Cost Of Housing In Phuket

[petercallen]

Between my father, myself and my son we have over 60 years experience in real estate overseas.

This includes investing ourselves and in real estate sales for other people

I haved lived here for nearly 5 years now and been following the real estate market as its always

been of interest to me.

We have been looking as serious buyers for 2 months now and in that time have only seen 6 houses

which are realistically valued or are negotiable to a realistic price.

Unfortunately all except one we are not interested in and that one is not finished yet.

What do you think of the real estate market here.

[KarenBravo]

Completely different than in the west.

I guess the main thing is that there are few mortgages and no buying chains.

Because of this, there isn't so much pressure to lower prices for quick sales.

[katasyd]

Hugely inflated market with build quality being questionable on a majority of the properties on the market.

Patience is the key and i always wait for the after high season sales from people who went another year without a bite and just want out and sell at cost.

[KarenBravo]

The laws of Supply and Demand, just don't seem to apply in this country when it comes to property.

[petercallen]

Hugely inflated market with build quality being questionable on a majority of the properties on the market.

Patience is the key and i always wait for the after high season sales from people who went another year without a bite and just want out and sell at cost.

You are so right, i looked at some new houses being built 2 to 3 years ago

They were selling for between 2.5 and 3.2M

We looked at one of these houses recently, it was not well looked after,

The owner was asking 6.2 willing to reduce to 5.7M

I told him no thank you and wished him the best of luck as far as selling it.

[stevenl]

Phuket is a real estate market like no other that I know of. So any experience you have 'in real estate overseas' you can throw out the window when looking for real estate here.

Things like 'realistically valued' or 'negotiable to a realistic price' don't mean anything. A lot of sellers simply don't need/have to sell, or sometimes even don't want to sell but just see if they can get what they want. And sometimes they do get what they want, so that was 'realistically valued'.

[BangTaoBoy]

I know very little about the real estate here or anywhere else in the world. But looking at it from a basic view point, I think property here is roughly a third to a quarter of the price it would be in the UK. Considering what kind of place this is and how much fun it is to live here, then that's great value for me.

So when people say property is overpriced, I'm sure they're right, but I still see most of it as a bargain.

As for quality and spec, I have seen a lot of new builds in the UK that have problems from the get go as well, so you're not always guarenteed a high quality finish there either.

[DougLee]

I know very little about the real estate here or anywhere else in the world. But looking at it from a basic view point, I think property here is roughly a third to a quarter of the price it would be in the UK. Considering what kind of place this is and how much fun it is to live here, then that's great value for me.

So when people say property is overpriced, I'm sure they're right, but I still see most of it as a bargain.

As for quality and spec, I have seen a lot of new builds in the UK that have problems from the get go as well, so you're not always guarenteed a high quality finish there either.

in other countries you are guaranteed grass with no garbage in it, you are guaranteed that you will not find 1 year of rubbish hidden under your house/grass by 1inch of earth. You are guaranteed to own your propriety you are guaranteed to have basic isolation etc etc . Whatever you buy here, will have 0 isolation, will have cost about 10% of what you paid(how much can a few Burmese and a bunch of concrete cost?) In other countries they actually use levers to make sure things are close to being leveled.. here the least leveled? the BETTER! Also in other countries you get a backyard, here you usually get half a meter of grass and your back neighbor's thai kitchen as a view. In other countries you are guaranteed that if someone has noisy or loose dogs, something will be done. Here? you are guaranteed to be annoyed or to have to kill an innocent animal.

in many years, i have only found 1 propriety fairly priced, with a backyard and huge front yard, a distance from neighbors(no back neighbor).. that's not a lot for someone who looks a lot.

Only good deals are the 2.5-3.5mb single houses that you can buy directly from the project.. but even then in my country for that price(more like 2.2mb), i could get a nice bungalow or trailer converted into bungalow in small bungalow communities near army bases(not trailer park) with a nice small yard.

[HDRIDER]

I talked to some people who know a bit about house building in Phuket, 13 years they have been building here

a lot of expat buying houses from 4 mill up buy cash and they have no problem in keeping them if they dont sell for the price they want, phuket is so different to other places.

A house in my Soi sold for 9.2 what i understand he did not knock 10 Baht of the price.

