Where In Chiang Rai Is A Good Place To Build A Home?

[Mark1971]

Hi,

I am looking for advice from you guys who have experience of living in Chiang Rai.

We are living in the UK, and will be here for a few more years.

The wife is from Chiang Rai & we are planning to retire there once the kids are bigger.

We both agree on this, but whenever we get into the detail, exactly when, where etc, it is obvious we have different ideas.

This is probably my fault as I am an Engineer & enjoy planning things in great detail, obviously as the wife is Thai detailed planning isn't her strongest point.

The Mother in Law lives between Chiang Saen & Chiang Khong.

The MIL has a lovely 4 Rai garden at the back of her place backing onto a stream, which she uses to grow corn / vegetables etc.

We were there about 18 months ago for my Brother in Laws wedding, while there the wife bought 200 Rai near the village.

The plan is for the BIL / SIL to plant & look after rubber trees, manage some Burmese when we start tapping & live in a new house built in the MIL's back garden & look after her in her old age.

Obviously everything will be initially funded by me & the wife, however there should be some money coming our way once things are up and running.

We will be going to Chiang Rai again next May to oversee the tree planting & visit the family.

When we are there I would like to look for a plot of land for our retirement.

The wife would be happy to build a house in the MIL's back garden, but my thinking is that I would be too isolated.

My preference is less than 15 minutes drive from Chiang Rai, safe are, nice scenery, minimum plot size 1 Rai.

Looking on the internet land on Santiburi golf club looks very nice, despite being at the top end of the budget.

I may even consider an estate if there are any with decent plot sizes & good management.

If you were in my position where would you suggest we should look for a retirement plot.

Thanks

Edited October 4, 2012 by Mark1971

[sceadugenga]

I like it where I am, about 20kms south of the city on the old Chiang Mai road.

Nice mountain area, no flooding and a good road to town.

It's nice out to the west of the city as well as you follow the MaeKok towards the Burmese border.

It's a fair trip over to the Mekong where your land is though so may be you should concentrate your search in that area.

[kymar]

If i were you, i would choose Santiburi, as it would spare you from dogs, chickens and Pouyi Ban tannoys.

Living so close to the inlaws can prove testing to say the least, depends on how much privacy you require.

Chiang Rai is a wonderful place to live and where ever you decide to make your home, i am sure you will be very happy here.

[villagefarang]

You can get around estate plot sizes by buying more than one plot and taking perhaps two of their accepted house designs and putting them together to create a bigger place. I know a couple of guys who have done this. You won’t find nice scenery in a housing estate, however. Good management today may turn into something else down the road if management changes hands and this has happened.

Santiburi is a lovely place but it never really developed into the country club lifestyle some had envisioned when they bought and later built there. Relatively few people live there all year round and it is more of a vacation home site.

With Chiang Rai growing rapidly it is hard to know how things will look by the time you are ready to live here. Family dynamics change with time just as your own perceived needs will surely change as you get older.

My advice is always to live here for a while first, before deciding on where to build a more permanent residence. Sure it is tempting to look back and say I wish I had bought that piece of land when it was cheaper. Making a bad choice can be more devastating, in my opinion.

When it comes to living in Thailand, it might behoove you to take some lessons from you dear wife.

[harrry]

You say you are settling here when the children are bigger. What do you mean by that. If they still need school that is one of the more important issues. Older children also have other needs and these need to be taken into acount if they are to live there too. Without this any advise is possibly not reliable. Let us know what the real situation is and people can help more. Nothing replaces the need to stay and look first from here.

[villagefarang]

If i were you, i would choose Santiburi, as it would spare you from dogs, chickens and Pouyi Ban tannoys.

Living so close to the inlaws can prove testing to say the least, depends on how much privacy you require.

Chiang Rai is a wonderful place to live and where ever you decide to make your home, i am sure you will be very happy here.

Nice first post and hopefully there will be many more.

[pomchop]

There are many areas of Chiang Rai that offer different living experiences. Some areas are much more scenic with beautiful moutains, rivers, streams, rice paddies, etc surrounding you. Other areas are nearer to the big highway and are really just pretty flat and not very scenic. There are Thai housing estates with gates where the houses are placed very very close to each other. There are other areas that offer more space between the housing units.

Since there is little or no zoning you do need to be be careful about who your neighbors might be, how close to your house they will be and what they may be up to. You would not want to build a nice house and then have someone open a pig farm or worse next door. You also need to be aware of noise from the local village as most have loudspeakers that they do a daily "news update, singing contest" or you name it. While few and far between you might also like to make sure there are no mosques nearby or you will be subjected to the muslim prayers at all hours of everyday.

