plots and places, ranges from millionaire homes lakeside to 2 bed bungalows back in section 5.

Theres also a moobaan on canal rd north (west side) just about 500m from the Huey Keow Rd junction. Good security, nice plot sizes, decent trees and privacy to some places. This one had some appeal too.

I met a few agents some who were not very good at listening. Ed at Century 21 was a great guy but possibly biased to upper end and sales more then renting. Faultless communication and very personable, has a nice team and always worth a chat IMO. Wisan at Chiang Mai Lanna homes was also very helpful and had a large inventory of rentals in all price brackets.

I know thats not answering your Q's directly but went through exactly the same things in the last 3 months. Maybe it helps.

[just_Elaine]

Siwalee land and houses (canal road) - We rented for a couple of winters. We like the moo baan though the street that we were on was quite narrow. Our landlord got us TOT DSL and I don't remember having any problems with it. I think we paid 20,000 baht a month for a small 3 bedroom, but like I said it was for a short time so we were probably charged more money. We did not really look into the facilities at the moo baan, but I'm pretty sure there is a pool. The kitchen was indoors and had a four burner gas cooktop.

We also rented at Baan Nai Faan 3 for a couple of years in 2003 and during the winter a few years ago. The house that we rented for the winter had a great garden. These houses were much too big for us. I think 5 bedrooms in one and 3 bedrooms in the other. These had maids rooms. One had a remote control gate like a garage door opener. These were 40,000 baht a month. It can get kind of noisy at night sometimes. There is a pool and a small fitness room. One house had a dryer, 4 burner gas cooktop and oven with rotisserie. The other house had a 4 burner gas cooktop. Kitchen was indoors, but one neighbor had an outdoor cooking area. In the moo baan there is a restaurant (which used to be good, we weren't so crazy about it last time we were there) and a upscale spa.

We like Sivalee Land and Houses and Baan Nai Faan 3 because they are not far from the Miahia market (really good sausage on the bbq at the right and more). We are living in town this winter and still travel to that market every so often. They are not far from Lotus, Big C, Homepro. And now, there is a Carrefour and Makro on that side of town.

We looked at Home In Park at one time and thought it was kind of far from the market that we liked.

Hope this helps.

[Mapguy]

Always hard to make unit to unit comparisons, but some solid reasoning provided, especially re modernization, increasing property values and maintenance/improvement costs.

When I mention to Thais the reticence of Thai buyers to purchase an older house, I often get two casual explanations. The first is the superstitious nature of a lot of people. Has someone died here? Grumpy spirits in residence? The second is people like to start "new."

To speculate a bit more, might there also be a tendency to "show off" a bit by going "new?" Perhaps similar to favoring new cars over used cars.

Finally, a (Thai) friend of mine recently bemoaned the tendency of developers and individuals who continue to fill in rice paddies and build new when there are so many older houses available.

[Mapguy]

Apologies. The above was meant for another thread. Re most Chiang Mai housing developments, I'm not certain I much like having such an intimate knowledge of what my neighbors are having for dinner or of their love life and taste in music.

[dunder]

Hi Dunder.. I also just moved up here and like you (I am guessing) it was in part for the roads and riding. I spent a couple of months this summer getting a feel.. And am a bit fussy about my home and having some space around me (I work from home and need a decent sized place). Most of the moobaans were horribly close together, without any privacy to the gardens, and a big turn off. Went into many on the ring roads east and knew from the moment of going in they didnt fit.

We have some common interests:) and I'm also working from home and need a relatively big house (around 200m2) with at least some kind of privacy. I don't really want my neighbors being able to look into my shower from their living room:)

Home in Park.. OK homes but starts to get a bit of a way from town. Same 'stepford wives' suburbia.

Emperor.. Great location (I love that canal south and am looking for land there) but the ones we were shown not good value.

Flora Ville out on the 118 had some nice ones for us.

I also got a really good feel from Emperor even though I only went there 5 minutes taking pictures. I never went for Flora Ville and as you say - Home in park might be a bit too far, but the properties looks very nice.

