Paillote Posted July 20, 2007 Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 In about 6 months I will move out of Bangkok. Currently I own a one bedrom condo in a very attractive location on lower Sukhumvit (high floor, great view and close to bts/mrt). I haven't really tried to sell it, only let the recepetion know I might sell. Once in a while I get offers from people who wants to buy. At the moment I can sell it easyily, or rent it out for about 7-8% net of the asking price yearly. Seeing the buyers are Thais who buy to rent out, it makes me think I should stick with it. But seeing 36% of units in central Bangkok is vacant (article in Bangkok Post last week), maybe I should play safe and take what I can get now? How will the housing market develop in the future? Will it crash, boom or stagnate? How will the Baht develop? I have a million questions about the future, all impossible to answer. But what about the past? I know the real estate market in Bangkok is very cyclic. How much has the cycles affected prices? Did they fluctuate a lot, or merely stagnate in the slow periods? Paillote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nervous_Dog Posted July 20, 2007 Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 How big is the investment in relation to your other investments cash on hand etc? If it's a large portion, and your not feeling you want to risk it, sell. If it's a small portion, then the risk of loss is less, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjon045 Posted July 20, 2007 Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 If you think there is the possibility of you coming back one day I would say just keep it, always good to have a place to keep your stuff and you can use it as a holiday home. Doesn't make any sense to invest in property here (especially apartments) as there are many western cities that are far better suited to property investment. It is not unusual in some cities to get a 10% capital gain per year and then maybe 4-5% rental on top of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faustian Posted July 20, 2007 Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 The market here seems nuts...lots of vacant properties, still more being built...no reduction in prices, in fact quite the opposite! Prices still seem to be going up...makes you wonder who's going to buy them...rental market seems strong especially in the sub-10k a month apartments...but high end stuff isn't selling to any great extent...i guess at some point someone is going to have seemingly novelle idea of lowering their prices, or offering foreigners mortgages!!!!! Hell really will have frozen over then.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simie Posted July 20, 2007 Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 Faustian, this is something that has always amazed me about Thai's and their business brain. They just seem to have zero concept of the laws of supply and demand. Gadfly would probably be able to tell us all about it at great lenght but i get the feeling that that upper section is shielded from the realities of finance by their funny relationship with the Thai banks and their disproportionate wealth in relation to the majority of the country. I am sure it will come home too roost in the near future due to the current situation in Thailand as it did with the crash in 97? ND had a good point for the OP and really a lot would depend on what sort of a hit he can afford to risk taking. As the old estate agents motto goes "location, location, location". If the property is as well placed as he says then i'm sure he'd have no problem renting, but unless i was in a secure financial position i think i'd take the money and run?! As you say the mickey mouse prices now being asked for property in some parts of Thailand just amaze me and what amazes me more is that some people actually pay them?! Simie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paillote Posted July 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 Exactly. The marked seems really nuts. So much vacant space, and still you can rent out with a very good return, much higher than my hometown where your returns would be less than 5% and with tax eating in to that. Why prices are not going down, beats me. Then again, compared to other major cities in Asia, Bangkok is not that expensive. Normally it should do some catching up sooner or later, but then again, logic does not apply here in the Western sense of things. As you said, supply is already large, and new condos are mushrooming around Sukhumvit. There is a gigantic new project just started on Suk 16, three towers of more than 60(!) floors. Plenty more nearby. Who is going to buy all those? And what about traffic. With all those new condos coming up on already saturated small sois, it is going to be hell. My place is close to public transport luckily... Paillote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sporty Posted July 20, 2007 Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 I agree, with the last two posts, been watching this with for the last year. Something has got to break, soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nervous_Dog Posted July 21, 2007 Report Share Posted July 21, 2007 Yep - as most people I know have been saying for 5 years, but it hasn't Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elef Posted July 21, 2007 Report Share Posted July 21, 2007 Hm, some say that many condos are bought by singaporans as investments and they don't want to rent out as that can diminish the value. :evil: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FAT_AUSSIE Posted July 21, 2007 Report Share Posted July 21, 2007 Some condo's (higher end) remain partially empty, well the Thai 49% does, the farang 51% may be more sold out but the overall vacancies in the higher end condo market may add to your figure of 36% unoccupied rate. I was looking at lower end condos recently, and thats the full extent of my experience with BKK condo's although I believe being in the 2-4 mio range puts you amongst alot more liquid. FA... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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