For me I prefer a more rural scenic setting with a big enough piece of land to give me some amount of privacy from the neighbors. I like to be able to go for walks without having a bunch of vicious dogs raising hell. I like to be able to sit on my deck and have one of the best views of nature that i have ever experienced. I like to be within 15 mins drive of town but still have all the advantages of NOT being too close to town or on a road with too much traffic. I like to have a big wall around my house for more privacy etc. I like feeling that within reason I am protected from some one opening some obnoxious business too close to my house.

Having said all of that the BEST advice i suspect you will get is to come here and RENT a place for a while and do a good long slow look around at the various areas and at different pieces of property. Narrow it down and be sure to visit at different hours of the day. Do a few walks around the area to find out about dogs and the like. Pay attention to the neighborhood and THEN decide what works best for you.

[villagefarang]

Not sure what kind of views you are looking for but here is an example of one kind of view. We are more like 50 minutes from town, than 15, but the town is growing quickly. Took this shot today.

[Mark1971]

You say you are settling here when the children are bigger. What do you mean by that. If they still need school that is one of the more important issues. Older children also have other needs and these need to be taken into acount if they are to live there too. Without this any advise is possibly not reliable. Let us know what the real situation is and people can help more. Nothing replaces the need to stay and look first from here.

Thanks for the reply.

The childrens education is a major consideration with regard moving to Thailand.

I was deliberately vague about this point in my original question, as I didn't want to get bogged down on this particular issue.

Our thinking on the subject is that the children will have a Western education, in the UK or finances permitting at a top International School in Thailand, going to University either in the UK or Australia.

Chiang Rai probably doesn't offer the childrens education we are looking for, although we are going to take a look at CRIS when we next visit Chiang Rai.

We visited Thailand about 18 months ago & took a tour of PTIS in Chiang Mai, which offered the standard of education & personal experience we want for the children.

I was trying to convince the wife to relocate to Chiang Mai due to the options for the childrens education, but we were both dissapointed with Chiang Mai as a city & agreed we are happier in the UK.

Chiang Rai has always been the retirement dream for me & the wife.

We want at least 1 Rai, so we can build a house with guest accomodation so family & friends can feel as though they have their own space when they come to stay.

Edited October 5, 2012 by Mark1971

[Mark1971]

Not sure what kind of views you are looking for but here is an example of one kind of view. We are more like 50 minutes from town, than 15, but the town is growing quickly. Took this shot today.

VF,

I really enjoy your photography, much better than any photos I have ever taken.

Personally I am thinking 10 to 20 minutes drive from town is about right for me, however if I had views like yours I might never want to leave the house.

[Mark1971]

I like it where I am, about 20kms south of the city on the old Chiang Mai road.

Nice mountain area, no flooding and a good road to town.

It's nice out to the west of the city as well as you follow the MaeKok towards the Burmese border.

It's a fair trip over to the Mekong where your land is though so may be you should concentrate your search in that area.

Yes it is a long old hike from the MIL's to Chiang Rai.

To be honest it is too far away from the city for me, which is why I am trying to make a short list of other options to show the wife next time we go to Chiang Rai.

Not sure if it is the area you are describing, I once drove from Mae Sai over to Chiang Saen & thought there was some stunning scenery in that area.

I wouldn't worry to much about the distance to the land, the BIL will be in charge of day to day management & we can stop at his or the MIL's when we go there. (To be honest the wife will probably talk me into building a small house in the village as well).

[Mark1971]

If i were you, i would choose Santiburi, as it would spare you from dogs, chickens and Pouyi Ban tannoys.

Living so close to the inlaws can prove testing to say the least, depends on how much privacy you require.

Chiang Rai is a wonderful place to live and where ever you decide to make your home, i am sure you will be very happy here.

This sums up a lot of my thinking.

Buying land in a new estate or on the golf course is expensive, however it guarantees that your enviroment isn't spoiled by the neighbours setting up a motorbike repair shop or a pig farm next door.

Also while I love the in laws, a degree of separation would be good.

As I mentioned in an earlier post we looked at some places in Chiang Mai last time we visited Thailand.

The estates we viewed seemed to fall into three categories.

1. Attractive, modern, well maintained estates, very small expensive plots <300m2 with large houses completely filling the plot.

2. Older, poorly maintained estates with a very eclectic mix of properties on reasonable sized >800m2 plots, houses ranging from beautiful & well maintained to unfinished and derelict.

