Central Group buys British Embassy land for 20 billion baht

[snoop1130]

Central Group buys British Embassy land for 20 billion baht 

By Coconuts Bangkok

 

 

Despite facing criticism for selling the land, the Central Group’s offer price was high enough for the Brits to sell off more of the prized parcel where the British Embassy sits in Phloen Chit.

 

Voice TV reported that Central Group, one of Thailand’s biggest family-owned conglomerates, won the land for a record-breaking bidding price of over THB20 billion for the 23-rai of land on Wireless Road, which sits at the center of the busy business district of Bangkok.

 

The price works out to THB2.2 million per square yard, the highest rate ever in Thai real estate trading.

 

Full Story: https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/central-group-buys-british-embassy-land-20-billion-baht/

 

-- © Copyright Coconuts Bangkok 2017-2-22

[AGareth2]

oh how have the mighty fallen

[daveAustin]

I don't blame the Brit gov for selling up and making a steal - that's about 460M quid!... enough to pay for the Lords for another few years.  I mean, how many rai does one need for one person to man a phone (from India probably) and say 'sorry, we don't offer that service, cannot help' etc etc?

[zakk9]

The British used to have style. Now it's all about money.

[bartender100]

The upkeep of such a large piece of land most be huge, so it makes sense, days of embassies like these are long over

 

The shame is all those lovely old trees and greenery will disappear to make way for another boring shopping center

Edited February 22, 2017 by bartender100

[funandsuninbangkok]

Not much left of Bangkok now

[Shaksey]

Usual slack reporting from Cocotoss. The British Govt do own the land fair and square, they bought it from Nai Lert, his old boundary marker is still on the corner of Wireless outside Central Empty.

 

Makes perfect sense to sell such a valuable piece of land, there is no need to maintain a compound that big for what is now an insignificant mission in a country not very important to the UK anymore.

[Shaksey]

27 minutes ago, bartender100 said:

The upkeep of such a large piece of land most be huge, so it makes sense, days of embassies like these are long over

 

The shame is all those lovely old trees and greenery will disappear to make way for another boring shopping center

Walk up the small Soi next to the staff entrance to the embassy and you'll get to the Nai Lert family mansions and park. It used to include the land the embassy is on that they sold to the British but even without that land it's still a good size and full of trees, greenery etc. It was actually the first public park in Bangkok, pre-dating Lumpini. It's 500thb for a tour and well worth it.

[The Dancer]

This Brexit deal is hitting the UK hard. BBC has it that the Govt., with royal encouragement, is looking at renting out rooms in Buckingham Palace, particularly the bigger ones off the Marble Hall. There is enormous interest from Russian oligarchs and Chinese billionaires in throwing birthday bashes and wedding receptions in the home of royalty.

 

Apparently, too, William and Kate might be available to attend these occasions at an enormous (undisclosed) hourly fee. And the Queen herself might pop in for guest selfies at over 1000 pounds each.

[Andrew65]

5 hours ago, The Dancer said:

This Brexit deal is hitting the UK hard. BBC has it that the Govt., with royal encouragement, is looking at renting out rooms in Buckingham Palace, particularly the bigger ones off the Marble Hall. There is enormous interest from Russian oligarchs and Chinese billionaires in throwing birthday bashes and wedding receptions in the home of royalty.

 

Apparently, too, William and Kate might be available to attend these occasions at an enormous (undisclosed) hourly fee. And the Queen herself might pop in for guest selfies at over 1000 pounds each.

5 hours ago, The Dancer said:

This Brexit deal is hitting the UK hard. BBC has it that the Govt., with royal encouragement, is looking at renting out rooms in Buckingham Palace, particularly the bigger ones off the Marble Hall. There is enormous interest from Russian oligarchs and Chinese billionaires in throwing birthday bashes and wedding receptions in the home of royalty.

 

Apparently, too, William and Kate might be available to attend these occasions at an enormous (undisclosed) hourly fee. And the Queen herself might pop in for guest selfies at over 1000 pounds each.

Britain was bankrupt long before the Brexit vote. It has a £2 trillion national debt, that's £50 million a week just on interest payments. (Add a $150 billion overseas trade deficit).

 

I wonder if any country has ever been asset-stripped as the UK has?

 

Reports from the DT a few years ago suggest that the embassies in Paris & Washington were also up for sale.

 

In years to come I think many EU countries' embassies could close, to be replaced by an already-present EU diplomatic mission.

