Sukhumvit Road Condo Buying Advice Plse.

[Cleveland]

I am looking to buy a 130 sq m.+ condo in this area and would appreciate any advice, apart from "don't",that you can offer regarding which Sois to consider.

Will probably start looking from around 23 and 18 onwards as do not want to be close to the "entertainment" areas.(Wife has a problem with Nana and Cowboy!)

Ideally withing a short walk of BTS, Phrom Phong/Thong Lor/Ekami, and close to resteraunts and a supermarket.

Safety at night is important.

Are there Sois that are generally considered safer and more residential, and more attractive to a rentals market, as I will rent out for a few years before moving in myself.

Budget is around B9-11M.

Any advice is appreciated.

[SamSipEt]

You could go out a bit further and look at On Nut where there is a bit of a building frenzy going on. A couple of condo blocks are right next to the BTS station so getting around is easy and there is a Big C and Tesco Lotus within a stones throw.

[JSixpack]

Soi 23 has some really nice established places that will hold their value due to the international population, Japanese in particular. It's convenient and civilized though Soi Cowboy does intersect towards Sukhumvit. Otherwise, consider Thonglor or newer developments around Ratchatewi. Spending that much, no point in your being out at On Nut.

[tw25rw]

On Nut isn't that far out. It might have seemed it when the BTS stopped there. There's lots of development happening that way.

[utalkin2me]

If you don't care about price, look around on nut, pra kanong and ekkamai. If you want to get a deal, look further "south".... Bang na etc.

[breadbin]

My advice is dont buy in Thai

[JSixpack]

My advice is dont buy in Thai

Now that this inevitable, obligatory, very shrewd sentiment is out of the way, can the gloom-and-doomers just hit the Like This button and leave the thread on topic?

[rayongchelsea]

What's wrong with that advice.

I have bought and sold houses and condos over the 30 years i have lived here,it's not like the west.

I currently own two properties here, but it's good that such advice is not completely dismissed.

[wordchild]

i would say the north (odd numbers) side of suk is slightly better than the south side from asoke to ekhami; i think the whole area between say soi 31 and thonglor (leaving out 33) is a great place to be esp with young kids (if you have them). Having said that, K village has been a big improvement for the soi 24/26/34 area, though i myself still find the soi 24 condo alley quite depressing somehow. I have friends who live on soi 16 (close to foodland) and they really love the soi 16/18/20 area.

If you are really set on buying i think you may have to rethink your price target or your chosen area; short walk to the skytrain and close to shops is what everyone else wants also! good quality fairly new condos in the prime sukhumvit area eg say Domus on soi 16 go for 140k+ per sqm. you could fous on slightly older condos or push your search out a bit further either, away from the skytrain, (eg down the sois toward petburi or rama4 roads) or, further up sukhumvit, beyond Thonglor, where prices seem to drop away quite quickly.

Edited February 23, 2013 by wordchild

[kyb789]

Are local real estate agents much help here? I noticed a large swing in prices for the same style condo. It seems everything is "for rent or sale". Then is there is a rediculous asking price for both. How does one go about finding the market value of a condo when there is so much variation? Should we assume the asking prices are stupidly inflated and the real estate agent can help bring everthing into perspective?

[wordchild]

Are local real estate agents much help here? I noticed a large swing in prices for the same style condo. It seems everything is "for rent or sale". Then is there is a rediculous asking price for both. How does one go about finding the market value of a condo when there is so much variation? Should we assume the asking prices are stupidly inflated and the real estate agent can help bring everthing into perspective?

On the whole, i would say most small agents in Bangkok are a complete waste of time esp,in my experience, the farang ones. However,it is worth being friends with CBRE, they dominate the market and , once you get to know them, they can be helpful. Most important you need to build up your own market knowlege and put in some legwork yourself. If you find a building you like, make friends with the office staff even the security staff may have useful info. In many buildings the office will have the keys for a few units they can show you, see everything you can, spray a bit of cash around, a couple of hundred here and there works wonders. They can help you (asked in the right way) with questions such as "whats sold or rented recently?" "what price was it?" " what sort of price psqm for the recent sales?" "what was the starting price from the developer?" " any owner want to sell urgently?" etc etc. Also,do what the locals do, and use Prakard.com

Edited February 24, 2013 by wordchild

[charlieboz]

I live on soi 31 and it is great; not too busy but with some nice restaurants on it too. Good place to hang out

[asanee]

upper side= odd sois, off Sukh are considered far better= khet thonglor and NOT Klong Toey. Note that there are also a bit minor ''entertnmt'' sois beyond 24- more aimed at JPNese. Note that many of the short sois around Emporium are mainly JPnese-with shops and restrts aimed at them-incl. price-levels. Around Thonglor=55 and Ekamai=61 I would avoid- terrible traffic and often long ways to go anywhere. OTOH ''JPNese'' sois have many more rental options-in the higher brackets though. But some may simply refuse to non-Nihon=Yipun. You did not say if kids are involved and their schools.

Good tips from worldchild above here

[Cleveland]

Many thanks for the replies, especially Wordchild's lengthy posts, very useful.

I have been in touch with CBRE, but as yet they have not sent me any details that are even close to my budget!

I did contact Siam Partners Group, since they were on the first page of Google search, and received the rather strange reply "

Sir,

We
only focus on sale above 30MTHB.

Sorry
we can t help you in your property search.

With
Best Regards,

Olivier Lavialle

Managing
Partner, Siam Partners Group Co., Ltd

when I replied I found this strange as the website had many properties in my price bracket a Kristaya sent me details of two condos, also way above my asking price, and then nothing. After two weeks of emailing I called to be told, " i have been very tired lately and not answering my emails"! Excellent business sense I thought!

Two other agents I contacted did not even bother to send any reply, and one, Bkkcondos, has been quite helpful so far.

The financing for the purchase, 70% mortgage, is being arranged through UOB and is so far proving to be a "challenge"! Their website says the process will take three weeks, but seven weeks since the documents were sent I am no closer to seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Emails are NEVER replied to even though I now copy in the dept. head, and if I can get them on the phone am given the standard "we are looking into it and will contact you shortly" Incredibly frustrating.

Once I have got the finance sorted I will get a serviced apartment for a bit and do the legwork sugested here.

Again thanks for the replies.

[SamSipEt]

If you found that search frustrating wait until you start looking for a serviced apartment !

I've just gone through that process trying to find a small half decent place for up to 25,000 a month for a three month period. I wanted something close to any mass transit station. A large number of places claimed to be close to a BTS station but were anything up to a couple of miles away. Statements like 5 minutes to the nearest BTS station should be taken with a large pinch of salt because that 5 minutes could be spent on the back of a motorcycle taxi.

Most enquiries that I sent were never answered. Most answers were we only rent for a minimum of one year and of the few that did answer only a handful had something available for the dates I was after.

Based on my experience it is a numbers game - send as many enquiries to as many agents and serviced apartment buildings that you can find.

Perseverance will pay off in time.

Good luck

Edited February 25, 2013 by SamSipEt

[Toany]

Avoid Pruksa condos unless you have a Thai friend. It is a Thai company that has difficulty communicating with Farangs.

They will call and chat to my Thai friend and completely ignore me, even though I have contract with them. Also at least eight months delays and they do not bother to inform people buying from them.

I suggest leaving this Thai Company to the Thais.