[petercallen]

Phuket is a real estate market like no other that I know of. So any experience you have 'in real estate overseas' you can throw out the window when looking for real estate here.

Things like 'realistically valued' or 'negotiable to a realistic price' don't mean anything. A lot of sellers simply don't need/have to sell, or sometimes even don't want to sell but just see if they can get what they want. And sometimes they do get what they want, so that was 'realistically valued'.

I hate to dissolution you but the real estate market is the same all around the world.

There is a time to buy into real estate and a time to sell, its called either a buyers or a sellers market.

When prices are stable without the huge capitol gains achieved it is neither a buyers or sellers market.

It is a buyers market here, there are people who need to sell and are hanging on by the skin of there

teeth hoping the market will change, prices are starting to drop all over the island

With the huge amount of properties available here they are going to continue to drop in value and this

will not change in the foreseeable future.

A realistic value if you genuinely want to sell is the amount a purchaser is prepared to pay, not what you

think its worth or someone has told you what its worth.

I have seen properties here where the asking price is 16M and other properties at 8M equal properties.

[Benjie]

I hate to dissolution you but the real estate market is the same all around the world.

There is a time to buy into real estate and a time to sell, its called either a buyers or a sellers market.

When prices are stable without the huge capitol gains achieved it is neither a buyers or sellers market.

It is a buyers market here, there are people who need to sell and are hanging on by the skin of there

teeth hoping the market will change, prices are starting to drop all over the island

With the huge amount of properties available here they are going to continue to drop in value and this

will not change in the foreseeable future.

A realistic value if you genuinely want to sell is the amount a purchaser is prepared to pay, not what you

think its worth or someone has told you what its worth.

I have seen properties here where the asking price is 16M and other properties at 8M equal properties.

Aren't you the OP who started the thread bemoaning that you can't find anything even though you have been aggressively looking. What would you have told your real estate buyers that meant when you were in the business abroad

The price of anything is what someone is willing to buy for AND what someone is willing to sell for. Both those halves make the equation, not what someone simply thinks he should pay.

[KarenBravo]

I hate to dissolution you but the real estate market is the same all around the world.

It's been a buyers market for at least the last 10 years, yet, prices have increased.

I think the reason is that there has always been lots of choice for the buyer, and there were always enough buyers to give these developers a living.

The developers were greedy, each development more expensive than the last. Trouble was, people kept paying the silly money.

You'd be surprised how many medium to high end places are bought sight unseen.

I'm sure the Thai property market isn't unique; probably a few more like it in developing countries.

The thing is, I don't think it's a comparable market to a typical western property market.

[barka]

PETER I think you know the market here as much as any of us..i think you are telling us the answers already.. i wish you luck in buying your house here i think you know what you want and what you want to pay.. I bought a house here 4 years ago and at the time it was a bargain.. but i am realistic i think i would be lucky if i sold it to day and got my purchase price for it....

[BangTaoBoy]

I know very little about the real estate here or anywhere else in the world. But looking at it from a basic view point, I think property here is roughly a third to a quarter of the price it would be in the UK. Considering what kind of place this is and how much fun it is to live here, then that's great value for me.

So when people say property is overpriced, I'm sure they're right, but I still see most of it as a bargain.

As for quality and spec, I have seen a lot of new builds in the UK that have problems from the get go as well, so you're not always guarenteed a high quality finish there either.

in other countries you are guaranteed grass with no garbage in it, you are guaranteed that you will not find 1 year of rubbish hidden under your house/grass by 1inch of earth. You are guaranteed to own your propriety you are guaranteed to have basic isolation etc etc . Whatever you buy here, will have 0 isolation, will have cost about 10% of what you paid(how much can a few Burmese and a bunch of concrete cost?) In other countries they actually use levers to make sure things are close to being leveled.. here the least leveled? the BETTER! Also in other countries you get a backyard, here you usually get half a meter of grass and your back neighbor's thai kitchen as a view. In other countries you are guaranteed that if someone has noisy or loose dogs, something will be done. Here? you are guaranteed to be annoyed or to have to kill an innocent animal.

in many years, i have only found 1 propriety fairly priced, with a backyard and huge front yard, a distance from neighbors(no back neighbor).. that's not a lot for someone who looks a lot.

