List of Condos Below 1,000,000 Please

[BigBill75]

I really want to buy a studio condo in Bangkok an retire here. The problem is I do not have 4-6 million baht for a small studio. I am looking for an older building or maybe a safe Thai building where I can buy. I can do  without a swimming pool and fitness center. Any ideas??

 

I have rented small rooms before for 5,000 a month and these building are safe, but they do not sell the rooms.

 

Does anyone have a list of cheap, safe condos for sale below 1 million baht? They have to exist somewhere.

[Peterw42]

There are lots of real estate websites where you can filter the search results within a certain price range. Within that price range there may not be many foreign title condos. 

If you pick an area you like and visit the condo complex's, many will have a notice board or the condo management will have a list of condos for sale.

[chiang mai]

At rent of 5,000 a month it would take at least 20 years to make it worthwhile to buy a condo for 1 mill., perhaps something to think about.

 

 

[peter1965]

If you are looking for prime real estate location (Asok, Thong Lor, Ekkamai, Phra Khanong), there are only 2 buildings that meet this description. Both are older buildings. The first is Ekkamai Condo Town deep on Ekkamai 30. You can get a big studio for around 800,000 but the hallways are kind of dark and the building needs repair. When I walked in, people seemed surprised to see a foreigner and that turned me off. I saw a room that had be redone and when inside, it feels like a modern condo building, but as soon as you step outside, your feeling changes.

 

The second building where you can buy under 1 million and get a large studio is Asean Tower on Soi 71 Pridi 16. This location is awesome but again, the building is old. However, unlike Ekkamai Condo Town, Asean Tower is full of foreign residents. There are farang but many Filipino, Nepali, and other Asians also live there. I bought a 40 sq. meter condo at this building and am happy. I have a great view of the city. I tore up the old tile and redid the bathroom and ceiling. I also replaced the condo door which was very old.  It is now clean and fresh. There are two types of condos in the building. Ones that have been remodeled and those that have not. I could not live in one of the older ones. I bought one and fixed it for under 100,00 baht. The downside is the building really needs a fresh coat of paint on the inside. The parking area has graffiti on the walls and it is just rough looking around the edges. However, the people are very nice and I have never had any problems. Everyone seems to say the same thing and that is they are happy to get a condo at such a cheap price but they wish the building would do some improvements. Considering the same size condo in the same area goes for exorbitant prices, I am happy with what I have.

 

I did an extensive search of all the condos in Bangkok. I did not find anything else. I would be interested if anyone has more information on other buildings. I included photos of the buildings I profiled here.

[lkn]

On 12/20/2016 at 8:49 AM, chiang mai said:

At rent of 5,000 a month it would take at least 20 years to make it worthwhile to buy a condo for 1 mill., perhaps something to think about.

 

Not sure how you made that calculation.

 

Let’s say OP buys a condo for 1,000,000 today and that CAM fees are 1,000 baht/month.

 

So after 20 years OP has paid 1,000 baht × 12 months × 20 years + 1,000,000 baht = 1,240,000 baht.

 

The alternative would be to pay 5,000 baht × 12 months × 20 years = 1,200,000 baht.

 

So yes, the OP would spend the same, but in the first scenario they have a condo that should be worth at least 1,000,000 and I would be surprised if it has not appreciated by 20-50% after 20 years.

 

That said, a big determiner in renting versus buying should be what exactly the plans are. For example I would be unable to rent because I want to change too many things. But someone on a sub-million budget might not have such desires.

[chiang mai]

3 hours ago, lkn said:

 

Not sure how you made that calculation.

 

Let’s say OP buys a condo for 1,000,000 today and that CAM fees are 1,000 baht/month.

 

So after 20 years OP has paid 1,000 baht × 12 months × 20 years + 1,000,000 baht = 1,240,000 baht.

 

The alternative would be to pay 5,000 baht × 12 months × 20 years = 1,200,000 baht.

