Hi

I understand this issue as been covered several times, and I have read a number of old posts. However getting up to date knowledge is more beneficial

My plan is to relocate later this year to Chiang Mai and rent a property, I am quite familiar with some areas of CM and will be visiting again later this month.

I am British have a Thai wife and young child we would prefer areas with a expat community and all the modern requirements wifi etc.

There seems to be lots of property for rent at the moment but getting the correct location and some thing that suits my requirements and budget is important. I would prefer a three bedroom house on the outskirts of town my budget is 10k - 14k. I have checked many of the real estate sites however reading the forums people suggest not using them because of the inflated prices and pressure you for a 12 month lease

I would appreciate any help guidance or pointers to achieve my goal thank you

With you wife help looking in Thai newspapers and publication for real estate ads....I think you can find a place like you describe very easy.

Doi Saket and Saraphi may be good areas to look around, just about 40 minutes from downtown. Niemman and Doi Suthep areas are very good, on the middle of everything, but I believe that rent prices are very high and not easy to find any good deals, too many farangs looking...

The Hang Dong area (it's a huge area) will also have a lot of properties in your price range, from what I understand.

I recently relocated to C Mai. I fretted before hand about finding a townhouse or house that would suit me. Ultimately I rented a condo for 4 months and was able to find a good townhouse to rent after just 5 weeks. My suggestion is to get here and do some driving around to find a place that suits your needs. There are a couple of good papers online to use that you may not be aware of. The links are below, but as I said above, the best way to find a place is to drive around an area you like until you see a 'for rent' sign.

http://www.chiangmainews.com/

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rmW3t4A0y76g-zbOf6A7qzPFPotI-VrZwT11HqtDWiI/pub?utm_source=Chaingmai+Christian+Community+Classifieds+%28CCCC%29+Subscribers&utm_campaign=01d4c4ad63-CCCC_Classifieds_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_89fac3f4fe-01d4c4ad63-117405601#h.xwuwv66o9fph

Good luck!

First as a 37 year resident I wish this town would stop growing but that said I think you should come up rent a property on a short lease and hunt around while you live here full time, do you want to live in the middle of town with all it's traffic and noise mind as well stay where ever you are. The outskirts of town are where you will find your good deals and to me a better quality of live for a family, but take a short term lease or a month to month until you sort yourself out and find what your needs are here, schooling, shopping etc good luck

Hi Yorkshire Paddy,

I would recommend looking at the nong hoi area, very close to the night bazaar (about 4km), but on the other side of the river. There is a good market and a couple of nice established moo baans. Places here would very rarely make it to the estate agents for rent, but instead are advertised locally by word of mouth and tend to get rented out very quickly. The Siliwattana moo baan has quite a lot of expats and young families (due to it's proximity to the international school) and as such has a decent community vibe to it for a foreigner.

If you want, send me a PM and I will look at getting a contact number for the moo baan community leader. He could probably talk to your wife about available houses around the estate here. To put things in perspective, I'm renting a nice 3 bed bungalow with 2 bathrooms, large kitchen and large gardens for 10,000 bt a month ... a nice family starter home with my own mrs and kid.

... I also feel compelled to mention that there was a shocking attack at the local petrol station last night though - obviously this is not representative of the area, and we can all hope that the situation across all of Thailand get's safer and more stable soon. But I wouldn't want to leave that info out and then have another poster mention it!

There are plenty of attractive moobaans on the ring roads. Some of the older moobaans with rentals. You need to be here and be able to drive around so that you can see what you like.