Hanuman, thanks for your comments on this. While I'm a few years from making this decision, I've wondered whether I would be better off buying a condo or renting a place if I wanted to spend, say, half the year in Thailand.

If I were to purchase a condo, I would be living in it. As for renting, how often and much do rents go up in Thailand?Happy Travels!

Bob- About your friend's visa...yes the procedure is to get a non-retirement type of visa first and then later it can be converted to a retirement visa.Happy Travels!

Easytraveler...I'm off to SE Asia on Friday and won't have any time until after the Boston GTG which is mid October.So not until the end of October will I have some time. So,keep in touch on the board. Happy Travels!

Guenmai:

Bon Voyage! Have a great time in Asia!

Yes, let's keep in touch on this board and hopefully we'll be able to meet some time after your return! :)

Kathie,

I'll give you an example of one of the property that I own.

Suparkarn Condominium.

Location: On the river bank, same side as the Pen and almost directly opposite from the Shangri-La Hotel.

Current asking price for a 273 square meter condo = 12 - 15 million baht. I purchased it in 1984 for 9 million baht(exchange rate then was 20 baht for 1 us $). Current rental price is about 50,000 to 75,000 baht per unit per month. As for the rental some units are fully furnish and some empty.

To be fair regarding the investment in Thailand - I used to own a condo in Beverly Hills too. Bought it for US $450,000 in 1979 and sold it for $425,000 in 1986.

I think buying a condominium as an investment sucks!

Guenmai, rental rate increase depend on the location of the property. In the past there weren't any zoning law so condos and office building were being built every where and this resulted in a pretty stagnant rental market. Currently I see a lot of increases in office rental space but for the condo or apartment rental the increase are not that noticeable.

Correction - there have always been zoning law but they weren't enforce. Today the enforcement is quite strict.

many people especialy my girlfraind always tells my why I don't buy a condo and I try to explain that it is a bad investment (pluss I'm not interested in real estate it's to much of a hard asset)..
sercomstances and my opinion my change in the futer but as long as I'm still in bkk I'll continue too rent this litle studio apartmetn for $300 a mont.

I agree the higer end of the market can really bounce around, we bought the 2 small studios for around $12k, once was B 445,000 the other B 485,000, but that was as the interest in the bank was 'so' low hardly worth it, I could rent each for about B 10,000 a month which is a good return but am leaving empty, some furnished ones in same block going for B 685,000. We did well years back on a small house in Patong, bought for B 1.2m sold for B 2.5m, but we were lucky to buy in Patong before the mega bom period. Our house though we 'rent' because it's cheaper to rent at like B 15,000 a month than to buy it when owner want around B 6.5m! Did same in BKK, rented for B20,000 a house worth over B 6m.

Hanuman- It's too bad you sold your condo in B.H. when you did. There are some brand new condos in Burbank...near Ikea and the mall area, I've been told...just last week... by a friend, who said that they are $550,000..and to live in Burbank! Not my choice of places to live.I remember, back in the late 70s there were lots of condos popping up and there was a huge campaign to try to get people to move out of their houses and buy condos and live the "easy-low maintenance" lifestyle. Some of my parents' friends sold their nice houses and flocked into the condos. There was a huge overbuliding of condos in Glendale, for example, and then folks moved into them and a lot of folks hated living in a condo...and wanted their houses back and then it was a pain trying to sell the condo because the word was out and folks didn't want them.In the 80s, there were a lot of condos that took people a long time to get rid of. But, now, the situation is that a lot of first time buyers and especially one salary and single people can't afford a house...so they are getting stuck either in condos or a lot of people are renting since the condo prices are outrageous,too. I know A LOT of folks in this situation.... Oh, by the way, I was JUST looking at the news and their was a report on housing costs in the U.S. There was a list of the overvalued(overpriced) housing market and #1 in California and the whole U.S. is Santa Barbara...followed by #2) Salinas, CA #3) Naples, Florida #4) Riverside,CA #5)Merced,CA(Northern,CA). As for Southland ratings... on the whole U.S. rating scale...#1)Santa Barbara is 69% overvalued..#20)L.A.County is 48% overvalued and #30) Orange county is 41% overvalued...and people are still buying houses like crazy and there is a demand for more housing. The news report also said that people are dishing out 50% of their incomes on housing as opposed to the 30%norm. The areas on the list that are at the highest risk for a price drop are...1)California #2)Southern Florida #3) Boston,MA #4) Long Island, NY #5)Ocean City, NJ . Places in Texas were undervalued at 12%. A while back, on the news, the housing cost for Orange County...south of L.A. County(for those of you not from this area) were stated as $440,000 for a condo...about the same here in L.A. county....$660,000 for an existing home...and $753,000 for a new home. So, I figure it like this...if I were to buy a condo in BK for say...$75,000 maybe five years from now...and maybe rent it out for five years or live in it during vacation time in BK and let friends and family members use it when I'm not there and then in about 10-11 years move there and live there permanently...early retirement....then it seems to me it would be worth owning. If I were to rent...in BK... at say, $700. a month 10-11 years from now and plan to possibly stay in Bangkok for 20 years, then that would be $168,000 dished out in rent over a 20 year period as opposed to a purchase price of around $75,000. And who wants to have to deal with landlords? So, this is the way that I'm looking at things. Now, I don't know how much property taxes are in BK and there is some kind of monthly condo association fee...I think in one publication I have on this topic there was info on the high end properties and from what I remember the fee wasn't as high as it is here. So, all that has to be added in,too. Plus, I'd have to check out the laws to see if one can own a condo and not actually live in it the whole time. I'll have to check all of this out when I get back to BK. If I don't have time to do it all on this coming brief trip, then I'll do the rest when I get there in Dec/Jan when I have 3 weeks. Happy Travels!

