Khon Kaen info please.

[malt25]

Hi all.

I'm considering KK as a place to settle long term. I've been coming to LOS for about 10 years. I visited 4 times last year for 1 month each time. I'm in the process of getting my retirement visa & have already obtained my Thai drivers license & purchased a car. So, I have a pretty good idea of the pro's & con's of life in LOS. I have been, & I do emphasize BEEN, married to a Thai lady & am somewhat knowledgeable about all the pitfalls. I offer the above info as in so many cases of questions about settling in LOS there's often much offered in why not to come & what can go wrong.

What I'd like some advice, info about, is some nice areas to look in KK for housing rental. I plan on having a good look around prior to entering into any contract.

I'm hoping to rent a fully furnished 2 or 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house in an established area. Would be nice if it had a garden of some sort. In Chiang Mai what I'm looking for would be between 12,500 & 17,500 baht per month. I'm not too familiar with what that budget would get in KK.

So, any info on where I should look will be much appreciated. Also appreciate any advice re reliable estate agents & what you think I'd get within my budget. I'm currently in BKK & will be in KK in about 10 days from now.

Thanks all. Mal.

[webfact]

moved to Isaan forum

/Admin

[PREM-R]

In Khon Kaen you should be able to rent a 3 bedroom bungalow, furnished and on an established development with security for 15,000 per month. Do a Google search for 'Khon Kaen Property' and you will find real estate companies in Khon Kaen, Google 'Khon Kaen forum' and you will find a forum with individual people who want to rent out their property. Most require a 3 month deposit when renting. Hope this is of use to you. BTW (The Khon Kaen forum is down at the moment, I believe the owner is moving it to a new host, should be back on line very soon)

Edited March 15, 2014 by PREM-R

[Nautilus05]

When are you moving? Do you want my house? That would be perfect, as I want to move to Chiang Mai, and this would mean I don't have to really break the lease, hence have a possibility of getting the deposit back.

Sounds like my house may fit the bill for you though. 2 storey, 3bdrm, 3 bath, partially furnished. Nice open floor plan, excellent kitchen table with 8 chairs, sectional, another table, fridge, entertainment unit, some kitchen stuff, etc. Three bedrooms upstairs, each has air conditioning + king sized bed. Master bedroom has en-suite bathroom + shower + tub. Nice good sized yard that wraps all around the house. Nice open floor plain in the main living area, although the kitchen is quite small (ok, very small). No TV at the moment though, so you'd have to buy that. 3BB internet is all hooked up, and ready to go though. We can just transfer that into your name, if you wanted to stick with them.

You said you're retiring, so I'm assuming you're looking for more of a quiet area? If so, this would be perfect. More of a up-scale neighborhood, so no problems with loud / drunk neighbors, dogs, nothing. The one downside (for me at least) is that it's a little outside of town, so you won't be right in KK city in walking distance to everything. There's a nice lake a couple km down the road though, which has a nice park, Tesco, large market, and everything else you need. Then KK itself is about 8km down the road.

14,000/month for 6 month, or 12,000/month for 12 month. That's assuming the owner keeps with current prices -- owner is Thai, and the wife of an Australian guy. Deposit was 30,000.

Edited March 15, 2014 by Nautilus05

[vadimbz]

This city fits your budget, prices for two-bedroom houses start from 8k per month. I suggest that you look at southern half of the city, because most attractions - central plaza, fairy plaza, bigger tesco lotus, buen khen nakhon (the lake and the park), ton tann (night market with live music), tawandang, sangjan (2 isan style night clubs/beer gardens) — are located between center and south. For specific developments check Piman Chon — it's a quiet upscale village near Buen Khen. I have almost rented 3-bedroom there for 15k, but the owner had strict policy regarding pets, so we didn't come to an agreement. I have ended up with 3-bedroom in Piman Thani — a western-style suburb just inside the ring road — for lower price. It has a large garden as well. It's a nice development, but you really need a car or at least a motorbike to survive here.

My advice: find something near Buen Khen (look at the map, it's a big lake near Klang Mueang road in the southern part of the city).

