What Legal Advice Should I Consider For Buying A Condo In Phuket?

[Jeroen]

Hi,

I have made a reservation for a Condo unit from the Park Condominium Patong Project in Phuket, to be developed by the Phanason Development Co. It is a 40m2 unit with a price of 2.4M Bht (2.6M – 200.000 presales reduction), sea view, about 15 min. walk from the beach. I need to sign the contract before July 29^th (expiry date of reservation).

I am willing to invest for the following reasons:

• Hope to get at least 5% rental return and 5% capital gains per year
  
• Want to have capital in BHT as I see a future in Thailand and want not all my capital in Euros as the buying power of the Euro in Thailand has decreased by at least 20% over the last 8 years
  
• Like to learn more about investing in property and about how things work in Thailand
  
  • I have spent many months in Thailand in the last 8 years, but reside in Europe.
    

I am interested to hear from the forum members what level of legal advice they would propose for buying this condo.

• I have been offered to do a title deed check (8.500 BHT) and a purchase agreement check (15.000 BHT, ex. VAT).
  
• Is a title deed check necessary, as from what I found on the internet, Phanason seems a trustworthy company?
  
• Do you have any experience changing the purchase agreement that the development company has drawn up? Is this regular practice and are they normally willing to make changes for individuals?
  

Besides the above I am also interested in other experiences regarding similar investments (although I already gathered very helpful information on this forum).

Thanks in advance,

Jeroen

[anon10]

If you paid 23,500 already for this kind of stuff you will burn your hands on the rest as well.

Look at this company's quality and you will understand, and second of all..... who is going to rent it, and rent it out for you if you are not here ?

if you get 3% to 4% return in total you are a lucky guy.

May I remind you of all the new projects build in patong these days!

15,000 baht a month maybe 18,000 for the high season, but after IF you are lucky only 10,000 a month for the rest of ther year.

24,000 baht is 1% and then i not calculate the loss of intrest from the money invested in the condo, lets say 3 % is 72,000 baht (nearly 5 months rental income in high season with no risk)

And on top of it, the risk of the so called bubble...and there is one in Patong.

Don't listen to the sales girl, she is into it as well (commission) wait a year and see what happen, but dont invest with that discount bull shit.

Also, any more then 50,000 baht per SQM is over kill, in your case 60,000 is suicide for the next 3 years.

Oh and one thing... *Defamatory information deleted out*

Have a nice day Jeroen !

p.s. are you dutch ?

Edited July 25, 2012 by Scott
Defamatory information deleted

[falkan]

Phanason is a good developer, but they are building way too much in Patong = oversupply..

[anon10]

Phanason good ?!?

You must be working for them or something like that, look at phanason 3 and then talk again.

Again, avoid this company and if you wanna know the details you can contact me privately.

[Jeroen]

@Ronny: Thanks for the elaborate reply.

- I agree with most of your arguments. Why is more than 50.000 Bht/sqm so bad? Almost all of the new other condo projects I looked at are more expensive per sqm. A selling point for me regarding this project is also the attractive price.

- I did not accept the offer for the legal advice and did not pay the 23.500 Bht

- I did contact a Thai lawyer who looked at the contract for me. He did not request any payment but would accept a donation to the foundation for poor children his business supported. I donated 2000 Bht.

- I am indeed Dutch

- I am curious to hear about your experiences with Phanason

@Falkan: Why do you say Phanason is a good developer? Do you have personal experience with them?

@others interested in buying property in Thailand

I just purchased a recent book “buying property in Thailand” by Rodney Waller. This looks like a rather complete overview of all the things to consider when buying property in Thailand.

I am still inclined to sign the contract tomorrow or the day after, although that from a pure investment perspective it might make little sense. I am also seeing value in the whole experience of buying, (maybe renting) and selling property in Thailand. I will do some more research on the prices of similar condo projects in Patong and could use pointers to other new condo units around 2.5Milj. BHT.

[MrHammer]

Don't take advice from Thaivisa. Most the posters on here are jealous of anyone who has more than a meager pension. It's always the same: Put others ideas down so they won't look like a failure.

Of course, buying property and renting it can be a good investment in Thailand, but you'll have to do your due dilligence. Do you have an edge in advertising your condo? You'll be competing with many others at that kind of condo. Therefore, any extra skills you have in advertising will come in handy. You know, it's similar to how some apartments here are rented with a bare minimum of furniture, while others will spend a little extra on making it look nice. The nice looking one can then command a lot more than the ugly looking one. That can be particularly important for screening out low-spenders. Seeing as how you're dutch, you may already have an advantage with a smaller market instead of competing with every English speaking person in the world.

I think you should think more of this as savings rather than investment. At worst, you'll have a cheap place to retire. At best, you can expand and buy another, then sell that off after the mortgage has been paid. Doesn't look that bad a plan compared to gambling on stocks or bonds in this economy. But really, you should educate yourself before buying on particularly build quality and history of maintenance. 10-20 years down the line, will this apartment still look good or will it be run down and worthless. That would be my major concern.