Lana Tara and Baan Wang Taan were my favorites.. Tho Lanna Tara suffers the small plot effect (some properly impressive homes tho) and both do have some airport noise.. BWT has a real peaceful feeling inside tho and some good plots and places, ranges from millionaire homes lakeside to 2 bed bungalows back in section 5.

I will have to have a closer look at these properties. Airport noise is a real turn off though:)

Theres also a moobaan on canal rd north (west side) just about 500m from the Huey Keow Rd junction. Good security, nice plot sizes, decent trees and privacy to some places. This one had some appeal too.

I met a few agents some who were not very good at listening. Ed at Century 21 was a great guy but possibly biased to upper end and sales more then renting. Faultless communication and very personable, has a nice team and always worth a chat IMO. Wisan at Chiang Mai Lanna homes was also very helpful and had a large inventory of rentals in all price brackets.

I haven't contacted an agent yet. I have only browsed through most agents websites. Did you have any contact with houseinchiangmai.net or jasminehomes? These are the two websites that seem to have most properties for rent

I know thats not answering your Q's directly but went through exactly the same things in the last 3 months. Maybe it helps.

You have been very helpful. Thank you for your time and effort in writing down your thoughts

Siwalee land and houses (canal road) - We rented for a couple of winters. We like the moo baan though the street that we were on was quite narrow. Our landlord got us TOT DSL and I don't remember having any problems with it. I think we paid 20,000 baht a month for a small 3 bedroom, but like I said it was for a short time so we were probably charged more money. We did not really look into the facilities at the moo baan, but I'm pretty sure there is a pool. The kitchen was indoors and had a four burner gas cooktop.

20-25k, depending on size, seems to be the standard rent for properties in Siwalee. I looked at the facilities and they seemed to be good. The biggest issue with this development imo is the very small plot size.

We also rented at Baan Nai Faan 3 for a couple of years in 2003 and during the winter a few years ago. The house that we rented for the winter had a great garden. These houses were much too big for us. I think 5 bedrooms in one and 3 bedrooms in the other. These had maids rooms. One had a remote control gate like a garage door opener. These were 40,000 baht a month. It can get kind of noisy at night sometimes. There is a pool and a small fitness room. One house had a dryer, 4 burner gas cooktop and oven with rotisserie. The other house had a 4 burner gas cooktop. Kitchen was indoors, but one neighbor had an outdoor cooking area. In the moo baan there is a restaurant (which used to be good, we weren't so crazy about it last time we were there) and a upscale spa.

We like Sivalee Land and Houses and Baan Nai Faan 3 because they are not far from the Miahia market (really good sausage on the bbq at the right and more). We are living in town this winter and still travel to that market every so often. They are not far from Lotus, Big C, Homepro. And now, there is a Carrefour and Makro on that side of town.

I haven't heard of Baan Nai Faan 3. But I will look it up. It might be a development too old now though since I prefer something built within the last 4 years (newly built and never lived in would be the best imo).

We looked at Home In Park at one time and thought it was kind of far from the market that we liked.

It also seems a bit pricey compared to similar developments. I'm not sure why

Hope this helps.

Thanks for letting me hear about your experiences. Cheers

Keep it coming:)

[scorecard]

Similar picture, moving the whole family from Bkk to CM, April 2011.

Our first consideration was to survey and select a school for my 5.5 years old Thai granddaughter. All the schools we surveyed had good and not so good points and some were not to our liking at all.

Ultimately we selected Varee Chiang Mai School and my granddaughter will start Prathom 1 full English program in May 2011.

After selecting the school we then started the search for housing, our 'policy' was that the house had to be close to the school (Varee).

Ultimately we selected Urbana. The houses are a little too close together, but they do follow the law that there must be a 2 meter gap between house and fences.

To gain more space we bought 2 plots of land and we also extended the house by 3 metres.

The house is now completed, bathrooms totally fitted, wallpaper installed, just needs a kitchen and a few built-in cupboards. Overall the quality of the building, the tiling, finishing etc., is quite good, in fact much better than our previous experience with a condo in Bkk and much much better than a house in Chonburi City.

