- We spend a lot of
time in Thailand. Therefore, we’re considering buying a house or an apartment
here. Can you give us some advice?
Thor, Hua Hin
Answer:
Here is issue number
one when it comes to property purchase is: Look at it as an investment. You
might have planned to live out your days here, but I can guarantee that your
heirs will look at it as an investment. And, who knows, you might change your
mind and want to switch to something else. The bottom line is, you need to buy
something that is relatively easily traded.
In this respect, there
are three main components: Location, Access, and Maintenance. A house in a housing
estate that is cumbersome to reach and have lots of rubbish and leaves in the
streets might be a nice place to stay, but it’ll be difficult to sell.
Here are some tips:
1. Don’t buy a cheap
plot of land in the countryside to build a house there, unless you do this as a
gift for your Thai partner. You will never get any return on your
investment. In rural areas in Thailand, no one can afford to pay the market
price for a western style house, be it for rent or purchase.
2. Don’t buy houses in
“mini residential areas”. Some foreigners buy a small piece of land and put up
5-6 houses with a common pool. That means the common fee will be high,
especially if one or two owners refuse to pay, as sometimes happens. Bet on
quarrels between neighbors in such small places. Both in terms of housing
estates and condos, it’s safest to bet on the bigger projects.
3. Don’t forget to
check the secondhand market. If you buy secondhand, you already know if the
maintenance in the project is good or not. Plus, you normally get a lot of
freebies already installed, like water purifiers, sound systems, burglar alarms,
electric garage doors, extra lighting and so on.
(From Thailands Tidende
issue 1/2010)
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