Phuket

Denver · #36 10-03-2008, 03:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Loop

Was in Croatia last year for 4 weeks.

I saw a lot of those rather tall sexy looking ladies there.

I hope your hasty depature wasn`t because you had some trouble from butterflying with them.

No, local thugs and the British Tax man..........They were tall but definately not sexy.

Opatija BTW

ATMwalking · #37 10-03-2008, 03:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by LivinLOS

I am also very anti condo because I am basically not good at high density living. Also your then relying on communual maintenance, that the maint contract isnt given to Somchais brother, that the whole system runs smooth.

In fact this very reason was given by my mates BKK based missus.. Discussing condos and why she would never want to buy one her description was.. "This Thailand.. Who take care ?? In 3 or 4 years, no one take care and condo fcuked !!"

blunt and to the point but even with housing association committees etc communual living does have risks like this.

With new build or recently refurbished condos usually everything is set up and running smooth, but once the developer has sold the place off, made its money, and them moved on to the next deal who is left in place to keep it well run ?? Sometimes this works, the bigger and best names do seem to have a rep to uphold as long as they are in biz, but imagine a 97 era crash again, thier rep wouldnt mean so much if the market looked like that for another half a decade.

Rather then get side tracked into rehashing the lease debate (not to mention the quicksand that is the thai legal system), I think what you posted is core to the condo issue.

Is a freehold condo a ripoff or is there value to it. For me it goes deeper than some sort of farang premium charge. it is more in the question of is there any real lasting value there anyway? An how much input do you have on that anyway?

For sure there is the upkeep issue. You can get that in housing projects but it is more sever in condos. But longer term how do you deal with bigger issues as they arrive?

Condos is all fairly new to Phuket and just a reaction to the current laws. Guess we would have to look to Bangkok to really understand it all long term.

From what I recall, some of the older and still nice condos in BKK are kinda special in that the owners of the units one the underlying property and really directly control things. From what I recall this was changed for the worse.

Given all the issues above, and back to the original question, my thoughts are freehold has immediate value but questionable longterm value. Assuming this premium is around 10-20% of the unit total, i'd think it is worth it.

ub2yoo · #38 10-03-2008, 03:50

That's really a very interesting thread, and I don't want to spoil it with my uneducated comment.

Just gotta post a quick thought I have. To me the most important phrase, which I absolutely
relate to, was when LiL said: "Listen to the anthem, thailand is for the thais.."
I don't underestimate that statement, I also believe they live by it - by heart & law.

To me, that's absolutely fine, let 'em keep it. I hold a passport which opens doors to many other
countries in the world. Guess that's more worth than speculating a possible gain on purchasing
land/condo/house in LOS.