3. There was one estate we visited which we liked which had reasonable sized plots >800m2, individually designed homes with a common architectural theme & reasonable standards of maintenance.

We also looked at plots on Summit Green Valley Golf Course, but left with a similar feeling to estate category 2, as the place was huge so could not be properly maintained, there was a lot of half finished and deserted / empty derelict plots.

Edited October 5, 2012 by Mark1971

[Mark1971]

There are many areas of Chiang Rai that offer different living experiences. Some areas are much more scenic with beautiful moutains, rivers, streams, rice paddies, etc surrounding you. Other areas are nearer to the big highway and are really just pretty flat and not very scenic. There are Thai housing estates with gates where the houses are placed very very close to each other. There are other areas that offer more space between the housing units.

Since there is little or no zoning you do need to be be careful about who your neighbors might be, how close to your house they will be and what they may be up to. You would not want to build a nice house and then have someone open a pig farm or worse next door. You also need to be aware of noise from the local village as most have loudspeakers that they do a daily "news update, singing contest" or you name it. While few and far between you might also like to make sure there are no mosques nearby or you will be subjected to the muslim prayers at all hours of everyday.

For me I prefer a more rural scenic setting with a big enough piece of land to give me some amount of privacy from the neighbors. I like to be able to go for walks without having a bunch of vicious dogs raising hell. I like to be able to sit on my deck and have one of the best views of nature that i have ever experienced. I like to be within 15 mins drive of town but still have all the advantages of NOT being too close to town or on a road with too much traffic. I like to have a big wall around my house for more privacy etc. I like feeling that within reason I am protected from some one opening some obnoxious business too close to my house.

Having said all of that the BEST advice i suspect you will get is to come here and RENT a place for a while and do a good long slow look around at the various areas and at different pieces of property. Narrow it down and be sure to visit at different hours of the day. Do a few walks around the area to find out about dogs and the like. Pay attention to the neighborhood and THEN decide what works best for you.

Thanks for the reply, this is very good advice,

I agree with everything you are saying, and have touched on most of your points in replies to other posts.

The only piece of advice I am unsure of is your BEST advice to come and RENT before buying.

This is of course would normally be sound advise.

However I have a pretty clear image of what I want.

The first time I visited Chiang Rai (to meet the wife's family) was over 10 years ago, although I have visited relatively infrequently since, I have an understanding of the place.

The value of good, well located land will only go up in the long term. (In my opinion).

So if I can find what we want, and can buy it at a good price (I am in no rush, so I will make sure I am getting a good deal), I might be tempted to buy.

It costs a lot of money to get me the wife & 2 kids from the UK to Chiang Rai on holiday, so we can't visit frequently & I would like to make the best use of my time there.

(I tried to explain to the wife that if I went on my own, I could go 4 times as often. Strangely she didn't seem to think that was a good idea).

[pomchop]

There are many areas of Chiang Rai that offer different living experiences. Some areas are much more scenic with beautiful moutains, rivers, streams, rice paddies, etc surrounding you. Other areas are nearer to the big highway and are really just pretty flat and not very scenic. There are Thai housing estates with gates where the houses are placed very very close to each other. There are other areas that offer more space between the housing units.

Since there is little or no zoning you do need to be be careful about who your neighbors might be, how close to your house they will be and what they may be up to. You would not want to build a nice house and then have someone open a pig farm or worse next door. You also need to be aware of noise from the local village as most have loudspeakers that they do a daily "news update, singing contest" or you name it. While few and far between you might also like to make sure there are no mosques nearby or you will be subjected to the muslim prayers at all hours of everyday.

For me I prefer a more rural scenic setting with a big enough piece of land to give me some amount of privacy from the neighbors. I like to be able to go for walks without having a bunch of vicious dogs raising hell. I like to be able to sit on my deck and have one of the best views of nature that i have ever experienced. I like to be within 15 mins drive of town but still have all the advantages of NOT being too close to town or on a road with too much traffic. I like to have a big wall around my house for more privacy etc. I like feeling that within reason I am protected from some one opening some obnoxious business too close to my house.

Having said all of that the BEST advice i suspect you will get is to come here and RENT a place for a while and do a good long slow look around at the various areas and at different pieces of property. Narrow it down and be sure to visit at different hours of the day. Do a few walks around the area to find out about dogs and the like. Pay attention to the neighborhood and THEN decide what works best for you.

Thanks for the reply, this is very good advice,

I agree with everything you are saying, and have touched on most of your points in replies to other posts.