The Urbana company (actually Palm Springs Company) have a policy that you can change the design etc., of the house as long as it doesn't break laws, doesn't contradict major engineering principles etc.

They are using a new methodology to 'fight' white ants (a problem everywhere in Thailand), with special tubing installed in the foundation slab for this purpose.

All Urbana staff been very good listeners and respond with clear and well focused answers, everything has been 'can-do', lots of good English. One quick example: Discussions with their lawyer in regard to transfer of the chanut was very pleasant, very professional, very productive. My Thai adult son did a one day trip to CM for the chanut transfer, their lawyer went out of his way to be cooperative and helpful. Same with their accounting staff, etc. Information / policies etc., all seems to be very consistent across their own departments.

They have one engineer/architect who is in charge of any changes (you want) to layout, walls, finishing etc. He was very helpful and cooperative, small downside is that his English is close to zero, but not a roadblock. Should add that the changes are not free but also not outrageous.

In the inital discussions they emphahsised that they are very serious about monitoring and quickly taking actions if house owners are noisy, try to start min-marts etc., markets etc., at their houses. In fact the sale contract has a very long / comprehensive list of things owners cannot do. This is of course a 'wait and see'.

Urbana is a little expensive but ultimately I think we have got good value for money. So far so good.

[dunder]

Similar picture, moving the whole family from Bkk to CM, April 2011.

Our first consideration was to survey and select a school for my 5.5 years old Thai granddaughter. All the schools we surveyed had good and not so good points and some were not to our liking at all.

Ultimately we selected Varee Chiang Mai School and my granddaughter will start Prathom 1 full English program in May 2011.....

Thanks for your input.. Very interesting to hear since I have a 6-year-old step son as well. I have looked at schools and Varee is the school that caught my attention.

I actually never went into the Urbana development - I just saw it from the big road when I arrived in CM and hence looked at a few houses online. I am not planning on buying a house atm since I don't know if the Chiang Mai lifestyle will suit me (even though I am positive it will).. Either way I will start out my adventure with renting and even though the Urbana development seems pricey to many similar projects around town, it still is very interesting..

Do you know if many people have moved in or is it more of a "ghost town" still? How far is it to the Varee school?

Cheers,

Dunder

Edited December 20, 2010 by dunder

[scorecard]

Similar picture, moving the whole family from Bkk to CM, April 2011.

Our first consideration was to survey and select a school for my 5.5 years old Thai granddaughter. All the schools we surveyed had good and not so good points and some were not to our liking at all.

Ultimately we selected Varee Chiang Mai School and my granddaughter will start Prathom 1 full English program in May 2011.....

Thanks for your input.. Very interesting to hear since I have a 6-year-old step son as well. I have looked at schools and Varee is the school that caught my attention.

I actually never went into the Urbana development - I just saw it from the big road when I arrived in CM and hence looked at a few houses online. I am not planning on buying a house atm since I don't know if the Chiang Mai lifestyle will suit me (even though I am positive it will).. Either way I will start out my adventure with renting and even though the Urbana development seems pricey to many similar projects around town, it still is very interesting..

Do you know if many people have moved in or is it more of a "ghost town" still? How far is it to the Varee school?

Cheers,

Dunder

Hi Dunder,

1. We timed the travel a couple of time (by car) from the Urbana front security gate to Varee school, it was 12 to 14 minutes. My son says there was some talk about a second entrance to the Urbana development aligned to phase 2 or 3, and if this is true then the travel time would probably be just 6 or 7 minutes, but whether the second entrance is correct needs checking.

2. Phase 1 is sold out, the majority of the houses look to be fully completed. My guess is that about 50 to 60% are occcupied.

Another point, Like most such developments Urbana won't let you move in until the full price is paid (could of course also mean for many people that bank loan has been approved, therefore monies outstanding to Urbana have been settled).

This reminds me, just after we signed the contract another Urbana staff member called my son and politely asked whether we would like their help to set up appointments with numerous banks for discussion about a mortgage. They also offered to come with us to such appoitments, but ultimately our choice on this point.

