is it worth to invest in Bangkok considering it will be under water.

[wernerkl]

It depends how much it cost/rent.

The area I want to rent at usually the rent is about 7-10% of the apartments price.

So even if the Condo is gone in 15 years, I will have made a profit.

But to be honest: Where can we invest in the world?

In western countries today banks can lend out nothing and get interest on it. That have created fanatical bubble housing, shares and so on. People just don't understand that only 3% of a currency in western countries are real money. The rest is air that generate interest to the banks.

This is exactly what happened 2008 and now i Greece.

If to much currency are in the open market, the banks have to stop lend out money. If 3.1% off currency is outside the banks the whole system crash like 2008.

Its not that people can't pay their loans. Its not Greece that play away money.

No.

Its simply that almost all people who bought for example a house in western countries: The bank calls and says: Unfourtunally we can't lend out any money anymore. Please pay back your loan. No one can do that. Foreclosure. The bank devalue the house 40-50%. Suddenly the bank have a kredit debt while the person with no house owes the bank 50% of the house value.

2-3 years later when the bubble is built again: The bank sells the house full value and have stolen 50%. This have happened every 10 year since this creating money of thin air started.

I don't know how it is in most western countries. In Sweden: There are no banks with currency anymore. People think they are millionaires but they can't get the money out of the bank. In Sweden we are limited to 2500 euro/month. Imagine selling a house for 300000. It takes 120 months to get the money and the government combat this by changing the bills every 3-5 years = you have to give back all bills or they are worthless.

Now you understand why western countries wants all to use digital money.

Its amazing how insane this is. Each time we pay with Visa/CC they get 3-5% (and countries with VAT like Sweden 25%. The government get 25% of these 3-5% = why they allow this) Why aren't milk and stuff 3-5 cheaper when you pay with cash? Nope. The banks need all cash. If they have 10 dollar they legally can lend out 100 dollar. 90 dollar created that don't exist and they get interest.

And anyone with math skills understand this: There is not enough money to pay back all loans since 97% that generate interest don't even exist!

This is why Thailand and non Political Correct countries have a huge advantage. They down have this insane inflated economy.

They only way for government in west to combat this is:

1) have negative interest. Sweden was first with using negative interest. EU followed. This have never happened in history.

2) Print more money. The governments in west have to print enough money to pay the interest for money that don't exist. For example Sweden have last 10 years printed 10% more money each year. I have tried to find out: Where does these 20 billion SEK disappear? Cant find out. Probably are these lorries with money shipped straight to the banks each day. EU did the same. Thats why our currencies have gone down 30-40% against for example THB.

Each 10 year with crash all western countries do the same: They GIVE the banks more money.

Only Iceland dared to do the right thing: Let the banks close. Lock the bankers in jail. Now they are prosperous. But you will never read about this in western media since western media is owned by the same group of people that owns the banks and so on.

Thats why people are brainwashed in west.

Always pointing out a scapegoat. "Greece are lazy and played away their money". No. The banks had not enough currency to continue lend out money = the economic system crash. Same like USA 2008. It was not bad loans. It was not Clinton. It was not Bush. It was banks that had not enough currency to continue lend out money and since people mathematically have enough currency to pay back the loans = crash.

Each 10 year cycle the 0.7% gets richer and richer.

Just 1 bank in Sweden have today 2500 billions in assets. Twice the total dept of Sweden.

Its so easy: The movement should just take control of the bank. Pay of the loans and send the bankers to their home country in the middle east. Its that simple.

Ecellent explanation of capitalism. Nealy sounds like Karl and Friedrich. Lomg live Buddha and Jesus and Mohammed. Forget the money lenders.

[ozyjon]

Like some other parts of the world, Bangkok was built

on a swamp, the problem is not water falling on top as

groundwater seeping up and getting rid of it.

Venice is a nice place also.

[RedQualia]

It depends how much it cost/rent.

The area I want to rent at usually the rent is about 7-10% of the apartments price.

So even if the Condo is gone in 15 years, I will have made a profit.

The rule of thumb I've seen most often is that one should try/expect to get a rent of about 1% of the purchase price, per month. Most rents I've seen have been near that amount as well, plus or minus a bit. Maybe Bangkok is different somehow. I don't know. It seems pretty unlikely that one can charge a rent of 7-10% of an apartment's purchase price, per month. If one could get 10% per month, one would have recovered the purchase price in only ten months. If someone thinks they can actually get that much, then good on them, I guess. Buy lots, no matter where the places might be (beach front?). If, however, you're talking 7-10% per year, that's a different story. 10% might barely be acceptable. 7% suggests it would be better to look for property elsewhere.

To the OP's original point if he's really worried about the city being underwater, it might be best to look at investing elsewhere. Perhaps in the north somewhere. Traffic in and around Chiang Mai is looking more and more like Bangkok traffic every day. Lots and lots of Bangkok license plates out there, which kind of maybe suggests a little bit that more and more Bangkokians are leaving BKK? They, too, may have heard the rumors of Bangkok being underwater sometime soon. Or, they may simply have had enough of what Bangkok has become: all Central/Chitlomy-like, with BTS and MRT going everywhere. However you wish to describe it, it's changed quite a bit in the past 15-20 years.