PS: I found my place in two days using ddproperty, no intermediaries whatsoever.

Edited March 15, 2014 by vadimbz

[vadimbz]

When are you moving? Do you want my house? That would be perfect, as I want to move to Chiang Mai, and this would mean I don't have to really break the lease, hence have a possibility of getting the deposit back.

Sounds like my house may fit the bill for you though. 2 storey, 3bdrm, 3 bath, partially furnished. Nice open floor plan, excellent kitchen table with 8 chairs, sectional, another table, fridge, entertainment unit, some kitchen stuff, etc. Three bedrooms upstairs, each has air conditioning + king sized bed. Master bedroom has en-suite bathroom + shower + tub. Nice good sized yard that wraps all around the house. Nice open floor plain in the main living area, although the kitchen is quite small (ok, very small). No TV at the moment though, so you'd have to buy that. 3BB internet is all hooked up, and ready to go though. We can just transfer that into your name, if you wanted to stick with them.

You said you're retiring, so I'm assuming you're looking for more of a quiet area? If so, this would be perfect. More of a up-scale neighborhood, so no problems with loud / drunk neighbors, dogs, nothing. The one downside (for me at least) is that it's a little outside of town, so you won't be right in KK city in walking distance to everything. There's a nice lake a couple km down the road though, which has a nice park, Tesco, large market, and everything else you need. Then KK itself is about 8km down the road.

14,000/month for 6 month, or 12,000/month for 12 month. That's assuming the owner keeps with current prices -- owner is Thai, and the wife of an Australian guy. Deposit was 30,000.

Sounds like we're neighbours J

[Nautilus05]

Sounds like we're neighbours J

You're in Piman Thani? I actually really like that sub-division, and wish I could have ended up there, but wasn't a possibility at the time. Transportation from there into town is good too -- songtaew light blue #8 comes by all the time, and takes you right into town.

We were actually somewhat neighbors before though. I lived in "Tawanna Thani", just down the street. We actually always secretly laughed at you guys during the rainy season. We were a little higher up, so your streets would get flooded, while our street stayed nice and dry. Your sub-division was far nicer than ours, so we had to find something to poke fun at, I guess.

But no, now I'm a good 25km from there. Completely other side of town.

Edited March 15, 2014 by Nautilus05

[vadimbz]

We actually always secretly laughed at you guys during the rainy season. We were a little higher up, so your streets would get flooded, while our street stayed nice and dry.

Oops. I didn't know that.

Just curious, why are you moving to Chiang Mai? I have lived there for a few months, and didn't like it: boring+smoke season. Khon Kaen was, literally and figurativey, a breath of fresh air...

[Nautilus05]

Just curious, why are you moving to Chiang Mai? I have lived there for a few months, and didn't like it: boring+smoke season. Khon Kaen was, literally and figurativey, a breath of fresh air...

Ummm... I'm still in my early 30s, so not quite ready to settle down in the slow pace life that Khon Kaen offers. I'm sorry, but there's not really much here. There's a few nice golf courses, a few malls in town, and that's about it.

I'm your typical "farang in Thailand" story. Got married in home country, didn't work, so travelled around, ended up in Thailand, fell in love, moved to Issan, that didn't work out either, so now I'm sitting here scratching my ass wondering how I ended up in Khon Kaen. Again, typical story, and we've all heard it 100s of times.

Chiang Mai because I want more of an urban atmosphere, more to do, plus I plan to open a software development firm, so there will be a better selection of talent to hire there. Plus there's lots of business connections to be made in Chiang Mai -- tons of online entrepreneurs have chosen Chiang Mai as their home for one reason or another. There's lots of us online guys there though.

Edited March 15, 2014 by Nautilus05

[vadimbz]

I see. For me Chiang Mai was too slow... May be we're just after different kinds of fun? While living in CNX I haven't found a single decent venue with live music (rock, morlum, whatever), while in Khon Kaen there are plenty — Tawandaeng, Sangjan, Chocolate Bar, etc. Anyway, if you ever need a software L10N project done right, feel free to reach me J

[malt25]

Thanks all for the info.

I've sent a couple of PM's

Cheers..... Mal.