My son indicated that we would finance a different way and declined this offer. However the Urbana guy did call again about six months later and politely asked again whether our finance plan was working OK, and if not then the offer to help to meet banks was still open.

In regard to phases 2 and 3, my son says about 50 to 60% sold, right now these phases are massive and busy building sites. For most of this area the internal roads etc., have not yet been built.

Another point, the original salesman has mentioned several times that they can get better deals on kitchens (to your specific designs), bulk installation of air-conditioners etc.

Hope this helps.

[nikster]

We looked at Urbana but found the houses small and very close together - of course if you buy 2 plots, that would solve that problem I think the plots we saw were less than 60 sq wah which is _really_ small.

Anyway, we then decided to rent in Siwalee / Canal Road (there seem to be quite a few Siwalees around town). It's great, and the only downside is the tiny garden. 20k/mo. The house is small-ish at 180 sqm but we had the choice for another one with a maid room and just over 200 in the main house for 3k more. Didn't take that as we liked the smaller one's layout better - also more neighbors which turned out to be a good thing, lots of kids around to play with our kids.

Pool is nice, fitness is very basic and clean - I don't do fitness, at least not in the gym so can't really judge there; sauna looks nice but never used so far. Oh yeah the "central park" garden is very nice, almost makes up for the lack of private garden. Great to go to with our young kids (3 + 1). It's right next to the airport but no noise issues - not sure why, actually.

CM Montessori school is only 10 minutes down canal road, which is perfect for us. It's a great school, just started 6 months ago with 1 class for 3-4 year olds. Montessori program, huge beautiful garden and almost all all english makes this a no-brainer for us.

Trying to remember other moo baans we looked at - seems like a very long time ago. We did look at The Athena to buy there, it's a brand new Koolpuntville 14 on Mahidol Rd. Might be worth checking for rentals there actually. Very nice, large modern houses, but comparatively small gardens, 6M-10M sales sp a bit more upscale. Ultimately the lack of garden and the fact that it's right on Mahidol Rd made me not consider it any further. We've since bought some land and are going to build our own eventually. We got much more land for a much better price in a better location - but not in a moo baan, or, rather, in a very old moo baan, hence cheaper. Moo baan land is 2x or more of the surrounding land - I am told that's perfectly normal.

Then we also looked at some whose name I forgot - it seemed to be about 5 - 6 years old and was a perfect example of a failed upscale moo baan. We looked at 3 or 4 HUGE yet rather unattractive houses there, all empty and obviously had been empty for a while. A veritable ghost moo baan.

[Benjie]

I spent a few weekends looking around and thought the best place we saw was Sansaran, sensibly priced houses although the furniture package was unbelievably expensive (like as much as the house).

[dunder]

Hi Dunder,

...

Hope this helps.

You have been very helpful and answered all my questions regarding this development. Seems to me that the Urbana management understands the value in taking care of their customers. I will go get a closer look at Urbana when I travel to CM again.

/Dunder

Edited December 20, 2010 by dunder

[dunder]

...Anyway, we then decided to rent in Siwalee / Canal Road (there seem to be quite a few Siwalees around town). It's great, and the only downside is the tiny garden...

I guess I have to compromise if I want to rent in the "near-city-moo-baans".. I got a good feeling when driving around in Siwalee though. There were some bigger houses with, what seemed to be, larger gardens (some of the corner plots). These houses are very interesting but it might be that neither of those are up for rent of course..

Pool is nice, fitness is very basic and clean - I don't do fitness, at least not in the gym so can't really judge there; sauna looks nice but never used so far. Oh yeah the "central park" garden is very nice, almost makes up for the lack of private garden. Great to go to with our young kids (3 + 1). It's right next to the airport but no noise issues - not sure why, actually.

The noise from the airport was one of my concerns when looking at both Siwalee and Emperor 1.. Do you really use ear plugs when excercising on your bike instead of in the Gym? Great if the airport isn't a real problem. You would know.. Siwalee is absolutely one of the more interesting developments.

CM Montessori school is only 10 minutes down canal road, which is perfect for us. It's a great school, just started 6 months ago with 1 class for 3-4 year olds. Montessori program, huge beautiful garden and almost all all english makes this a no-brainer for us.