A final thought: housing in the north doesn't appreciate as rapidly as a buyer might hope. The developers are always building more and more and bigger and "better," such that the value of whatever one might buy will take quite a bit of time to change appreciably. And one can never be completely sure of the direction of change.

Best of luck to ya'll...

[Thian]

In 10 years Thailand will be a high income country, read the news.

Prices of downtown condo's will go like Hongkong or Singapore. Buy at a higher floor in a new developed area like that river promenade.

But first wait for the baht to collapse. We are short in the baht/euro, bought at 35 and is 40 now. Waiting for the 45, that won't take more then a year but more to come after that.

[puukao]

trust me, i have my own problems..

signed,

tent on Mt. Everest

[lvr181]

Why invest in Bangkok? Try Singapore perhaps? Or a western nation? Or do you just have too much money which you are willing to lose? Or maybe you suffer from some health problem that may affect your thought processes? Sorry, forgot - maybe some vested interests or activity legal or otherwise that makes you need to invest in Thailand? Just thinking.

[gandalf12]

Isnt this why they want the hight speed railway so they can escape?

[fred Kubasa]

Hmn ? World's largest MarineLand ?

[ldnguy]

The solution is dirt cheap compared to the costs of land and property in Bangkok, so of course the problem will be fixed. These are just scare stories for the stupid and naive. If you read carefully the experts always say much (not all) of Bangkok will be flooded if nothing is done. But things are already being done. Much of it isn't reported in the English press, so many farangs assume that means that nothing is being done. So no need to worry about Bangkok being flooded.

[ldnguy]

Like some other parts of the world, Bangkok was built

on a swamp, the problem is not water falling on top as

groundwater seeping up and getting rid of it.

Venice is a nice place also.

You obviously don't understand the problem. Much of the groundwater has been pumped out, which is one reason that Bangkok is slowly sinking. So you can be pretty sure that there won't be any groundwater seeping up. It's almost all gone.

[ldnguy]

It depends how much it cost/rent.

The area I want to rent at usually the rent is about 7-10% of the apartments price.

So even if the Condo is gone in 15 years, I will have made a profit.

The rule of thumb I've seen most often is that one should try/expect to get a rent of about 1% of the purchase price, per month. Most rents I've seen have been near that amount as well, plus or minus a bit. Maybe Bangkok is different somehow. I don't know. It seems pretty unlikely that one can charge a rent of 7-10% of an apartment's purchase price, per month. If one could get 10% per month, one would have recovered the purchase price in only ten months. If someone thinks they can actually get that much, then good on them, I guess. Buy lots, no matter where the places might be (beach front?). If, however, you're talking 7-10% per year, that's a different story. 10% might barely be acceptable. 7% suggests it would be better to look for property elsewhere.

To the OP's original point if he's really worried about the city being underwater, it might be best to look at investing elsewhere. Perhaps in the north somewhere. Traffic in and around Chiang Mai is looking more and more like Bangkok traffic every day. Lots and lots of Bangkok license plates out there, which kind of maybe suggests a little bit that more and more Bangkokians are leaving BKK? They, too, may have heard the rumors of Bangkok being underwater sometime soon. Or, they may simply have had enough of what Bangkok has become: all Central/Chitlomy-like, with BTS and MRT going everywhere. However you wish to describe it, it's changed quite a bit in the past 15-20 years.

A final thought: housing in the north doesn't appreciate as rapidly as a buyer might hope. The developers are always building more and more and bigger and "better," such that the value of whatever one might buy will take quite a bit of time to change appreciably. And one can never be completely sure of the direction of change.

Best of luck to ya'll...

He means 7-10% a year. You won't find many places anywhere in the world that give 12% return, as you suggest is a rule of thumb. I've no idea where you got that from but it's wrong. In London you get 3-4%, if that. Renters in London couldn't afford to pay what you suggest. Same in lots of places. Most condos I see in Bangkok get 5-7% rental income. Where we are now costs 25,000 baht per month, or 300K baht per year. The condos are around 6 million, so that's 5% return for the owner. Take out the costs and it doesn't leave much.

If you can get 10-12% it will likely be a much more risky investment. This usually means low-quality tenants, lots of extra hassles, etc.

It's not all about the return. Other things like good tenants count as well. I'd rather good tenants that look after a place paying 5% rent than tenants that don't care and have to be chased up for the rent that pay 10%. The extra 5% just isn't worth the hassle. It's not even an extra 5% when you take the extra costs into account.

BTS and MRT going everywhere will make the city more attractive and property more expensive. For some reason you seem to think he opposite is true.

[blackcab]

It depends how much it cost/rent.

The area I want to rent at usually the rent is about 7-10% of the apartments price.

So even if the Condo is gone in 15 years, I will have made a profit.