Only good deals are the 2.5-3.5mb single houses that you can buy directly from the project.. but even then in my country for that price(more like 2.2mb), i could get a nice bungalow or trailer converted into bungalow in small bungalow communities near army bases(not trailer park) with a nice small yard.

I did point out that I wasn't looking at it from the point of view of a profesional in the real estate business, but someone who knows if a house is nice to live in or not and roughly how much it would cost in the UK. It doesn't really interest me what the build cost are and if the mark up for the developer is higher than it would be in the West.

The house I live in now is probably only worth 3-4 million, but is a nice, comfortable 3 bedroom house, enough space for 2 cars and still plenty of room left for a BBQ with lots of guests. (I've had a house here with a huge lawn before, but found it a complete waste of space as it was hotter than the sun and with all the Thai creepy crawlies, not particulary nice to sit on) I can hardly see any of my neighbours, and only have one soi dog which is mildly anoying.

This house would cost at least 3 times more in the UK in an area with very little going for it, and 4 to 5 times more in a more touristy area. So for me, it offers great value for money.

I spend 80k here and wake up with a big smile on my face, or I could spend 300k in the UK and wake up a miserable b#stard, that never gets to see my family because I'm always at work, to pay for the house I don't like and don't want to live in!

[petercallen]

Aren't you the OP who started the thread bemoaning that you can't find anything even though you have been aggressively looking. What would you have told your real estate buyers that meant when you were in the business abroad

The price of anything is what someone is willing to buy for AND what someone is willing to sell for. Both those halves make the equation, not what someone simply thinks he should pay.

I invested in properties overseas,i still have investments in property but get a better return by leaving money in the bank at present

My father was and my son is a very successful real estate agent, not salesman.

When you see 2 different properties, one at 15.8 firm price and another at 8.8M negotiable

and the 8.8M property is better than the 15.8m property would not you think there is

something wrong with the way properties are value here, then again you may have a property

you want to sell, to find its true value you need to compare similar properties, watch which

ones sell and which do not then you will know what your property is worth.

There are a few fairly priced properties here but most are very overpriced.

[stevenl]

I hate to dissolution you but the real estate market is the same all around the world.

A realistic value if you genuinely want to sell is the amount a purchaser is prepared to pay, not what you

think its worth or someone has told you what its worth.

I have seen properties here where the asking price is 16M and other properties at 8M equal properties.

There you mention in the last 2 sentences why the real estate market here is different from 'back home'. People do get the 16M here, in spite of others thinking it is worth only 8M. The only persons to determine the value are the seller and the buyer, not somebody who looks at the quality of construction or the money it cost to build the place.

So you may think the 8M is not realistic, somebody else will fork it out, making it a very realistic value. And if not, no problem, they will simply not sell and wait, mostly sticking to the 16M. And precisely that makes it a different real estate market.

[DougLee]

Bangtao, You are about 30mins to 1hour away from any decent food store, that's a lot of money/time lost

Also what most people find 'good confortable' is usualy "white walls, ugly furniture with absolutely no interior designing" a thai kitchen that makes you want to vomit with no aeration or AC. A big bed and a LCD tv.

You might be happy for that price but fact is, there is a lot of places in Thailand, next to nice beaches or even in other countries where you would get a better house and be closer to good food/activities for the same price.

Best way to make this place perfect and worth its price would be for someone to buy a big plot of land (even in an other province) lease a bunch of 1 rais to farangs for 60years, everybody builds a bunch of houses at cost price (with moobaan type rules on crappy cheap shacks/dogs/nuisance/rubbish) have a small monthly fee and keep the craziest pool, gym, farang import groceries and maybe some sport stuff on the land itself.

Thais would be allowed to buy land there, but illegal to rent or just build to resell to a farang.

[petercallen]

I hate to dissolution you but the real estate market is the same all around the world.

A realistic value if you genuinely want to sell is the amount a purchaser is prepared to pay, not what you

think its worth or someone has told you what its worth.

I have seen properties here where the asking price is 16M and other properties at 8M equal properties.