Do you know how far it is to Varee School from Siwalee? Is it possible to get school-transportation or some kind of taxi service for the kid?

Trying to remember other moo baans we looked at - seems like a very long time ago. We did look at The Athena to buy there, it's a brand new Koolpuntville 14 on Mahidol Rd. Might be worth checking for rentals there actually. Very nice, large modern houses, but comparatively small gardens, 6M-10M sales sp a bit more upscale. Ultimately the lack of garden and the fact that it's right on Mahidol Rd made me not consider it any further.

I will check up Koolpuntville more, but I can't recall I have ever seen a Koolpuntville 14. Are you sure about the number? I have visited a few of their moo baans and liked what I have seen so far..

You have been a rock to me and hopefully others can use this thread to find some answers as well.. Thanks Bro

Btw - I haven't asked you before Nik.. what real estate agent did you use?

Edited December 20, 2010 by dunder

[nikster]

...Anyway, we then decided to rent in Siwalee / Canal Road (there seem to be quite a few Siwalees around town). It's great, and the only downside is the tiny garden...

I guess I have to compromise if I want to rent in the "near-city-moo-baans".. I got a good feeling when driving around in Siwalee though. There were some bigger houses with, what seemed to be, larger gardens (some of the corner plots). These houses are very interesting but it might be that neither of those are up for rent of course..

Pool is nice, fitness is very basic and clean - I don't do fitness, at least not in the gym so can't really judge there; sauna looks nice but never used so far. Oh yeah the "central park" garden is very nice, almost makes up for the lack of private garden. Great to go to with our young kids (3 + 1). It's right next to the airport but no noise issues - not sure why, actually.

The noise from the airport was one of my concerns when looking at both Siwalee and Emperor 1.. Do you really use ear plugs when excercising on your bike instead of in the Gym? Great if the airport isn't a real problem. You would know.. Siwalee is absolutely one of the more interesting developments.

CM Montessori school is only 10 minutes down canal road, which is perfect for us. It's a great school, just started 6 months ago with 1 class for 3-4 year olds. Montessori program, huge beautiful garden and almost all all english makes this a no-brainer for us.

Do you know how far it is to Varee School from Siwalee? Is it possible to get school-transportation or some kind of taxi service for the kid?

Trying to remember other moo baans we looked at - seems like a very long time ago. We did look at The Athena to buy there, it's a brand new Koolpuntville 14 on Mahidol Rd. Might be worth checking for rentals there actually. Very nice, large modern houses, but comparatively small gardens, 6M-10M sales sp a bit more upscale. Ultimately the lack of garden and the fact that it's right on Mahidol Rd made me not consider it any further.

I will check up Koolpuntville more, but I can't recall I have ever seen a Koolpuntville 14. Are you sure about the number? I have visited a few of their moo baans and liked what I have seen so far..

You have been a rock to me and hopefully others can use this thread to find some answers as well.. Thanks Bro

Btw - I haven't asked you before Nik.. what real estate agent did you use?

KPV 14: http://www.koolpuntville.com/pro14_en.html

Varee school - I don't know where that is, should be e-z to figure out with Google maps. Most better schools have a school bus service it seems.

I am not super sensitive to noise but FWIW I seem to hear the canal road more than the airport. Before winter the frogs were louder than that though. All in all, having lived in Thailand for a while, the airport noise is negligible. Nothing like the neighbor's Karaoke system when we lived in the "quiet" town of Pai.

We used this one: http://www.houseinchiangmai.net/ - two reasons, one it was right next to Starbucks where we used to hang out, and two their website has Google Maps links for most properties. That makes them better than all the other real estate websites I found - it's often impossible to figure out where stuff is, and descriptions like "10 minutes from the airport" don't help - almost anything is within 10 minutes of the airport in CM. They were also quite friendly and not pushy. Unlike certain other property agents... we had one throw a fit because we didn't like anything he had to show!