 

So yes, the OP would spend the same, but in the first scenario they have a condo that should be worth at least 1,000,000 and I would be surprised if it has not appreciated by 20-50% after 20 years.

 

That said, a big determiner in renting versus buying should be what exactly the plans are. For example I would be unable to rent because I want to change too many things. But someone on a sub-million budget might not have such desires.

 

You also have to consider ROCE, return on cash employed - if that 1 million weren't invested in the condo it would be invested elsewhere making the rturn on cash even greater than just 1 mill.

[lkn]

4 hours ago, chiang mai said:

You also have to consider ROCE, return on cash employed - if that 1 million weren't invested in the condo it would be invested elsewhere making the rturn on cash even greater than just 1 mill.

 

Our OP is about to retiree and has ~1 million.

 

Where would you suggest he place this million that is guaranteed to be as safe as the condo he is going to live in, and has a higher yield than condo appreciation?

 

Edit: Actually, if we assume the condo does not appreciate at all, then the investment should still give a yield of 4.8% just to be equivalent to investing in the condo (as the rent is 6% of the condo subtracting CAM fees of 1.2%), but if the condo does appreciate, it should be higher.

Edited December 22, 2016 by lkn

[peter1965]

The issue, for me, had to do with space in relationship to the cash I had on hand. For 5000 baht, I can basically get a small room that is not mine. Or I can buy my own place, decorate it the way I wish and have a lot more space. I got the place at ASEAN Tower for 680,000 baht plus tax. It came out to around 730,000 total.

 

So I have a place where I can live for the rest of my life. It is secure and safe. I can eat for 100 baht a day if necessary.

[chiang mai]

16 minutes ago, lkn said:

 

Our OP is about to retiree and has ~1 million.

 

Where would you suggest he place this million that is guaranteed to be as safe as the condo he is going to live in, and has a higher yield than condo appreciation?

 

Edit: Actually, if we assume the condo does not appreciate at all, then the investment should still give a yield of 4.8% just to be equivalent to investing in the condo (as the rent is 6% of the condo subtracting CAM fees of 1.2%), but if the condo does appreciate, it should be higher.

 

Today the best he can probably do on a very low risk basis is around 1.8% or so. But the Fed is hiking rates, inflation is coming on full steam in the UK, it wont be long before much higher low risk rates are available to everyone without needing to increase his risk. And then, if he wants to be just a little bit adventurous, there are other higher yielding options for him to consider such as equities et al. The message here is that whilst property has shown good returns historically, there is some evidence of global cracks starting to appear in that market hence the capital return on a condo is far from guaranteed, not when valuations are at an all time high in Thailand.

[chiang mai]

17 minutes ago, peter1965 said:

The issue, for me, had to do with space in relationship to the cash I had on hand. For 5000 baht, I can basically get a small room that is not mine. Or I can buy my own place, decorate it the way I wish and have a lot more space. I got the place at ASEAN Tower for 680,000 baht plus tax. It came out to around 730,000 total.

 

So I have a place where I can live for the rest of my life. It is secure and safe. I can eat for 100 baht a day if necessary.

 

Yes I agree but let me play devils advocate with you by saying your access and ability to remain in Thailand is not guaranteed for ever and the price of real estate is not guaranteed to always increase.

 

BTW I own property in Thailand hence I'm not advocating property here as a totally bad bet, I'm simply trying to balance the argument and present another side of it.

[lkn]

44 minutes ago, peter1965 said:

I got the place at ASEAN Tower for 680,000 baht plus tax. It came out to around 730,000 total.

 

Tax of 7.4%? There should not be any such tax when you buy a condo.

 

Does the lobby in Asean / Asian Tower have a list of condos for sale? I searched a bit, and found one 45 sq. m.  for 1.1 million and another 40 sq. m.  for 1.5 million. No bargains like yours.

 

Edit: Found one for 890,000 baht (40 sq. m.)

 

Considering buying for a friend.

Edited December 22, 2016 by lkn

[lkn]

 

18 minutes ago, chiang mai said:

Today the best he can probably do on a very low risk basis is around 1.8% or so

 

That is 1,500 baht/month, so they cannot invest this million, as the yield is too low to cover their rent.

