who is building hundreds of buildings around C.Rai?

[boomerangutang]

I can spot them from 300 meters away. Hundreds of new buildings, here are their characteristics:

>>> Always along highways

>>> Never 1 story. Usually 2 to 4 story.

>>> shed roof, gradual slope

>>> long verticals members, side-by side in front (in sets of about 10). They look like 2" x 2", on 4" centers, usually painted brown. Partly for shade and partly for looks, but not structural members. Less often, there are same motif, but horizontal instead of vertical.

>>> Long slightly angled (nearly vertical) members also painted brown, but these are structural, supporting overhangs of the small front porches.

>>> bright colors, often pastels, pinks, light blues, white.

>>> The stand-out exception in terms of size are the two side-by-side large buildings (condos) at the major corner (SW) 2 km north of the super hwy bridges, near the Esso. It's surely by the same builder/investor because of its styling / color scheme, etc.

My Q is: does anyone know who's building all those hundreds of buildings? They're dotted along every major road out of Chiang Rai. My guess is it's Chinese money. But it could be rich Thai. Am also guessing they and Sintanee are the biggest builders in and around C.Rai. The shed roof buildings could prove to be even more valuable than the hundreds of Sintanee cookie-cutter houses. Either way, it's hundreds of millions of dollars at least - possibly close to a billion $$'s.

For what it's worth Dept: I'll be doing a brief presentation at the Ex-Pats meeting, Saturday morning, July 9. It's part of a new series about travels.

Edited July 5, 2016 by boomerangutang

[northernphil]

Certainly north of CEI there are shop houses going up all over the place . From my house to the center of Maechan I counted 23 of these things in the 7 mins it takes me to drive in to town , this was last year , now more have sprung up north of the town and so far I have only seen about 3 that are occupied , indeed where is the money coming from.

[DeeMak9]

Social house/apartment projects by the government are usually light brown color.

[boomerangutang]

Social house/apartment projects by the government are usually light brown color.

I don't think they're government. Thai government builds heavy handedly. Much different style than the buildings I described.

Plus, gov't builds for gov't purposes. All the buildings I've observed (described in the OP) are commercial.

[ttthailand]

I would guess some or many of the places are from drugs or corrupt officials investing their dirty money.

[cameraman888]

My guess is the Chinese...They are all over Chiang Mai and I think many may want to move to Thailand or rent out their place for income.

[SOTIRIOS]

...obviously someone with connections....present or past....

...now they will cash in......

[bbudd]

Notice that most of the norther construction started right after the floods down south

Lots of people relocating up here and want rental property

Just wonder why so many same style buildings-with such limited occupancy

[Sparkles]

Money laundering is a possibilty. Chiang Mai is full of empty, new and old, shop houses, hundreds of them.

Renting or selling them seems not be a concern of owners whoever they may be.

[Fallangpakwan]

Have said before over and over, the whole country is being covered with concrete; and probably less than 50% of it is ever occupied.It's been going on for many years. Nobody knows where the money comes from; it's weird.

[nev]

If the land has title deeds they can borrow money against the land to build.

Good land next to the main road worth say 3 million, can get a loan say 2 million build a cheap build for 1 million, say 3 units and try to sell and pocket the 1 million left over.

Rent out 3 units to cover the loan.

Not saying all but I have seen this happen.

[Dumbastheycome]

Hmmm. Another conspiracy.

[boomerangutang]

My guess is the Chinese...They are all over Chiang Mai and I think many may want to move to Thailand or rent out their place for income.

Agree. It's plain that A. many Chinese have tons of money, and B. China is not a pleasant place to reside, and C. the country will likely implode economically.

With that in mind, rich Chinese will want to have 'an escape valve'. ....many are building one or more houses overseas/nearby countries - to escape to, if the Chinese bubble bursts and/or riots break out there. There are lots of expensive new houses going up in Tachilek also - and probably many other Burmese cities, particularly those close to the Chinese border. It wouldn't surprise me if similar is happening in Laos and Cambodia.

However, the houses mentioned above are private, one-family scenarios. The buildings I mentioned in the OP are commercial and appear to be built by a very well-funded entity. Drug money? Maybe, but there are other ways to get filthy rich - usually involving underhanded methods (monopolies) and always being well-connected to VIP's. One thing's for sure, some very rich family and/or consortium is building hundreds of commercial buildings along highways around Chiang Rai, ......and further afield?

[khundon]

"My Q is: does anyone know who's building all those hundreds of buildings?"

It's the building fairies, they live in those shacks behind all the new buildings going up all over Thailand.

[Garry]

Perhaps some philanthropic person/s are building homeless housing? Yes I'm being sarcastic.

[anto]

Shed roofs ? Ha ,yes ,building quality seems to be on a decline .They even do those one slope shed roofs on new housing estates now .

[boomerangutang]

Shed roofs ? Ha ,yes ,building quality seems to be on a decline .They even do those one slope shed roofs on new housing estates now .