Edited December 21, 2010 by nikster

[chiangmaiexpat]

I moved here from Bangkok in 2005, lived a few years at the Laguna and built my own house in 2008. My opinion about housing developments in CNX is that most of them are overpriced hamster cages with cookie cutter architecture built for profit-maximisation (you asked). Quite many of them are poorly built, but not all.

Take the Laguna Home, for example. The first two phases were built (and sold) cheaply to attract clients. The following phases offered better quality at higher prices. Recently the Laguna Home has diversified into different lines of houses appealing to different markets. They sell wall-to-wall budget houses made from precast segments, as well as new "luxury homes" for five million and more. Architecturally, most houses are unimaginative copycat models; they are neither built sustainably nor are they well integrated into their surroundings.

Most people don't get to spend a couple of million THB every year. If you have the slightest bit of good taste and good sense, get an architect and build a custom house to your specifications. If you are creative, you can even do the architecture yourself. It does not cost more than a prefabricated cookie cutter house in a Moo Baan and the result is almost guaranteed to be more pleasing. It's certainly more effort, though. If you are in a hurry, or you don't have time to supervise construction, you might want to buy a pre-owned home. There are many offerings. With some patience and persistence, you can find good bargains.

Cheers, CMX

[dunder]

KPV 14: http://www.koolpuntv...m/pro14_en.html

Varee school - I don't know where that is, should be e-z to figure out with Google maps. Most better schools have a school bus service it seems.

I am not super sensitive to noise but FWIW I seem to hear the canal road more than the airport. Before winter the frogs were louder than that though. All in all, having lived in Thailand for a while, the airport noise is negligible. Nothing like the neighbor's Karaoke system when we lived in the "quiet" town of Pai.

We used this one: http://www.houseinchiangmai.net/ - two reasons, one it was right next to Starbucks where we used to hang out, and two their website has Google Maps links for most properties. That makes them better than all the other real estate websites I found - it's often impossible to figure out where stuff is, and descriptions like "10 minutes from the airport" don't help - almost anything is within 10 minutes of the airport in CM. They were also quite friendly and not pushy. Unlike certain other property agents... we had one throw a fit because we didn't like anything he had to show!

I knew I could trust you.. I was too lazy to google KPV 14

Houseinchiangmai is one of the websites I have been looking at alot. I went to their office but ended up with a cappucino at starbucks:) I will contact them next time I'll get up to CM instead. They have lots of properties for rent and they also seem to update their website more often than other real estate agents. And yes.. their google maps links are very useful.

Cheers,

Dunder

[dunder]

I moved here from Bangkok in 2005, lived a few years at the Laguna and built my own house in 2008. My opinion about housing developments in CNX is that most of them are overpriced hamster cages with cookie cutter architecture built for profit-maximisation (you asked). Quite many of them are poorly built, but not all.

Take the Laguna Home, for example. The first two phases were built (and sold) cheaply to attract clients. The following phases offered better quality at higher prices. Recently the Laguna Home has diversified into different lines of houses appealing to different markets. They sell wall-to-wall budget houses made from precast segments, as well as new "luxury homes" for five million and more. Architecturally, most houses are unimaginative copycat models; they are neither built sustainably nor are they well integrated into their surroundings.

Most people don't get to spend a couple of million THB every year. If you have the slightest bit of good taste and good sense, get an architect and build a custom house to your specifications. If you are creative, you can even do the architecture yourself. It does not cost more than a prefabricated cookie cutter house in a Moo Baan and the result is almost guaranteed to be more pleasing. It's certainly more effort, though. If you are in a hurry, or you don't have time to supervise construction, you might want to buy a pre-owned home. There are many offerings. With some patience and persistence, you can find good bargains.

Cheers, CMX

Hi CMX

-As I have only been in CM a few times while touring my bike (which means I never really saw much of the city itself) I figure buying a bad idea. I want to live there at least a year before I decide on buying any property.

-"overpriced hamster cages"... quite a wonderful way of describing life in a housing development! I just need to find a cage which is not overly populated:)

-If you can put yourself in my position (new to the city, not wanting to buy atm, with a 6-year-old, working from home), would you consider Laguna to be a decent option? I have only been looking at houses around 200 m2 in a couple of the phases. Phase 7 is out of the picture since the houses there are very close together and a bit too small.