 

11 minutes ago, chiang mai said:

not when valuations are at an all time high in Thailand

 

Unlike equities, which are… oh, on an all time high with the president elect of the “free world” sending very mixed signals about what he plans to do, and quite frankly, seems to have little idea about what he actually will do, and has no issue lying or making statements that directly affect stocks of big companies or endanger trade relations.

 

I would definitely not bet my pension on the short-term future of the security markets.

 

Also, when you say valuations are at an all time high, the type of condo being discussed here is 18-25k per sq. m., not one of those new 200k sq. m. condos meant to appeal to “foreign investors”.

[peter1965]

IKN, You can do better than 850,000 but you have to shop around within the building (and the room will need new tile, ceiling and bathroom. The condo has workers who will do this for you).. Also, some floors are in better shape than others. We have just started a Condo Tenet Group and we are looking to repaint the inside of the building. Once a few renovations are done, I think prices will increase dramatically.

 

As I said, once I am inside my condo, I am in heaven. It is the hallways and some of the lower level tenets whose rooms have odors that bother me. But I see this transforming in the next 5 years. I meet many tenets with the same mindset as me "Why pay 6 million for a box in the area when I get snatch up a property like this one." In New York City, as the city space could no longer accommodate new condos,  the rich bought up old condos and old buildings sky rocketed. This is going to happen in Bangkok but it will be the middle class buying up rooms in buildings like ASEAN Tower.

 

I am on the last phase remodeling my condo. New ceiling and lights go in this week. I am on the side of the condo with a nice quiet view of the city too.

Edited December 23, 2016 by peter1965

[trogers]

1 hour ago, peter1965 said:

IKN, You can do better than 850,000 but you have to shop around within the building (and the room will need new tile, ceiling and bathroom. The condo has workers who will do this for you).. Also, some floors are in better shape than others. We have just started a Condo Tenet Group and we are looking to repaint the inside of the building. Once a few renovations are done, I think prices will increase dramatically.

 

As I said, once I am inside my condo, I am in heaven. It is the hallways and some of the lower level tenets whose rooms have odors that bother me. But I see this transforming in the next 5 years. I meet many tenets with the same mindset as me "Why pay 6 million for a box in the area when I get snatch up a property like this one." In New York City, as the city space could no longer accommodate new condos,  the rich bought up old condos and old buildings sky rocketed. This is going to happen in Bangkok but it will be the middle class buying up rooms in buildings like ASEAN Tower.

 

I am on the last phase remodeling my condo. New ceiling and lights go in this week. I am on the side of the condo with a nice quiet view of the city too.

 

The odors are caused by two factors: curry cooking among the South Asians tenants, and fixed louvers at units to the corridors.

[theguyfromanotherforum]

4 hours ago, peter1965 said:

IKN, You can do better than 850,000 but you have to shop around within the building (and the room will need new tile, ceiling and bathroom. The condo has workers who will do this for you).. Also, some floors are in better shape than others. We have just started a Condo Tenet Group and we are looking to repaint the inside of the building. Once a few renovations are done, I think prices will increase dramatically.

 

As I said, once I am inside my condo, I am in heaven. It is the hallways and some of the lower level tenets whose rooms have odors that bother me. But I see this transforming in the next 5 years. I meet many tenets with the same mindset as me "Why pay 6 million for a box in the area when I get snatch up a property like this one." In New York City, as the city space could no longer accommodate new condos,  the rich bought up old condos and old buildings sky rocketed. This is going to happen in Bangkok but it will be the middle class buying up rooms in buildings like ASEAN Tower.

 

I am on the last phase remodeling my condo. New ceiling and lights go in this week. I am on the side of the condo with a nice quiet view of the city too.

 

 

Meh....

 

While I do appreciate a good bargain, you can't renovate a turd.

 

Sure, you can make your own place livable, but most Thai buildings this age have serious maintenance issues and perhaps even structural problems. 