There you mention in the last 2 sentences why the real estate market here is different from 'back home'. People do get the 16M here, in spite of others thinking it is worth only 8M. The only persons to determine the value are the seller and the buyer, not somebody who looks at the quality of construction or the money it cost to build the place.

So you may think the 8M is not realistic, somebody else will fork it out, making it a very realistic value. And if not, no problem, they will simply not sell and wait, mostly sticking to the 16M. And precisely that makes it a different real estate market.

Who mentioned back home, people were selling properties here at 16m and still are

Any sensible buyer will look around and take there time to establish values.

If you read my previous post correctly i said the 8M property was value and the 16M property was not.

If priced correctly the 8M property should be worth more than the 16M property

The 8M property was better than the 16M property, but not what we are looking for.

Neither properties were actually

[KarenBravo]

[if you read my previous post correctly i said the 8M property was value and the 16M property was not.

If priced correctly the 8M property should be worth more than the 16M property

The 8M property was better than the 16M property.

That's precisely why the Thai market isn't anything like a western market, ergo, property markets aren't the same worldwide.

[stevenl]

Who mentioned back home, people were selling properties here at 16m and still are

Any sensible buyer will look around and take there time to establish values.

If you read my previous post correctly i said the 8M property was value and the 16M property was not.

If priced correctly the 8M property should be worth more than the 16M property

The 8M property was better than the 16M property, but not what we are looking for.

Neither properties were actually

Peter, again you're making the same mistake. In your opinion the 8M property was better than the 16M property, but who cares? You don't determine the value, the seller and buyer do. In your opinion the 16M property was overpriced, but if it sells, obviously it was not overpriced. And if they don't sell the seller won't care, otherwise he would reduce the price.

'Priced correctly' does not exist.

[petercallen]

PETER I think you know the market here as much as any of us..i think you are telling us the answers already.. i wish you luck in buying your house here i think you know what you want and what you want to pay.. I bought a house here 4 years ago and at the time it was a bargain.. but i am realistic i think i would be lucky if i sold it to day and got my purchase price for it....

Of course you are right, 4 years ago was the peak of the sellers market.

As i previously mentioned i have seen houses bought around that period and the sellers are

trying to sell at a 100% mark up on there purchase price, which is not going to happen unless

they get a newbie purchaser.

Anyone who needs to sell who bought 4 years ago at the peak should be happy to get there money back.

If you do not need to sell hang on for a few years and you will get capitol gain on your property,

Expect a rate of 4 or 5% per year that is the average in a normal market

[katabeachbum]

Who mentioned back home, people were selling properties here at 16m and still are

Any sensible buyer will look around and take there time to establish values.

If you read my previous post correctly i said the 8M property was value and the 16M property was not.

If priced correctly the 8M property should be worth more than the 16M property

The 8M property was better than the 16M property, but not what we are looking for.

Neither properties were actually

Peter, again you're making the same mistake. In your opinion the 8M property was better than the 16M property, but who cares? You don't determine the value, the seller and buyer do. In your opinion the 16M property was overpriced, but if it sells, obviously it was not overpriced. And if they don't sell the seller won't care, otherwise he would reduce the price.

'Priced correctly' does not exist.

but estimating build cost isnt that difficult

land price in area, work/gardening/perimeterwall/gates

number of floors, number of rooms, roof design (thai roofs expensive), number of bathrooms, covered/ build area = sqm

then the quality study, very diificult to establish knowledge, but something can be found = sqm price

ad decorations/tiles/kitchen etc and you have cost price

Then ad how much you want to pay to avoid a year of building nightmare and possible financial losses during build, and you have YOUR price

[barka]

PETER Like i said before i think you know what you want to buy and at what price..yet all you seem to want to do is argue with all the other posters opinions...buy a house soon then you wont need our opinions...if your such a shrewd real estate guy with all your experiance buy one....

[stevenl]

Who mentioned back home, people were selling properties here at 16m and still are

Any sensible buyer will look around and take there time to establish values.

If you read my previous post correctly i said the 8M property was value and the 16M property was not.

If priced correctly the 8M property should be worth more than the 16M property

The 8M property was better than the 16M property, but not what we are looking for.

