Monday, August 27, 2007

Condominium Prices In Pattaya


"The Sails" will also introduce several
hundred luxury apartments to Pattaya
in the next year or two.
I was just reading a couple of articles here and here on the development of luxury condominiums in Pattaya. (Warning: Bangkok Post links never are good for more than a day or two, as they hate it when people read their website.)

The articles listed several price-per-square-meter numbers for new and upcoming condominiums being built in the Pattaya area, and they certainly don't reflect the famous "cheap cost of living" that we like to boast about here in Thailand.

The new "Spinnaker" high-rise condominium to be built south of Pattaya in Jomtien will be selling at 85,000 baht per square meter, or $250 per square foot. For a studio apartment slightly larger than a hotel room, that will be about $200,000, and for a nice 2-bedroom apartment, look to spend about $400,000.


The Ocean One, under
construction in Jomtien,
with 600 luxury apart-
ments, will be the
tallest apartment buil-
ding in the world, and
roughly the same height
as the Empire State
Building.
The Imperial Siam, slated to be built north of Pattaya in Naklua will be selling at up to 130,000 baht per square meter ($390 per square foot), so that 750-square-foot studio apartment will come in as high as $300,000 and a 1500-square-foot apartment will be almost $600,000.

I still don't know who pays these prices, but considering that older condominiums on the market aren't getting near to these prices, and the fact that you can go 30 miles out of Pattaya, buy a couple of acres of land, and build yourself a tropical paradise with a 5,000 square foot dream house for much much much less money, I'm at a loss to explain how these places sell. Yes: "Rich people" is the simplest answer you can offer, but in these 2 articles alone, they are talking about more than 700 apartments selling at these prices in Pattaya... and in the next 12 months, there are dozens of other similar projects, representing thousands more condominiums, which will be ready to begin selling (or are already selling) for equally exorbitant prices.

Well, if you have an answer, then by all means hop on in to the comments section, and tell me how $250-per-square-foot-and-up is a reasonable price to pay for a condominium in Pattaya. I'd like to know.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I understand asking price and price paid are very different for most properties.

Jil Wrinkle said...

Indeed. Asking prices at the Ocean One Tower mentioned above were originally around 80,000 baht per square meter, but are now being sold and re-sold by the people who paid the original price for upwards of 100,000 baht per square meter, according to my friend, Alan Verstein, a local property expert.

Anonymous said...

Word on the street is that the Ocean 1 Tower condo project will never see a brick laid and become a reality.

If you go to the location for it, there are just 2 holes in the ground and no other work has occurred for many months. This is despite deposits being taken from people for quite a while.

Just food for thought. Let the buyer be aware!

Issarat said...

An answer that may be considered; ARABS: they have more money now than ever due to the high oil prices and profits.
They may start buying up parts of these condos.
Or as China's rich become richer; they may purchase units as well.
IMHO....

Jil Wrinkle said...

Well that's partially true, Issarat: There are, from what I remember, 50 or 60 major property investors operating in Pattaya... mostly from Asia though, not Arab... who buy condos like other people buy shares of stock: 5 shares of this building, 10 shares of that. There are people who own 50 or even 100 condos in Pattaya.

There are several buildings down near the Ambassador hotel in Jomtien: 30-story beach-front apartment buildings, which are completely empty, with not a single apartment occupied, all apartments owned by speculators sitting on their investments for as many years as they think it is worth it.

Obviously, this selling price for new condos is what the speculation market will bear, but when you consider that the price of used condos is half the price of these new ones, it hardly seems like a wise investment.

Also, with hundreds of apartments being held in limbo like this, it's artificially keeping the supply side of the housing market down, and creating artifical demand as well.

It's a powderkeg: If (when) certain investors decide to put all of their condos on the market at one time, it could precipitate (or could be caused by, and exacerbate) a steep drop in home values in Pattaya. There is a calamity coming, and some people are going to lose vast amounts of money... but there will certainly be some great deals to be had in cut-rate, never-occupied beachfront condominiums when it happens.

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tovenaar said...

I understand than many people have a vision for only 1 year when they talk about investing in properties. I am a state agent and i learn only 1 spiciefied thing in my enter life and that is time , time and time. Believ me there is no better time now than to invst in propertioes in Pattaya . You want to know why? I tell you there is no place in the world, where the whole world like to buy . This place is Pattaya and believ me this will be the next Las Vegas .

Anonymous said...

I agree Jil Bangkok Post cuts there stories from the web to quickly.

Anonymous said...

Prices do seem to be on the rise in Pattaya mostly on the condo side as opposed to houses.