[peter1965]

This building is extremely solid. The new condos are built with very cheap material. ASEAN Tower is made with old solid bricks. These are not used anymore due to cost. The smell comes from curry cooking. I realized this because recently, the hallways smell very good and it is because of someone cooking something differently.

 

Certainly, if I had the cash to drop on a fancy building I would have. Or I could have dropped 1.6 million for 25 sq. meters near Bearing Station.  I like the central location and space. I won't lost on this investment and I can flip the property anytime I need to now that it is all fixed up.

[buick]

good idea to buy on the lower end and upgrade the interior.  as my father use to say when looking for a used car, just focus on how the inside looks as that is what you'll see 99% of the time. 

[trogers]

58 minutes ago, buick said:

good idea to buy on the lower end and upgrade the interior.  as my father use to say when looking for a used car, just focus on how the inside looks as that is what you'll see 99% of the time. 

 

That is, if it is to be owner occupied, and not one that seeks tenants...

[peter1965]

Bottom line is I own a condo in downtown Bangkok in a great location. It is safe and nobody ever bothers me. I paid cash and have no bank loans.  You can knock it but you have no seen the value in person for yourself.

[BigBill75]

First, thanks for all the responses to my thread. I want to say I visited both buildings. As far as Ekkamai Condo Town, I love the location but no thanks. It is just too run down and there are some rooms with the doors torn off and totally unoccupied. They remind me of meth rooms or something. There are not squatters in there but it is a bit too run down for me.

 

Regarding ASEAN  Towers, I visited the building and met the manager. He speaks English and that impressed me right away. He said the owner of the building is remodeling rooms and the building is looking at making improvements in the future. When I was on the ground floor, I though this was a 100% go and a total steal. Things looked very acceptable. However, the security door is really cheap. It is made of wire and looks kind of like a prison. That was a turn off. The elevators were old but I was impressed that there were four operating elevators.

 

Rooms were starting at 990,000 baht but I did not inquire with rooms that had for sale signs on the doors. Some floors were better than others but I see this building as a gamble. If I knew ASEAN Tower was  going to update the building, this would be a no-brainer of an investment. But what if nothing changes? What if I buy and this building just gets older. I saw very few Thais in the building and everyone spoke English. But there seemed to be poor people. The manager assured me there was never any problems in the building and it was very safe. The two people I spoke with who lived there also said it was very safe. 

 

I am going to go back in a few months and see if anything has changed.

[Bulldozer Dawn]

I see that this cleverly crafted free advertorial for Asean Towers is progressing well. 

 

Can't wait for the ensuing updates.

[trogers]

11 hours ago, BigBill75 said:

First, thanks for all the responses to my thread. I want to say I visited both buildings. As far as Ekkamai Condo Town, I love the location but no thanks. It is just too run down and there are some rooms with the doors torn off and totally unoccupied. They remind me of meth rooms or something. There are not squatters in there but it is a bit too run down for me.

 

Regarding ASEAN  Towers, I visited the building and met the manager. He speaks English and that impressed me right away. He said the owner of the building is remodeling rooms and the building is looking at making improvements in the future. When I was on the ground floor, I though this was a 100% go and a total steal. Things looked very acceptable. However, the security door is really cheap. It is made of wire and looks kind of like a prison. That was a turn off. The elevators were old but I was impressed that there were four operating elevators.

 

Rooms were starting at 990,000 baht but I did not inquire with rooms that had for sale signs on the doors. Some floors were better than others but I see this building as a gamble. If I knew ASEAN Tower was  going to update the building, this would be a no-brainer of an investment. But what if nothing changes? What if I buy and this building just gets older. I saw very few Thais in the building and everyone spoke English. But there seemed to be poor people. The manager assured me there was never any problems in the building and it was very safe. The two people I spoke with who lived there also said it was very safe. 

 

I am going to go back in a few months and see if anything has changed.

 

My guess is that 75-80% of the units are Thai-owned but leased out primarily to South Asians and some Filipinoes.