Yet for practical reasons, they're a sensible way to go. It costs less to build a shed roof than a gable roof. Many roof designs in Thailand are impractable, with roofs overhanging lower roofs. Footings and roofs are often overbuilt here. I have a Thai friend who has built some one story buildings, and the concrete piers for post foundations are each big enough to lose a VW bug. I've seen concrete beams which are many times larger/heavier than they need to be. My point is, in part, the construction style mentioned in the OP is more sensible in terms of saving money (and speed of construction) compared to standard Thai building styles.

Some people may want to see multiple (and/or curving) roofs, but that's ascetics. There's a temple in Tachilek with has dozens of roofs. I started counting them, and gave up when I got to the 60's.

[Berty100]

This is going on all over Thailand, not only CR.

Around Pattaya there are thousands and thousands of those new built empty shophouses. I know of one site for example which is along the main highway to Rayong en is close to a big industrial park. It consists of 110 shophouses finished about 2 years ago and to date not more than 10 are occupied. They were build by Sansiri ( Censiri?), one of the biggest construction companies in Thailand, and are the front of a newly built village of several hundred house, the majority also empty.

They have many similar projects in this area.

I know at least 5 completely finished large villages that are for more than 80% empty, and still new villages are build

Money is cheap these days to borrow and big companies get loans easily, while people get next to nothing for depositing in the bank, so they prefer to put it in building blocks. Also a very easy way to launder the money they earned from bogus activities.

Also prices of land rise as if there is no tomorrow, because these kind of projects, which in return makes the shophouses even more unsalable. You have to realize many people sit on large amounts of land, which they has cost them nothing as it is in the family for decades. Today they get 3 - 5 million for a Rai, so they sell 1 Rai and with that money they can built 5 shophouses on another Rai they own. They sell another Rai and built another 5 shophouses.

I look forward to when this gonna implode, because it isn't a question of if, but when it will happen. Just wait until interest rates will rise, or some smart guy in the government gets the idea to collect property taxes.

Edited July 7, 2016 by Berty100

[boomerangutang]

This is going on all over Thailand, not only CR.

Around Pattaya there are thousands and thousands of those new built empty shophouses. I know of one site for example which is along the main highway to Rayong en is close to a big industrial park. It consists of 110 shophouses finished about 2 years ago and to date not more than 10 are occupied. They were build by Sansiri ( Censiri?), one of the biggest construction companies in Thailand, and are the front of a newly built village of several hundred house, the majority also empty.

They have many similar projects in this area.

I know at least 5 completely finished large villages that are for more than 80% empty, and still new villages are build

Are the construction-style and location-along-highways same as what I described in OP?

[Fallangpakwan]

I and friends always have to wonder as "Berty" has mentioned; when is this all going to IMPLODE. So many examples near to me that are astounding such as Harbour Mall on Sukhumvit Au Udom that was completed about 1990 and opened as a Laemthong Shopping Centre then closed a few years later and sat empty aside from a KFC in basement, until about 5 years back now with Tesco Lotus holding it together; but the 150 or so 4floor shophouses built at the same time that surround the main building have never been occupied more than about 10%, and now several have been renovated and are "for sale/rent".

This kind of stuff is to be seen all over the country; ( tongue in cheek a bit; I haven't driven way south for awhile);but even on a short drive to Trat you see hundreds of buildings of all sorts abandoned.

Drive into almost any moo-baan and look at the rate of completion and/or occupancy.

It's madness.

[boomerangutang]

       Since writing the OP, I've noticed dozens of additional buildings which fit the description (in the OP).  Actually, the description gets adjusted slightly:   Not all the new buildings (perhaps just around 80%) are along highways.  Also, whereas I noticed mostly medium sized buildings initially, now, with my antennae tuned in, I'm noticing dozens of large buildings also.  Here are some of the larger (besides the double condo complex just south of Esso on the Super Hwy).   There's a large complex alongside the Big C parking lot, on the south side.   There's another tall (10 story?) apartment near Chian g.h. on the way to Legend Resort.  Dozens of other large scale buildings are popping, all with same architectural style.

      One of the smallest, is a private house facing the south of Dusit Resort.  My guess is it may be the actual architect's house.   If he/she had pick of the litter (or parcels), might as well pick a place like that, which is relatively quiet, and has a river view.   

    Sorry to sound repetitive, but Jeeeeezo, whomever is buying up so many prime properties and building a mile a minute, must have a whole lot of disposable income.   I'm guessing over a billion dollars, but even that may be low, if the same pattern of buying/building is going on in other regions of Thailand, with the same consortium/designs.

     It gives new meaning to the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.  Meanwhile, my hill tribe friend told me he was planning to pull his little girl out of school because he can't afford the Bt.200/month for transportation to/fro school.  I donated 3 month's to the cause.  Yet that's just 1/100,000th of 1% of the struggles that poor people in Thailand are facing.

Here's another: My Mitsubishi car died.  One of four cylinders crapped out.  It would cost Bt.12,000 to fix. I opted to instead give it to a struggling vege seller friend of mine.   The next day she gave it back to me saying she and her husband couldn't afford to fix it.   I figured she could have at least sold it to the scrap man for Bt.5000.  Anyway, it hits home what a gargantuan rift there is between the dozens of mega rich, .....and the millions of have-nots in Thailand.  It's waaaaaaay out of kilter.