The rule of thumb I've seen most often is that one should try/expect to get a rent of about 1% of the purchase price, per month. Most rents I've seen have been near that amount as well, plus or minus a bit. Maybe Bangkok is different somehow. I don't know. It seems pretty unlikely that one can charge a rent of 7-10% of an apartment's purchase price, per month. If one could get 10% per month, one would have recovered the purchase price in only ten months. If someone thinks they can actually get that much, then good on them, I guess. Buy lots, no matter where the places might be (beach front?). If, however, you're talking 7-10% per year, that's a different story. 10% might barely be acceptable. 7% suggests it would be better to look for property elsewhere.

To the OP's original point if he's really worried about the city being underwater, it might be best to look at investing elsewhere. Perhaps in the north somewhere. Traffic in and around Chiang Mai is looking more and more like Bangkok traffic every day. Lots and lots of Bangkok license plates out there, which kind of maybe suggests a little bit that more and more Bangkokians are leaving BKK? They, too, may have heard the rumors of Bangkok being underwater sometime soon. Or, they may simply have had enough of what Bangkok has become: all Central/Chitlomy-like, with BTS and MRT going everywhere. However you wish to describe it, it's changed quite a bit in the past 15-20 years.

A final thought: housing in the north doesn't appreciate as rapidly as a buyer might hope. The developers are always building more and more and bigger and "better," such that the value of whatever one might buy will take quite a bit of time to change appreciably. And one can never be completely sure of the direction of change.

Best of luck to ya'll...

He means 7-10% a year. You won't find many places anywhere in the world that give 12% return, as you suggest is a rule of thumb. I've no idea where you got that from but it's wrong. In London you get 3-4%, if that. Renters in London couldn't afford to pay what you suggest. Same in lots of places. Most condos I see in Bangkok get 5-7% rental income. Where we are now costs 25,000 baht per month, or 300K baht per year. The condos are around 6 million, so that's 5% return for the owner. Take out the costs and it doesn't leave much.

If you can get 10-12% it will likely be a much more risky investment. This usually means low-quality tenants, lots of extra hassles, etc.

It's not all about the return. Other things like good tenants count as well. I'd rather good tenants that look after a place paying 5% rent than tenants that don't care and have to be chased up for the rent that pay 10%. The extra 5% just isn't worth the hassle. It's not even an extra 5% when you take the extra costs into account.

BTS and MRT going everywhere will make the city more attractive and property more expensive. For some reason you seem to think he opposite is true.

The 1 per cent rule is touted as a rule of thumb that can be used by potential purchasers of property to gauge if the rental income would be sufficient to pay off a mortgage. So a purchase price of 100,000 would require a rental income of 1,000 a month to be viable.

What many people fail to recognise is that the starting figure should exclude any mortgage deposit, which can significantly alter things. With a 25% deposit, the calculation would now be 100,000 - 25% deposit = 75,000 so a rental income of 750 a month to be viable. That's the theory anyway.

In Bangkok you won't get 10-12% return from the bottom end of the rental market either. You will get 6-8% max. The exception to this could be if you are renting rooms by the hour, which is a bit outside the scope of this discussion.

[shirtless]

Invest in Bangkok , prices are over the top and quality is rubbish its only money.

[mcfish]

Invest in Bangkok , prices are over the top and quality is rubbish its only money.

Do you have any idea what the rents are like in desirable areas of Bangkok? There is only one guaranteed outcome here and that is you will never get your rent money back, but hey its only money.

[VIPinthailand]

and I need to take care of everything for a 6 percent return, it s not worth. people can pee in bed, break all , or even stay in condo without paying.

portofolio managed by professional can bring 5 percent and I have nothing to do... and less risk to be screwed by lawyer or a thai agency.

I don't want really to mess around with condos and the Thai system.

[mcfish]

and I need to take care of everything for a 6 percent return, it s not worth. people can pee in bed, break all , or even stay in condo without paying.

portofolio managed by professional can bring 5 percent and I have nothing to do... and less risk to be screwed by lawyer or a thai agency.

I don't want really to mess around with condos and the Thai system.

Tell that to the crowd who lost everything in the last 2008 stock market crash whilst the Thai condo market was untouched. Recent market activity is good enough reason not to invest but maybe the world wide sell off should be ignored..so we go sideways for a few months and maybe another huge sell off and that's supposed to be where you put your life savings?

Strange logic.

[trogers]

In 10 years Thailand will be a high income country, read the news.

Prices of downtown condo's will go like Hongkong or Singapore. Buy at a higher floor in a new developed area like that river promenade.

But first wait for the baht to collapse. We are short in the baht/euro, bought at 35 and is 40 now. Waiting for the 45, that won't take more then a year but more to come after that.

Neither Bangkok, Jakarta nor KL would see the capital gain in CBD property like Hong Kong and Singapore.

Why? The limited supply of development/redevelopment land in the CBD are under the control of the government in both Hong Kong and Singapore.

Not so in the other capital cities...

[Rocketsurgeon]

Sink Austrailia and UK, crater out Western China. Problem solved.