[whatawonderfulday]

Another sad day for the once liked and respected British people.

[colinneil]

Why all the fuss about the UK selling the land?

Why did they need all that land anyway.

It is called the British embassy, but what use are they anyway, do nothing help nobody.

Just opulent living for an ambassador who does sweet f a.

[wreckingcountry]

Another sad day for the once liked and respected British people.

Very droll from a typical disrespected TV member since 2008

[wreckingcountry]

So do the yanks pay rent for their mass of empty grounds both sides of Wireless road !


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[bartender100]

But we still have all our gold don't we? lol

[wreckingcountry]

But we still have all our gold don't we? lol

Where's that ? In The Donald's teeth


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[Andrew65]

2 hours ago, Andrew65 said:

Britain was bankrupt long before the Brexit vote. It has a £2 trillion national debt, that's £50 million a week just on interest payments. (Add a $150 billion overseas trade deficit).

 

I wonder if any country has ever been asset-stripped as the UK has?

 

Reports from the DT a few years ago suggest that the embassies in Paris & Washington were also up for sale.

 

In years to come I think many EU countries' embassies could close, to be replaced by an already-present EU diplomatic mission.

.......I'm almost certain that the embassy was put up for sale long before the Brexit vote.

[Sphere]

I hope they build a huge mall on that property with nice toilets and all. Package tours can stop there to take a dump before heading to 7-11. 

[edwinchester]

Great news for British expats as I'm sure the money will be used to improve the service for their nationals in Thailand.

[muzmurray]

1 hour ago, colinneil said:

Why all the fuss about the UK selling the land?

Why did they need all that land anyway.

It is called the British embassy, but what use are they anyway, do nothing help nobody.

Just opulent living for an ambassador who does sweet f a.

 

You do realise that the embassy's main function is not to help out people who should be helping themselves ? They will and do help those in need, but there are a million other things that the staff there do that are more to do with the embassy's actual main raison d'etre.

[Srikcir]

Thank you Central Group for developing the land into a much needed park (like New York City Central Park). All Bangkokians will appreciate the open space in a city of concrete and asphalt.

Yeh, just dreaming.

[alant]

40 minutes ago, edwinchester said:

Great news for British expats as I'm sure the money will be used to improve the service for their nationals in Thailand.

great 

[phantomfiddler]

Oh the shame ! The Ploenchit Fair used to be the best event in Bangers. Rather expensive though, taxin,s wife could have bought it for much less money :)

[zyphodb]

1 hour ago, edwinchester said:

Great news for British expats as I'm sure the money will be used to improve the service for their nationals in Thailand.

[daveAustin]

4 hours ago, Andrew65 said:

Britain was bankrupt long before the Brexit vote. It has a £2 trillion national debt, that's £50 million a week just on interest payments. (Add a $150 billion overseas trade deficit).

 

I wonder if any country has ever been asset-stripped as the UK has?

 

Reports from the DT a few years ago suggest that the embassies in Paris & Washington were also up for sale.

 

In years to come I think many EU countries' embassies could close, to be replaced by an already-present EU diplomatic mission.

Hip tripe talk. Every country worth its salt is in-debt/bankrupt in a monetary system. That's how it works. The UK is probably better off now than it has been in the last few decades at least and this latest sale of unneeded, OTT foreign assets is perfectly logical.

[daveAustin]

13 hours ago, AGareth2 said:

oh how have the mighty fallen

Still mighty, it's just that everyone else finally caught up/overtook. 

[aslimversgwm]

10 hours ago, Shaksey said:

Walk up the small Soi next to the staff entrance to the embassy and you'll get to the Nai Lert family mansions and park. It used to include the land the embassy is on that they sold to the British but even without that land it's still a good size and full of trees, greenery etc. It was actually the first public park in Bangkok, pre-dating Lumpini. It's 500thb for a tour and well worth it.

Useful to know. Thanks for that 

[blackcab]

To be fair the average British Citizen will get more use out of the new development than they did out of the Embassy.

 

They will at least be able to pop in and use the toilets.

[aslimversgwm]

1 hour ago, edwinchester said:

Great news for British expats as I'm sure the money will be used to improve the service for their nationals in Thailand.

Ha ha haha!

[aslimversgwm]

The British  Embassy in Hanoi is on the 4th floor of a very ordinary office block. It's where I got married in November last. Lovely staff but a shame about the environment for a wedding! But heh! You cannot get married at our embassy in BKK  in any event so what the hell!