The only piece of advice I am unsure of is your BEST advice to come and RENT before buying.

This is of course would normally be sound advise.

However I have a pretty clear image of what I want.

The first time I visited Chiang Rai (to meet the wife's family) was over 10 years ago, although I have visited relatively infrequently since, I have an understanding of the place.

The value of good, well located land will only go up in the long term. (In my opinion).

So if I can find what we want, and can buy it at a good price (I am in no rush, so I will make sure I am getting a good deal), I might be tempted to buy.

It costs a lot of money to get me the wife & 2 kids from the UK to Chiang Rai on holiday, so we can't visit frequently & I would like to make the best use of my time there.

(I tried to explain to the wife that if I went on my own, I could go 4 times as often. Strangely she didn't seem to think that was a good idea).

so even if you fly in and find and buy the perfect plot where do you plan to live while the house is being built? can't imagine you would build a house without being around to personally check on it OFTEN during the build or you wil end up with some big surprises i think....rents here are cheap so seems it would make sense to rent a place, look around, buy the land and begin the build while you are living in the rental?...or you may well be able to find something already built that you like and just buy that? anyway..up to you and i am sure you'll figure it all out...good luck

[oysters]

I have to agree with village farang and other posters about the try before you buy tactic.

My wife's village is 13 km from the city and I have there quite a few times over the past 15 years and I thought there is no way I could live in the village with the chickens crowing at 2 in the mornings dogs barking and yes the neighbors 3 houses down buying some pigs just to stink the village up.However that being said we have 5 rai just outside the village with nice mountain veiws which we are now considering building on.Years ago I thought my mind was made up and I would be living in the city even brought 1rai in the rimkok area bt as I am getting a bit older I am really warming to the country style living as we have great markets around our area with the freshest of produce.I love the city great restaurants safe way to walk around some really great expats that have made me welcome everytime I get there wether its fishing golfing or just having a beer.

My point s that take your time some people like villiage life others think they do and quickly get sick of it .

I will probably spend the night in town after a night of eating and drinking so it's pretty easy for me.

On the education side of things I never really consider Thailand an option but I remember looking up a few schools in chiang Mai and they were expensive.One thing we did do was to put my daughter into a Thai school at the end of kindergarten for 3 months and not one kid could speak English by the time she finished she was speaking excellent Thai and her mother and family over here in oz speak Thai to her all the time to keep up her language skill and that really comes in handy for her family visits to Thailand.

On the rubber trees make sure you do plenty of study in to tree plantations while it can be a lurcrative there are also plenty of pitfalls.

Anyway all the best I probably confused you even more.

Thanks VF for the pics your photos are convincing me more and more Of the beauty of country life in thailand

I have to agree with village farang and other posters about the try before you up tactic.

My wife's village is 13 km from the city and I have there quite a few times over the past 15 years and I thought there is no way I could live in the village with the chickens crowing t 2 in the mornings dogs barking and yes the neighbors 3 houses down using some pigs just to stink the village up.However that being said we have 5 rai just outside the village with nice mountain veiws which we are now considering building on.Years ago I thought my mind was made up and I would be living in the city even brought 1rai in the rimkok area bt as I am getting a bit older I am really warming to the country style living as we have great markets around our area with thr freshest of produce.I love the city great restaurants safe way to walk around some really great expats that have made me welcome everytime I get there wether its fishing golfing or just having a beer.

My point s that take your time some people like villiage life others think they do and quickly get sick of it .

I will probably spend the night in town after a night of eating and drinking so it's pretty easy for me.

On the education side of things I never really consider Thailand an option but I remember looking up a few schools in chiang Mai and they were expensive.One thing we did do was to put my daughter into a Thai school at the end of kindergarten for 3 months and not one kid could speak English by the time she finished she was speaking excellent Thai and her mother and family over here in oz speak Thai to her all the time to keep up her language skill and that really comes in handy for her family visits to Thailand.

On the rubber trees make sure you do plenty of study in to tree plantations while it can be a lurcrative there are also plenty of pitfalls.

Anyway all the best I probably confused you even more.

Thanks VF for the pics your photos are convincing me more and more Of the beauty of country life in thailand and your comments about santinaburi are right I enjoy playing golf there the clubhouse and food are great but to live out there for some reason the place just looks a bit lonely to me.

Cheers

Edited October 6, 2012 by oysters

[Colonel_Mustard]

Also hoping to move up to Chiang Rai when the kids are older (in Phuket at present). We looked around for a good few months and in the end chose Santiburi for many of the reasons already mentioned elsewhere in the thread.