Buying a condo in a not-so-popular area with few foreigners

[trogers]

16 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

 

Indeed, and just to add 3 further points that favour investing in some form of bank account or marketable security over being a landlord.

 

1. A bank account or certificate of deposit, etc. (depending on conditions) is liquid. If you need the cash, you can close the account or sell the certificate on the market. A condo is illiquid. The best you can do is borrow against it, maybe.

 

2. Guarantee of return of capital. Will you sell the condo for what you paid for it? Will you be able to sell it at all?

 

3. Renting out a condo is not a passive investment like a bank account? You will need to invest time into furnishing it, chasing up tenants, repairs, advertising, etc. Admittedly you can pass much of this work to a management company but they will of course charge you and with only 1 condo, you have no economies of scale.

 

Ask those bank depositors who were recently upgraded to bank stockholders how they feel...

[Briggsy]

12 minutes ago, trogers said:

 

Ask those bank depositors who were recently upgraded to bank stockholders how they feel...

Whilst no bank deposit is 100% safe, I don't think you can claim that your capital is statistically more likely to be returned to you from a condo purchase than from a savings account? By the way, are you referring to Thailand or another country like Cyprus or Iceland?

[trogers]

18 hours ago, Briggsy said:

Whilst no bank deposit is 100% safe, I don't think you can claim that your capital is statistically more likely to be returned to you from a condo purchase than from a savings account? By the way, are you referring to Thailand or another country like Cyprus or Iceland?

 

You think systematic failure of the financial system is a farang thing? I was here long before the Tom Yum Kung crisis...

[Rancid]

I just bought bought an 53 sqm ocean front studio for holidays for only 1.5 million (older building of course), spent about 300K on renovating it to a high standard that should stay contemporary for about 10 years. First class ocean/beach views.

 

It's in Hat Mae Rampheung, near Rayong. It is a very quiet area so definitely not for party animals, although Pattaya is just 60 km away. It is a weird area, lots of undeveloped land, a few failed resorts and high rise, looks like it got caught in the Asian financial crisis and never recovered. On weekdays you can cross the main beach road without looking and probably never get hit.

 

However, am seeing a few new developments starting, plus a few moobaans, and the government has installed new street lights and is doing quite a bit of road and drainage work. In other words there is some activity starting, will it keep going or fizzle out, who knows?

 

Condos here sell verrrrrrry slowly, so forget flipping. The rental market is really high season based, so probably not a great return as an investment property. The OP asked for alternatives so this is one, less popular areas by their nature are...quiet. See a big high rise Holiday Inn going up in Rayong and a big condo behind Central. Plus there is the U-Tapao upgrade and they are building a motorway from Pattaya to Rayong which will make that journey quicker, and if they ever do build the high speed rail Bangkok/Rayong then the dynamics will completely change.

[questionsreplies]

do you really think that thai are waiting for you and that they do not already invest in these areas ?

[thaihome]

On 8/12/2016 at 2:09 PM, Rancid said:

I just bought bought an 53 sqm ocean front studio for holidays for only 1.5 million (older building of course), spent about 300K on renovating it to a high standard that should stay contemporary for about 10 years. First class ocean/beach views.

 

It's in Hat Mae Rampheung, near Rayong. It is a very quiet area so definitely not for party animals, although Pattaya is just 60 km away. It is a weird area, lots of undeveloped land, a few failed resorts and high rise, looks like it got caught in the Asian financial crisis and never recovered. On weekdays you can cross the main beach road without looking and probably never get hit.

 

However, am seeing a few new developments starting, plus a few moobaans, and the government has installed new street lights and is doing quite a bit of road and drainage work. In other words there is some activity starting, will it keep going or fizzle out, who knows?

 

Condos here sell verrrrrrry slowly, so forget flipping. The rental market is really high season based, so probably not a great return as an investment property. The OP asked for alternatives so this is one, less popular areas by their nature are...quiet. See a big high rise Holiday Inn going up in Rayong and a big condo behind Central. Plus there is the U-Tapao upgrade and they are building a motorway from Pattaya to Rayong which will make that journey quicker, and if they ever do build the high speed rail Bangkok/Rayong then the dynamics will completely change.

 

I agree this is an area the OP might be interested in.  The big problem I see in the OP's plan is, as mentioned by few others, is in most outer suburban or "country" areas there are few if any condo developments.   The Hat Mae are may be one of few exceptions and that is because it is basically an undeveloped beach resort (actually a failed area the first time) area that I think will eventually become popular.  May take 10 years to do so, but location is actually very good.

TH 

[jakow]

21 hours ago, thaihome said:

 

I agree this is an area the OP might be interested in.  The big problem I see in the OP's plan is, as mentioned by few others, is in most outer suburban or "country" areas there are few if any condo developments.   The Hat Mae are may be one of few exceptions and that is because it is basically an undeveloped beach resort (actually a failed area the first time) area that I think will eventually become popular.  May take 10 years to do so, but location is actually very good.

TH 

 

I didn't mean to imply I had a set plan. What I asked at the end of my original question was if doing this would end up being a waste of money or if it could work. Rancid's reply is exactly the type of reply I was hoping to get. Things in his area seem to be coming up, but it could fizzle out or keep going. It's definitely not a safe investment, but it definitely could end up being one.