 

The gamble is in trying to convince these owners to spend money for upgrading the common areas...

[wpcoe]

The posts above piqued my interest about Asean Towers, so I googled it and found it on Google Earth.  One ad for a unit for sale said 400m from BTS.  By my plotting on Google Earth, it's more like 1300m, quite a difference.

 

The Google Earth Street View for its soi is five years old, and the building was in need of some TLC back then.  Still, if the building has "good bones" and effort is made to maintain the structure, it seems like a decent place for a reasonable price.  Just a bit far from BTS for many folks, I think.

[mcfish]

Buy a nice Toyota mini van and deck it out. It might cost you a bit more but you are free to move around the country which seems to be what most expats want.

Sent from my SC-01D using Tapatalk

[lkn]

I was there a few hours ago, as I had another errand in the area, not 400 meter from the BTS, but still walking distance for me, and plenty of food options walking to the building.

 

The building is your typical rundown Thai building with lots of rooms (rather than condos) in a long hallway. But the building has sort of an atrium making the hallway seem more open, and there is also a balcony on one side of the building where some of the room doors open up to. This had a nice view, though not really something you would enjoy from your room, as the room has no real window.

 

When I visited there was lots of activity around the spirit house outside, and inside there was a lot of cooking going on, which I can see causing the smells previously mentioned, but there was also another smell at one place which did not seem to be cooking related.

 

It seems the rooms opening up to the balcony/walkway would be spared for most of these issues. If I had to pick a room in this building, I would take one of these, and on a high floor, although I think you would have to forego a window, which some of the other rooms seemed to have (judging by the facade).

 

I did not see any Westerners when I visited the building, but I guess they would be staying inside their room, or be out and about. A lot of the units had their door wide open, so I did get to look into a lot of the units.

 

I also took a look at Waterford Park south of Asean Tower (suggested by trogers, though I don’t see his comment about this above).

 

This building was apparently finished in 2008, which really makes me wonder what it is with Thai buildings that just make them look so worn down after such short time.

 

That said, it did look much better than Asean Tower, especially the surroundings with plants and swimming pools. A big negative though was that you had to pass through the underground parking to get to any of the staircases leading up to the condos.

 

This building has much more of a condo feel to it, i.e. you take the elevator up to whatever floor, and there is just one room with four doors (I think) leading into the four condos on that floor, each being a multi-room condo, rather than a hallway with single room “cells”.

 

The girl I went with (who was supposed to occupy this condo) did not at all seem interested, so I did not do a lot of exploring here, but I would definitely pick this over Asean Tower, though the price is slightly higher. One of the units we saw was 2.7 million for 65-68 sq. m. The layout of that unit was sort of OK (one big room with kitchen, one smaller bedroom and a bathroom), but you would probably have to redo the kitchen and bathroom.

 

Again, I am just flabbergasted at how lousy construction they can do. Seriously, these eight year old kitchens are roughly equivalent to the 50+ year old kitchens I see back home.

 

As for the prospects of Asean Tower, I do not really see prices there go up much. It seems obvious that majority of owners rent out, which seems to work fine as it is, so they have little motivation to spend more than necessary on maintenance, it’s not like they’ll be able to increase the rent, if they paint the hallways.

[wpcoe]

3 hours ago, lkn said:

I also took a look at Waterford Park south of Asean Tower (suggested by trogers, though I don’t see his comment about this above).

 

By any chance are you thinking of this post by trogers?  That building (Waterford Park Rama 4) is in a different league that what's being discussed here.

 

[trogers]

10 hours ago, lkn said:

I was there a few hours ago, as I had another errand in the area, not 400 meter from the BTS, but still walking distance for me, and plenty of food options walking to the building.

 

The building is your typical rundown Thai building with lots of rooms (rather than condos) in a long hallway. But the building has sort of an atrium making the hallway seem more open, and there is also a balcony on one side of the building where some of the room doors open up to. This had a nice view, though not really something you would enjoy from your room, as the room has no real window.

