think_too_mut Posted January 12, 2012 Report Share Posted January 12, 2012 So true, when I came back to BKK in June homeless due to my darling soon to be ex wife it was a friend who found me an apartment [brand New] for 50% of what other expats are paying through agents in the same building. Who you know and not what you know is so true in Thailand Kong I have seen that, dozens of cardboard ads hanging on the poles for direct rent in the same complex, right in front of the agency (www.acuterealty.com) in the building. Why would the owner want to bypass the agency? For your benefit? I doubt. There were some savings but not as spectacular as you had seen. My 1BR apt at the Sukhumvit+ was 20K baht, direct it was 18K or even 16K, depending on the floor, furniture. It was all to avoid (the owner and indirectly yourself) paying 1 month rent commission to the agent. Then, the deposit, 2 months rent, how do you get it back, through what body? When? Into what account? You are totally unprotected. Not only that, you may even be framed and enter further complications, it's all their will. Exposed to total unprotection in a foreign country. I would not do that. You have to be lucky to come out of that without complications or lucky to get back any deposit at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted January 12, 2012 Report Share Posted January 12, 2012 My old landlord and her nieces got into a fight over who owned what. The nieces claimed my apartment and 5 or 6 others. I had a contract with the landlord and kept paying her (as did everyone else), so the nieces cut off our power and water. The police made them turn it back on the first time, but not the second time they did it. The police decided to ignore everything and let the women fight it out. I loved my nice sized but low priced apartment, but I finally had to move. It had been a perfect location, too - easy to get to work, good shopping, on the river. Suddenly without warning it became a war zone. I couldn't believe the police refused to stop it. TIT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 My old landlord and her nieces got into a fight over who owned what. The nieces claimed my apartment and 5 or 6 others. I had a contract with the landlord and kept paying her (as did everyone else), so the nieces cut off our power and water. The police made them turn it back on the first time, but not the second time they did it. The police decided to ignore everything and let the women fight it out. I loved my nice sized but low priced apartment, but I finally had to move. It had been a perfect location, too - easy to get to work, good shopping, on the river. Suddenly without warning it became a war zone. I couldn't believe the police refused to stop it. TIT Flash, I really wish yours was the first such story like that in Thailand. Yes, we have rogue landlords in Oz, but they are eventually dragged into a court room somewhere - for the cops to simply throw this in the 'too hard' basket and return to extorting tourists is pathetic. Sure, rents are cheap in BKK compared to almost any other city of its size, but is it really so 'cheap' if you can effectively be forced out of your lodgings unlawfully ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 OP, apologies, we seem to have strayed a little OT - thats never happened before on T360 ... I think most of us can include the 'bigger' costs in a budget, but I found it was often the little things that took me by surprise. When coss told me he had a washing machine and a proper kitchen in his townhouse in VT, I thought 'Now that's the way to go !'. Also avoid women who enjoy spending their afternoons in a salon, unless they get paid to be there. Even if they dont get paid particularly well, its a far better equation than you financing extensions to the salon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torrenova Posted January 25, 2012 Report Share Posted January 25, 2012 Having been trapped in the UK for a couple of years due to a health problem, I have now recovered sufficiently to resume my plan to move out to live in LOS. Since I have not been in LOS for a few years, I would like to get some idea of current costs I'm likley to face in PTY. #1 monthly electricity and water charges for a studio condo? #2 monthly maintanance charges for a 30m - 40m studio condo View Talay 1/2 or similar ? #3 monthly food costs, 1 person eating thai food a couple of times a day from local type restaurants (not high end)? #4 any other regular essential costs I have missed (excluding entertainment)? I know it's a bit like asking the length of a piece of string, but it's just 'ball park figures' I'm after, any help would be appreciated I lived in View Talay 2 for about 3 years. View Talay 1 is about 500m away as the crow flies. No-one is ever going to build a complex and give it was much free space as View Talay 2 again and despite their being hundreds of apartments, it never feels too busy. Condos in VT2 range in size from 37sqm to 46sqm and multiples thereof. In VT1 they top out at 37sqm I think (and multiples). I used to average 600 units of electric, which direct at 3.5 baht or whatever is around 2000 baht. Sophon is around 4k per year, Cable TV 1-2k and telephone and internet maybe 300-1000. Other fees paid by the owner but they are pennies per month. Chancers try to get 17k a month for a studio and 15k for small ones. Bollocks, 10k for a small one and 12k for a larger one is not that difficult but you will have to look. For 15k you'd want a top floor 46sqm with top end design and furnishings, all loaded. A 2 unit one should be possible under 20k. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted February 1, 2012 Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 I dont know about LOS, but the cost of living in Oz has just gone $^#! ballistic since landlords and others started looking at the numbers coming out of the mining sector. I'm not just talking residential property - several of the big retail complexes in Brisbane periodically turf their 'deadbeat' tenants to house big-name franchises at greatly inflated rents, and parking charges in Sydney are higher than in NYC - somebody tell me how that works ? If I could point to one thing in BKK that would seem to have continually gone up, it would have to be beer. I understand that anything licensed to an overseas brewer will cost more, but the price of your boring old Singha/Tiger/Chang seems to have steadily increased by 10 baht every year or two. Of course, its still very cheap from the 7/11, even cheaper from TESCO, but paying anything like 3 AUD for a small bottle of beer in a bar isnt too far off the prices we pay here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Munchmaster Posted February 1, 2012 Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 ..., but paying anything like 3 AUD for a small bottle of beer in a bar isnt too far off the prices we pay here. Gobble, by the time you eventually get here it will be closer to 4 AUD! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horneytorney Posted February 1, 2012 Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 Gobble, by the time you eventually get here it will be closer to 4 AUD! sure the AUD is always good for some depreciation (or in the area of floating exchange rates it's called E/R loss or whatever; actually who the fuck cares; how can you Aussies accept that your salary is paid in this junk currency! you are a bunch of gamblers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
think_too_mut Posted February 1, 2012 Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 ... but paying anything like 3 AUD for a small bottle of beer in a bar isnt too far off the prices we pay here. Is anyone dancing around the pole, showing flesh, while you are enjoing your beer? Would you be able to just pick the number of someone you like and arrange for the rest of the eveing or whole night? Similar but far worse places in Oz would have beers at 10-15$. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted February 1, 2012 Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 Is anyone dancing around the pole, showing flesh, while you are enjoing your beer? Would you be able to just pick the number of someone you like and arrange for the rest of the eveing or whole night? Similar but far worse places in Oz would have beers at 10-15$. Fair point - I guess I *am* trying to compare a strip club in Kings Cross to bar prices at Blacktown RSL, but some of the more ordinary beer bars along Suk will charge you ~100baht for a Tiger after 'Happy Hour'. I haven't spotted anyone in those bars that I'd like to spend the night with - if anything, I'd prefer to be left alone the way I would at Blacktown RSL (!). Of course, making your way home from the latter venue would be an adventure of an entirely different kind, but that sort of thing can still happen at both the Cross and even one of the aforementioned Suk bars. (I dont live in Sydney, but I know the Western Suburbs very well) For those rolling their eyes and thinking 'Get out of the bloody Farang ghetto and you'll see how little Thais pay for alcohol !', I've been there and done that. The reality is that I'm not going to catch a cab to the 'burbs to sit by myself in a Thai venue, and taking company means the Farang pays for everyone's drinks - that's OK once in a while, but I dont plan to do it night after night. Ultimately, its all about the company you keep - if I just wanted to get pissed I wouldn't even leave the hotel room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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