Attention Investors and Home makers

A Bangkok Condo Sale to suit all

It is 3 years old and a somewhat distressed sale. When off plan it sold for 1.9m Baht, today the same owner asks just 1.7m Baht and is looking for offers!

This I think is a pretty good deal when you take into account all the main selling features of this property, which when gathered collectively = a very easy Bangkok condo to rent out and get a regular income from.

It is very well located just 750 meters from BTS Udomsuk and right out front is a motor bike taxi rank, making journeys even easier. It offers secure parking and security from guard patrols etc. It has a very nice common swimming pool and garden area, as well as a nice gym. It seems to be a pretty well run place right now also.

It may also be crucial to note that the area itself is quite ripe for future development which will have a very positive effect on land and condo values as at this present moment in time one could say it is a little sparse in those regards. There is one other condo development over the road, but that is that so far to date.

 It is top floor, the eleventh, with nice balcony overlooking the pool, so it will be quieter than most with no neighbours above. It also has the fully fitted out and equipped kitchen and is being offered with most of the furnishing items you will see in the pictures. 

Its value is likely around 10,000 baht a month in the Bangkok condo rental market, but if advertised at 9,500 for a true one bedroom of 36 sqm, it would I am quite certain rent very fast as normally this will get you only studios. With very little nearby to compete, again it is likely not to stay vacant for very long. 

All in all we feel that this Bangkok condo sale property represents a good buying opportunity. Click Bangkok Condo sale to read up on this opportunity.

Buying a Condo in Bangkok for Investment

There is a great amount of debate on this subject right now and a great many opinions. Personally, as I will show in the next few articles in the coming week, opinions from any of us are likely as valid as any of those that come from the experts and commentators on this subject.

                             

I guess the first question should be, is the Bangkok condo sales market heading for a period of overheating, overbuilding oversupplying, call it what you will. Potentially yes, this is a danger for any such developing nation’s capital city and I have to say from my first hand experience there are a few red flags out there the could stop this bullish market.

To dive into this any further and in any great detail we would have to take each market sector as a totally separate market entity as from what I see they are all suffering slightly or very different fates. For example, right now the very low end of the market, say under 1.5m baht condos aimed at the indigenous market, seems to be doing very well and I see little evidence of swathes of empty rooms.

Not so for the medium and higher ends of the market. I will name no names, but in recent outings to towers in Thong Lor, Ekamai and Onnut I have found a great many rooms unsold and or unoccupied. In one new tower in Ekamai I have seen a range of condos on sale from around 4 Million to 20 million perhaps 60% sold only. Of the remaining ones sold hardly any had been rented.

And here lies a potential issue. I have found that a great many of these condos have been bought out by single investors who buy 10-20 at a time if not more. These units will often remain empty as the owners have no time not true intention or inclination to let their new condos out to the market, leaving some new towers perhaps 50% occupied or less.

Of course by holding them in this manner, they are falsifying the Bangkok Condo Rental stats as a whole, as perhaps thus encouraging further new developments to crop up and up as we feel there are not enough room available to fill the gap in supply. Should even 50% of these types come onto the rental market we could see an overstocked situation right away.

And here ends the first piece of guidance. Is the future Bangkok Condo rental market secure enough? Will you always be able to rent you condo for say 11 months a year minimum to gain the ROI you bought it for? Or will it as so many do, stay empty for at least a third of the year?

In my next piece I will write in more depth about the best sector of the rental market at present and how I believe it will evolve in the next few years and beyond.

Have Bangkok Condo Rental Prices Fallen?

I am certain that they have. Despite often over hearing conversations between agents and their clients from time to time ‘talking up the market’ as they so often do when trying to sell an investor a nice little condo in Bangkok , I am seeing a very real and quite substantial drop in the actual prices achieved in rental deals.

I have lived in this city on and off since 1998, but spend very much the main part of those years actually here (had a stint in the Phuket property market also for a couple of years).  When I moved back to Bangkok in 2003 I can well recall being shown studio apartments and one bed condos for rent at prices at least 10-15% higher than they are at today.

I also know this to be the achieved rate of the day as I was paying around 15% more then that people are now for the exact same size and style of rooms in the exact same condo development. Of course I had a large circle of friends then also, and know that they are now all of them paying less in relative terms. Furthermore of course being that I am actively still working in the Bangkok property rental Market, I see evidence of this everyday.

Is this simple financial market forces and affects, or is there much more to it? Well, of course I am sure that the last 4 years of financial upheaval in the world will not have helped, but to be fair what I am seeing is this all being brought about by a much more educated market.

The usual regular influx of new expats wanting to work here in Bangkok has dropped of a lot in recent years and as a long term Bangkokonian myself I have also seen many long term friends leave as finding work here has gotten harder and harder. So in the rental market now we are left mainly with the long term expats and of course having been here many years they know the prices and true values of Condos and thus this I think is also driving down prices.

Along with this, there is the entrance into the market of many more Thai tenants than there has been before as more and more Thai people flock to the city to work in search of fame and fortune. Of course Thai’s know their own country and market prices well, and like so many Asian people they are not afraid to bargain with owners and agents on prices.

So all in all we are left with a market that has without dropped in terms of rental prices here in Bangkok, or should I say achievable rental values. Good for me being that I live here, good for people also looking for a Bangkok condo to rent right now, but not so good perhaps for those owners who bought some years ago on the expectation of achieving the rates of the day. Oh how this shows that when buying a condo in Bangkok , one really does need full on correct and accurate advice.