Hello, thanks for your great and very helpful thread board.

I m right now living in Bali but i m thinking of spending the raining season out of Bali and stay Samui as i really really love the island.

I'd like to buy a small villa (2 or 3 bdr) on a 300 sqm land with a pool.

I recently visited one for sale close to Fishermanvillage (around 700 meters from fisherman village entrance gate) that i like and an other one at the end of lamai area (south of it, just after the shooting place), both are for sale around 5 to 6 millions bath.

I planning to buy the villa to stay over there with my familly during 2 or 3 month every year or every 2 years and rent it out to expat when i'm not there (around 50 to 60 millions).

I ask you some help to suggest me which area is more likely to interest expat to rent out my villa ?

In term of political unstabilitie in thailand right now do you think that a stupid idea to invest in thailand this year ?

Thanks a lot for your great helps.

I suppose you are not Thai,so how do you propose to purchase

a villa,LEGALLY, if you can afford to loose 5/6 M THB ,then there

could be other ways to own,BUT very risky. be care

relax Countryman

Thanks a lot for your great input.

Is it risky because of the company scheme that is offered to foreigner to "buy" a property or because of the country instability or both ?

Thanks a lot

Thanks a lot for your great input.

Is it risky because of the company scheme that is offered to foreigner to "buy" a property or because of the country instability or both ?

Thanks a lot

PM Sent

To answer your question about the property location, I would say the one near Fisherman's Village is better location than the other one.

That far south of Lamai isn't considered to be "Lamai" anymore and more in "Hua Thanon". Oceans around that area are also very shallow and from April-September, the level of ocean isn't really deep enough to swim.

The one near Fisherman's Village is definitely better location to rent out.

Agree with Mole (above) that Bo Phut, especially close to Fisherman Village, is a more attractive area than Lamai South – would probably also be easier to rent out at a fair rate.

I presume you are aware of set-up and pit falls concerning foreign owned property in Thailand...

5-6 million baht for a 2 or 3-bedroom villa with pool sounds like a reasonable price, of course depending of the actual condition of the property.

I must admit that I don’t fully understand your “around 50 to 60 millions” rent. Many houses in prime locations seems to be rented out for a rate similar to about 1500 baht per bedroom per day, i.e. a 2-bedroom prime-site villa for about 100,000 bath a month, whilst less attractive locations may rather be in the area around 20,000 to 30,000 baht a month. You will need an agent or someone local to take care of the villa and check renters in and out.

In my opinion the political situation in Thailand don’t seem to have much influence on expats and foreign visitors, especially down south – something have to be really bad, to do that – it’s more likely currency exchange rates and financial situation abroad that may be a problem; i.e. a number of European countries have at the moment a weak currency against THB, down some 20 percent from just a year ago, and the number of Russian visitors looks like less this year. However, the so-called financial crisis 2008 and on, did not seem to have huge effect on Samui-visitors.

Wish you good luck with your plans.