How To Work Out The Value Of Leasing Your Property

[naomisri]

We have some property on Samui near Lamai 96 wah - 3x1 bed bungalows about 2 mins walk from a small beach. The houses are on a small road, just off the ring road, with two larger houses - one a large 3 bedroom thai style house and the other a barely used house belonging to a Bangkokian man. Each of the properties has a seperate chanote.

One of the bungalows (fan only) is currently rented for 10,000 excl. baht p/m and one is nicely furnished with a/c and is generally rented out short term for 1000-1500 per night. The three properties could certainly make in excess of 50,000 baht per month.

I am an external university student, my husband works long hours and now we have a baby I don't' have the time or energy to put into making this a successful venture, but there are lots of things that could be done to improve the rental value such as:

-refurbish inside - the tiles, although in perfect condition are a bit ugly - plus there is a false office style ceiling which is downright ugly - add to that the flourescent lights and the basic bathroom - you get the picture.

-The land in the front of each house (each is walled in by a metre and a half tall wall on three sides) could be used to make a decked seating area or even an extension. A floor cannot be added to the house unless it is made of wood. It's currently gravel with flowerbeds on each side and room to park a car. Indeed the walls should be extended upwards to give some privacy and gates put in.

-The houses could be marketed better either through advertising abroad or commission based referals from locals, or they could be filled with long term customers. I have had lots of referals from European friends work based intranets.

-I already have a website and email that I use for the houses.

We're weighing up our options here, I need more free time and we are thinking we may move to the UK in a couple of years time so our daughter can go to school. Ideally we'd like to lease the houses and land including all fittings for a lump sum plus monthly income. I appreciate we could go through an agent, but my husband is very old school Thai and he'd rather do it personally, besides we're not really sure what we want to do or when we want to do it, so it seems premature to approach an agency. So any ideas on how we can calculate the value of the properties over something like 10 years? Is there a standard for this?

Oh and the downside of the property is the small road - not large enough to turn a car without pulling into a driveway.

TIA!

Edited November 24, 2006 by naomisri