 

When I visited there was lots of activity around the spirit house outside, and inside there was a lot of cooking going on, which I can see causing the smells previously mentioned, but there was also another smell at one place which did not seem to be cooking related.

 

It seems the rooms opening up to the balcony/walkway would be spared for most of these issues. If I had to pick a room in this building, I would take one of these, and on a high floor, although I think you would have to forego a window, which some of the other rooms seemed to have (judging by the facade).

 

I did not see any Westerners when I visited the building, but I guess they would be staying inside their room, or be out and about. A lot of the units had their door wide open, so I did get to look into a lot of the units.

 

I also took a look at Waterford Park south of Asean Tower (suggested by trogers, though I don’t see his comment about this above).

 

This building was apparently finished in 2008, which really makes me wonder what it is with Thai buildings that just make them look so worn down after such short time.

 

That said, it did look much better than Asean Tower, especially the surroundings with plants and swimming pools. A big negative though was that you had to pass through the underground parking to get to any of the staircases leading up to the condos.

 

This building has much more of a condo feel to it, i.e. you take the elevator up to whatever floor, and there is just one room with four doors (I think) leading into the four condos on that floor, each being a multi-room condo, rather than a hallway with single room “cells”.

 

The girl I went with (who was supposed to occupy this condo) did not at all seem interested, so I did not do a lot of exploring here, but I would definitely pick this over Asean Tower, though the price is slightly higher. One of the units we saw was 2.7 million for 65-68 sq. m. The layout of that unit was sort of OK (one big room with kitchen, one smaller bedroom and a bathroom), but you would probably have to redo the kitchen and bathroom.

 

Again, I am just flabbergasted at how lousy construction they can do. Seriously, these eight year old kitchens are roughly equivalent to the 50+ year old kitchens I see back home.

 

As for the prospects of Asean Tower, I do not really see prices there go up much. It seems obvious that majority of owners rent out, which seems to work fine as it is, so they have little motivation to spend more than necessary on maintenance, it’s not like they’ll be able to increase the rent, if they paint the hallways.

 

Waterford Park Rama 4 is almost 20 years old, completed before the Asian Financial Crisis.

 

Entrance up the building is also available at pool level, but only for H block, and this building has 60sqm 1-bedroom units.

 

This project has no studio units.

 

In my books, a room with no windows or balcony is a storeroom, and not one for living.

Edited December 28, 2016 by trogers

[lkn]

55 minutes ago, trogers said:

Waterford Park Rama 4 is almost 20 years old, completed before the Asian Financial Crisis […]

 

Thanks, and sorry for the misinformation. That matches a little better with what I saw.

 

I think I got my “2008” from misreading Hipflat, which says “Construction of The Waterford Rama 4 was completed in 2000”.

 

I did notice that we could enter one building from the ground level, but none of the units we saw was in this building, so I asked the JPM, and she said all access was through the parking lot, I guess she forgot about the H building.

[lkn]

7 hours ago, wpcoe said:

By any chance are you thinking of this post by trogers?  That building (Waterford Park Rama 4) is in a different league that what's being discussed here.

 

Yes, that was the post, thanks.

 

It might be in a “different league”, nonetheless, I think it’s still useful to see what you can get if you increase your budget a little.

 

As indicated, one of the units I saw there was ~40k baht/sq. m., considering BigBill75 said the rooms he saw in Asean Tower was starting at 990,000 baht, which would be ~25k baht/sq. m.

[theguyfromanotherforum]

 
Yes, that was the post, thanks.
 
It might be in a “different league”, nonetheless, I think it’s still useful to see what you can get if you increase your budget a little.
 
As indicated, one of the units I saw there was ~40k baht/sq. m., considering BigBill75 said the rooms he saw in Asean Tower was starting at 990,000 baht, which would be ~25k baht/sq. m.

These are ridiculous prices for a slum.

You can get new development from Lumpini and Sena that come with gym and poll for less than this if you are willing to travel a little.