Bangkok, Thailand, Houses, Condominiums, Apartments

Viewing houses, condominiums or apartments starts with choosing the right location. Bangkok is vastly spread out, as a city of approximately 8 million people, and Thailand is as tall as the U.S. west coast.

In the Bangkok region, approximately half of all expats want to be in the central business district (CBD), or somewhere along the two skytrain routes serving that area, namely on or near Sukhumvit-Phloenchit Rd. or the Silom subdistrict. This area is almost purely highrise luxury condominiums and serviced apartments, though there are some individual homes and townhouses scattered around, sandwiched within the concrete maze.

The other half of expats are spread around Bangkok's suburbs, and are usually those who prefer a house and a quiet, spacious neighborhood, or else more economical housing, and/or to experience the Thai way of life (middle to upper class Thai). New housing estates near the expressways have many expat residents.

However, if you plan to commute into town, you should know which parts of the "expressway" are often jammed at what times, where the skytrain (and soon to be underground train) goes, and what other modes of transport are available (e.g., private and public expressway vans to a skytrain station).

The purpose of this section is to give you a general orientation to Bangkok and its regions, show you the most popular expat business and residential locations, review some of nicer places for expats, introduce you to some of the less conventional but nice places where some expats live off the beaten track, and attempt to give you a general feel for Bangkok and its different regions.
It is best to find a home well suited for you from the outset, because your environment and amenities can make a significant difference for your life here. A little more time and money spent up front will usually prove well worth it many times over, in the long run, in terms of your quality of life in Thailand, as well as money saved.

Your choices are:
1.Serviced apartments - more expensive than rented condos, and many have a hotel-like atmosphere rather than a home orientation, with a much higher percentage of foreigner occupation as well

2.Rented condos - offer a wider selection of decor and prices, and exist in far higher numbers, but rented individually by owners

3.Houses - in the suburbs, the greatest amount of space for a given price, but houses around the CBD are immensely more expensive and far less in supply

4.Townhouses - similar to houses, just scaled down in price

Within the Sukhumvit-Silom "central business district" (CBD), there are literally hundreds of highrise condos and serviced apartments that expats live in (not counting purely Thai places), with a wide range of prices, amenities, styles and building ages. Unfortunately for the renter/buyer, the Bangkok real estate market is again tight (i.e., a seller's market) in the CBD, and most are full at a given moment, especially as regards the good units.

Construction of new condominium buildings resumed in 2001-2002 and was quickly ramped up in 2003 (and some abandoned buildings resumed, those of which 1997-related bankruptcy and other legal problems permitted) but these won't be coming on-line until late 2004 and 2005, and in fact some are already sold out based only on the paper plans!

(You may have already noticed that Thai bank accounts offer negligible interest. Many wealthy people buy condos in the CBD as investment properties, which have appreciated in value many times faster than bank interest rates since 2001, besides renting out at decent rates.)

Expats often waste a lot of time & effort going around in the traffic and heat, then dealing with the Thai language barriers, in search of an available condo or house to their specifications and preferences.

If you are not real familiar with Bangkok, if you don't have a lot of time & energy to burn, and if you want to find the best home, then you may want to consult a housing specialist who maintains a database of the good quality condominiums and serviced apartment buildings and keeps updated on the available units in each, as well as good houses in the metro region.

If you are interested in a house, then an on-the-ground search will be even more challenging because unlike highrise buildings which are obvious from a distance, decent housing estates are usually not on the main road, but are hidden behind the roadfront business facade, or down a soi a quiet ways, completely out of view from the main road.

Unlike in North America, the vast majority of Thai owners of condos and houses do not sign an exclusive agreement with any real estate company, but instead just advertise their homes in various other ways. Professional real estate companies have networks of people who maintain private, in-house listings of condos/houses/other properties -- usually nonexclusive -- which are very dynamic.

These agents and agencies will also maintain contacts with condo building managers and others related to these properties, who update them when a condo becomes available for rent or sale at the moment. These networks can be very longstanding, personable, interlinked with an extensive real estate community, and trusted by reputation. In Thailand, a network of contacts is important in more ways than one!

If a client wants a condo or house of a particular style, then the real estate agent will check what's known to be available but should also call the managers of condo buildings with similar styles to find out what's available at that time, or the management of housing estates.
If you are looking for a home, then it is strongly advised that you use a professional real estate guide to save you time, energy and frustration, as they can nicely help you find the best selection of homes for your specifications and preferences, as well as deal with the Thai language barrier.

The Bangkok housing market generally consists of:
-The Central Business District (CBD), which has mainly condos and serviced apartments, but also some houses and townhouses scattered among the highrise and business area, usually right along crowded subsois and not in "estates" or "villages:
-Suburban "villages" or housing estates which usually are planned neighborhoods from the start, and are quiet, quite a bit more spacious, and have clean air
-Suburban highrise condominiums and apartment buildings scattered around

Factors that go into a decision on where to live may include:

-Work location
-Whether you drive, need skytrain or subway access (inner city), or take other public transport
-Personal preferences in style of housing
-Schools for children

Of the expats who live and work in Bangkok, probably around half are in the central business district (CBD), namely at the beginning of Sukhumvit Rd. and in the Silom and Pathumwan-Lumpini areas, as shaded in yellow on the map below, shaded in yellow, near the bottom. This region is mostly highrise office buildings, condominiums and apartments.

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Special Thanks : thailandguru