Neither properties were actually

Peter, again you're making the same mistake. In your opinion the 8M property was better than the 16M property, but who cares? You don't determine the value, the seller and buyer do. In your opinion the 16M property was overpriced, but if it sells, obviously it was not overpriced. And if they don't sell the seller won't care, otherwise he would reduce the price.

'Priced correctly' does not exist.

but estimating build cost isnt that difficult

land price in area, work/gardening/perimeterwall/gates

number of floors, number of rooms, roof design (thai roofs expensive), number of bathrooms, covered/ build area = sqm

then the quality study, very diificult to establish knowledge, but something can be found = sqm price

ad decorations/tiles/kitchen etc and you have cost price

Then ad how much you want to pay to avoid a year of building nightmare and possible financial losses during build, and you have YOUR price

Yes, that's it, as you mention 'YOUR' price. And it looks like that part is difficult to understand for the OP.

[katabeachbum]

Who mentioned back home, people were selling properties here at 16m and still are

Any sensible buyer will look around and take there time to establish values.

If you read my previous post correctly i said the 8M property was value and the 16M property was not.

If priced correctly the 8M property should be worth more than the 16M property

The 8M property was better than the 16M property, but not what we are looking for.

Neither properties were actually

Peter, again you're making the same mistake. In your opinion the 8M property was better than the 16M property, but who cares? You don't determine the value, the seller and buyer do. In your opinion the 16M property was overpriced, but if it sells, obviously it was not overpriced. And if they don't sell the seller won't care, otherwise he would reduce the price.

'Priced correctly' does not exist.

but estimating build cost isnt that difficult

land price in area, work/gardening/perimeterwall/gates

number of floors, number of rooms, roof design (thai roofs expensive), number of bathrooms, covered/ build area = sqm

then the quality study, very diificult to establish knowledge, but something can be found = sqm price

ad decorations/tiles/kitchen etc and you have cost price

Then ad how much you want to pay to avoid a year of building nightmare and possible financial losses during build, and you have YOUR price

Yes, that's it, as you mention 'YOUR' price. And it looks like that part is difficult to understand for the OP.

YOUR price depends very much on how much you would want to pay for a ready made product and neighborhood. 1 million or 6 million?

some pay 20 million and more for this

[BangTaoBoy]

Bangtao, You are about 30mins to 1hour away from any decent food store, that's a lot of money/time lost

Also what most people find 'good confortable' is usualy "white walls, ugly furniture with absolutely no interior designing" a thai kitchen that makes you want to vomit with no aeration or AC. A big bed and a LCD tv.

You might be happy for that price but fact is, there is a lot of places in Thailand, next to nice beaches or even in other countries where you would get a better house and be closer to good food/activities for the same price.

Best way to make this place perfect and worth its price would be for someone to buy a big plot of land (even in an other province) lease a bunch of 1 rais to farangs for 60years, everybody builds a bunch of houses at cost price (with moobaan type rules on crappy cheap shacks/dogs/nuisance/rubbish) have a small monthly fee and keep the craziest pool, gym, farang import groceries and maybe some sport stuff on the land itself.

Thais would be allowed to buy land there, but illegal to rent or just build to resell to a farang.

I think we're on very different wave lengths here! There's not one inch of this island that is more than an hours drive away from me, and I don't get what you mean by decent food store?? Do you mean a shop that sells expensive imported products? What's not in Tesco, the local market and Banzaan market (seafood) I honestly don't require.

As for the ugly furniture, again I'm not sure what you're getting at. There are numerous good furniture shops on Phuket, where you can furnish your house just as modernly as in the West, for a comparable price. If you buy a house in the West, do you not need to buy furniture for it? How much you spend is up to you, the same as it is here.

When you say you can get places for the same price in other countries, where exactly? The way I've always seen it, is when you live in Phuket, you are living some where people all around the world, save up all year, just to come here on holiday for a couple of weeks, and it's cheaper than living in the places that people are saving up to get away from. That's what I call good value.

There is a lot more to the value of a house than bricks and mortar. There's location, cost of living, facilities, and a lot more. All those things need to be taken in to consideration when valuing a house. Beach huts (8' x 10' wooden sheds) have sold on the Uk coastline for more than the value of my house here!! Why? Because people were prepared to pay it, because for them it was good value, simple as that.