Guenmai.. in BKK supposedly TOWNHOUSES are the IN thing too buy..

============
lol, thats California for ya, everything a fad, even housing.. "candos are no cool dude".

When the term condo is used, it refers to that which is not a freestanding house...so townhouses are included in what I was speaking of. Condo is the generic term and townhouses fall under that category. It's not a "fad" in housing. There are a lot of condos/townhouses around to this day. People, who were getting older, back in the 70s and 80s were getting tired of all the upkeep on their houses. Many of us on the west coast grew up in big houses with big backyards,pools,some with tennis courts or badmiton courts, and lots of space compared to many of my friends, in some other states, who have told me that they grew up in big apartment-style or co-op buildings...low maintenance. So, in the 70s and 80s, folks were trying to downscale a bit and the condo concept was then pushed. So folks tried it, but found out that they would rather have their houses back even with the expense of the maintenance etc... They weren't used to being "attached" to other residents and missed the freedom of space. Happy Travels!

guenmai: will you be looking only at condos in Thailand or will you look into single family houses as well?

Owning a condo is like have 168 siblings, only two of whom I get along with - LO! I have a friend who lives in a condo and it took them a year just to decide which painter to use to paint their units!

I hope owning a condo in Thailand will not be that painful! :)

Only condos. I don't need the pain of the constant upkeep on a house. I'm one person and a condo should be just fine although I know there are a lot of people (neighbors) around which I'm not used to. Except for when I was away at university, I've always lived in a house. Happy Travels!

Easy Traveler...as far as possible problems with the other condo/townhouse neighbors, I'm good at tuning out that kind of craziness.I don't get mixed up in other people's lives. All I ask for is quiet. I've ALSO heard some horror stories of condo/townhouse ownership here. One friend sold his and moved back into an apartment building where he liked his neighbors. There's always going to be something.I can seaprate neighbors from friends. There are the condo/townhouse neighbors and there are the friends... basically two separate groups. One can own a HOUSE and have the neighbors from...you know where...,too...for example...the ones constantly knocking on your door bothering you or trying to get into your business. So, it's all about luck. I've had other friends who own condos/townhouses that have had it pretty good. I think the key is to be cordial to the neighbors, but not to get mixed up in their drama /craziness/ and lives and when decisions have to be made about repairs to try to nip the craziness in the bud so that they don't drive you crazy. Happy Travels!

Hanuman, thanks again for your comments. The price of the condo on the river is a useful reference point for me.

GUEN over here developers consider condoes. townhouses, single homes too be difrent sectors.. and each guy that specializes in one says the other guy may be in a buble. (of course most developers have a deversified portfolia of projects.)

Or maybe your correct, conos and townhouses are the same but this one developer interviewed onthe news was just trying deflect problems in his busnes and splitting the 2 up and picking and choosing the best.

didn't stupid analyst start talking about "clicks" when trying too justify a dot com being valued more then the GDP of most countries.
=============
I think HANUMAN is correct that the retail real estate sector is the one thats trully of of wack. but we must remember that when one sectore tumbles it usually takes out the rest becouse banks clamp down on loans and ehh lets just say many bad things fall into place as they always do in every real estate callpse .. I love macroeconomics.
----------
anyways thailand. like Argentina and some other develping economies have somehow established ther econies too be boom/ bust, and they seem too cocer every 10 years. or so..
so with a litle pations ya can wait for the next bust cycle and pick up a GREAT value property.
=====
OR maybe I'm wrong.

Orgy...I was defining to you what I mean when I say,"condo". Got to go. I'm in Singapore right now. Happy Travels!

this isn't very geezer-y, but have you seen "thailand elite?" for very frequent and well-off travelers i am guessing...they had a booth at the chicago thai fair
www.thailandelite.com

so how many thousands does this cost?