Cheers,

Dunder

Edited December 22, 2010 by dunder

[tigerbeer]

Urbana does not have a great build quality to it. thin walls and uneven plastering. small plots which are extremely expensive. a clubhouse that was promised to be built by the end of this year has not even started. thats right build everything else except what belongs to the people there! now they are building the shop houses on the front facing the superhighway and have no concern about the people already living in the houses next to it. construction starts early in the morning and goes on through till dawn. they prioritize their profits and not their customers. they have open up sale on phase 3 and expect close to about 400 households to use a small clubhouse planned on about 100 something square wah w/swimming pool . there is also a nice looking but a small useless park. the lake takes up most of the space and nothing really u could do there.

location is however good for capital gains i think. a lot of bangkok people prefer houses right on the main highway. security seems good. this mooban does not compare to their previous Country Home project with superior built houses. all sold out though.

[dunder]

Urbana does not have a great build quality to it. thin walls and uneven plastering. small plots which are extremely expensive. a clubhouse that was promised to be built by the end of this year has not even started. thats right build everything else except what belongs to the people there! now they are building the shop houses on the front facing the superhighway and have no concern about the people already living in the houses next to it. construction starts early in the morning and goes on through till dawn. they prioritize their profits and not their customers. they have open up sale on phase 3 and expect close to about 400 households to use a small clubhouse planned on about 100 something square wah w/swimming pool . there is also a nice looking but a small useless park. the lake takes up most of the space and nothing really u could do there.

location is however good for capital gains i think. a lot of bangkok people prefer houses right on the main highway. security seems good. this mooban does not compare to their previous Country Home project with superior built houses. all sold out though.

Seems like opinions about this project differs widely.. Thanks for your input TigerBeer. Do you have some personal experience or information about the other developments i posted?

Cheers,

Dunder

[chiangmaiexpat]

As I have only been in CM a few times while touring my bike (which means I never really saw much of the city itself) I figure buying a bad idea. I want to live there at least a year before I decide on buying any property.

That is probably a good idea. If you intend to stay longer in Chiang Mai, this will give you the opportunity to study the property market and survey different areas before making a decision.

If you can put yourself in my position (new to the city, not wanting to buy atm, with a 6-year-old, working from home), would you consider Laguna to be a decent option?

Yes, certainly. The Laguna is well positioned, as Sansai is probably one of the places with the highest growth in Chiang Mai during the last five years. There's Rimping super market, Ruam Choke market, many shops and facilities Rents at the Laguna are often ridiculous, as in many other Moo Baans that are "en vogue", but if it's just for a year, perhaps it won't matter. We paid 16k for a house located right at the lake with a nice garden and a great view. Good for kids, because the roads are safe and there are many playgrounds. The building quality was poor, however, substandard materials, reduced column diameter, no termite protection, but as long as you don't own the house, it probably doesn't matter.

From living at the Laguna, I have learned that architecture suffers considerably when single-template houses are mass produced with the sole aim of profit maximisation. Not that the Laguna is special in this regard - it's the same game in almost any Moo Baan.

Cheers, CMX

[scorecard]

Always hard to make unit to unit comparisons, but some solid reasoning provided, especially re modernization, increasing property values and maintenance/improvement costs.

When I mention to Thais the reticence of Thai buyers to purchase an older house, I often get two casual explanations. The first is the superstitious nature of a lot of people. Has someone died here? Grumpy spirits in residence? The second is people like to start "new."

To speculate a bit more, might there also be a tendency to "show off" a bit by going "new?" Perhaps similar to favoring new cars over used cars.

Finally, a (Thai) friend of mine recently bemoaned the tendency of developers and individuals who continue to fill in rice paddies and build new when there are so many older houses available.

Most members I'm sure are well aware that status permeats everything in the LOS, and Thais are still, perhaps always will be, very serious about building status.

So I suggest 'like to start new' is just a polite window dressing for 'there's high status points' for new houses, and 'very low status points' for second hand houses.