[petercallen]

but estimating build cost isnt that difficult

land price in area, work/gardening/perimeterwall/gates

number of floors, number of rooms, roof design (thai roofs expensive), number of bathrooms, covered/ build area = sqm

then the quality study, very diificult to establish knowledge, but something can be found = sqm price

ad decorations/tiles/kitchen etc and you have cost price

Then ad how much you want to pay to avoid a year of building nightmare and possible financial losses during build, and you have YOUR price

I agree with you except for your last comment.

There is no need to build, You can buy brand new houses, 3 year old houses that have never been lived in and deteriorating.

,Nearly completed houses with solar hot water, built of bricks not hollow cement blocks and the construction seems quite good,

Quality roof tiles and good windows either hardwood or aluminium which i prefer.

Get on your bike and have a look around especially the north of the island where i believe most retired people will be buying

in the future,I liked the Rawai area and though it was a great place to live but over the last 2 years the traffic has got very bad there

its turning into another tourist area, given a few more years it will be as bad as Patong.

If you take the time to look you will see there are brand new houses of all different qualities of construction all over the island

[katabeachbum]

I agree with you except for your last comment.

There is no need to build, You can buy brand new houses, 3 year old houses that have never been lived in and deteriorating.

,Nearly completed houses with solar hot water, built of bricks not hollow cement blocks and the construction seems quite good,

Quality roof tiles and good windows either hardwood or aluminium which i prefer.

Get on your bike and have a look around especially the north of the island where i believe most retired people will be buying

in the future,I liked the Rawai area and though it was a great place to live but over the last 2 years the traffic has got very bad there

its turning into another tourist area, given a few more years it will be as bad as Patong.

If you take the time to look you will see there are brand new houses of all different qualities of construction all over the island

any ready made house in any completed neighborhood, I think youe need to ad the cost of my last comment too. Why would anyone sell at their cost price, if they have no loans or other urgent reason? and in Phuket very few have

and the pices will go up again. when the recession ends, construction prices will rice with 30-50% within few months (Phuket minimum salary just went up with 10?%), making increased price of existing new builds, and of course start covering the lack of increase in value of used homes

[petercallen]

Who mentioned back home, people were selling properties here at 16m and still are

Any sensible buyer will look around and take there time to establish values.

If you read my previous post correctly i said the 8M property was value and the 16M property was not.

If priced correctly the 8M property should be worth more than the 16M property

The 8M property was better than the 16M property, but not what we are looking for.

Neither properties were actually

Peter, again you're making the same mistake. In your opinion the 8M property was better than the 16M property, but who cares? You don't determine the value, the seller and buyer do. In your opinion the 16M property was overpriced, but if it sells, obviously it was not overpriced. And if they don't sell the seller won't care, otherwise he would reduce the price.

'Priced correctly' does not exist.

but estimating build cost isnt that difficult

land price in area, work/gardening/perimeterwall/gates

number of floors, number of rooms, roof design (thai roofs expensive), number of bathrooms, covered/ build area = sqm

then the quality study, very diificult to establish knowledge, but something can be found = sqm price

ad decorations/tiles/kitchen etc and you have cost price

Then ad how much you want to pay to avoid a year of building nightmare and possible financial losses during build, and you have YOUR price

Yes, that's it, as you mention 'YOUR' price. And it looks like that part is difficult to understand for the OP.

I really think some people know very little about real estate, my price is what i believe is a fair market price after looking at lots of properties

[grumpyoldman]

Completely different than in the west.

I guess the main thing is that there are few mortgages and no buying chains.

Because of this, there isn't so much pressure to lower prices for quick sales.

OP, also, you throw in the whole "face" scenario here and it's faaarrrr from doing business in the west.

Example- my brother owns a house in a silimilar neighborhood as mine in the U.S., he sells it for for 4 millionthb. My similar house, due to needing cash I sell for 3.5. In the west I don't "lose face" in my family, hell that concept doesn't even exist, we all do we we have to do, my brother probably needs to buy all the beers at the next family BBQ, but thats about it.

Here if Somchai gets 14 millionthb for his house, you can be dam_n sure that his related neighbor down the street is not going to get a satang less. That makes the equation very different.