All Forum Posts by: Max Ime

Hi @Hailey Sexton,

Also be careful with Airbnb in Thailand. By Thai law you have to announce every guest staying in your room and file a document to the immigration (including a copy of the house registration with signature of owner). Most of the people don't do it and get along fine, but more and more hotels are reporting those private airbnb places as they take their business away and don't pay taxes on it.

It's just something you should be aware of, but then again I have several condos myself that I rent out (long term) and don't report nor pay taxes on them (as everybody else).

Hi all,

First of all I love the BP forum/community. I've read a lot and learned a lot in the past year here. I live in SEA (Thailand) and would like to know if there are any books / webminars / other resources someone can recommend to help me with my local market. I am a beginner investor, only own 2 luxury condos (renting) and now building a house for myself.

A lot of terms and strategies that I read on BP are specifically for the USA market and not sure they apply here.

Thank you

Hi @Isabella Lee,
I live in north Thailand (Chiang Mai) and am an investor in RE here. I started only 4 years ago and I am always listening to experiences from different people. The market here in Thailand is very different from western countries so I'm always happy to meet people investing here.

Maxime

Hi, this is my first question so I hope I'm in the right section.

Here is the situation: I want to invest in one more condo and after a lot of research I have found two different kind of projects. I am not sure which one would be the best investment so I am asking people with more experience.

Both projects are in the same city and area, in south east Asia. The area is a great area, at the foot of the mountains, just outside of the city (the city of Chiang Mai, Thailand).

A law passed recently forbidding to build higher than about 4 floors buildings. 

Now onto the 2 projects:

Project 1: Received a construction permit before the law passed so is 7 floors high, the unit I am interested in is on the 6th floor and has an amazing view on the mountains. The project is already 50% finished, and consist of 2 building in parallel with a swimming pool in the middle. There has been no advertisement so far, and I talked directly with the constructor about the prices. The constructor said he hasn't advertised yet because he is mostly building this to provide rooms for his business partners in Japan and will only start having a sales office after it is finished.

Project 2: This project started after the law so it is a "low rise" project consisting of 6 smaller buildings of 3 floors lined in a circle with 2 swimming pools. They haven't started to build yet, but have almost sold everything already. They advertise a lot and have a showroom and very professional office. It is slightly more expensive (about 5%) than project 1. It doesn't have the same great view of the mountains as it's low, but has a nice garden all around the area. They have a great website as well : http://www.casatill.com/chiangmai/

I would like to buy 1 condo at both places, but since I'll have to wait about 6months for poject 1  and over a year for project 2 until they are done, I can't afford to take a loan on both without any revenue. So I have to make a choice. 

Both rooms are the same size and furnished. Project 2 has a better layout and no loss of space unlike the room in Project 1 that has 2 foundation pillars in the room that break the layout.

If there is any other info that would be relevant please let me know.

Thank you for any helpful advice.

Thank you for your replies. 

I have a long term plans in different RE domains. 

First I am going to buy one condo to rent out each year for the first five years, after that always sell the oldest and buy 2 new ones with the profit. I don't need any short-term profits so the rental money will only be used to pay off the loans and the rest for reserve.

I focus on the "A" style luxury condos as it seems like more and more rich Chinese, Koreans and especially the richer Bangkok people are looking at North of Thailand for a second home. Luxury condominiums 

In parallel I am looking to get more information on domains that are behind here. What comes to mind is retirement homes, or rehabilitation centers / resorts (I came up with this idea when I realise the price people pay for those back at home in Switzerland). Those are just longer term ideas so far.

I don't have a blog so far, I am waiting to see how things go in the next months and if it all works out the way I expect I will gladly share my experience with other people. 

Hi, 

I'm a Swiss citizen who moved to Thailand 5 years ago for work (I am project manager for a swiss software development company). I am 30 years old and even though I like my job and can live more than comfortably with what I earn, I want to start investing in real estate. 

First of all I know I am not in the US and most of the people here are about the US. I was wondering if I was the only one here or are there any other people in South East Asia?

I live in the north of Thailand, and was recently able to buy a good condominium in Chiang Mai. Since I bought it last year its value has increased at least 10%, this is how I came to the idea to start real estate investment. 

I am lucky enough to know a few people around here who invest in real estate and almost every day I am questioning them about what and how they did it, what are they doing next... 

I try to read information on this website and apply it to my local market. There are a lot of differences, but also a lot of information that I can apply. An example would be that the law here doesn't allow foreigners to buy land, so buying / selling houses is not an option for me. Another is the speed at which the city is expanding. It is out of control, just last year 3 huge new malls have been built, and hundreds of new apartment buildings. 

I think this is enough of an introduction, I am very pleased to have found this forum and am looking forward to learn more from people here.