Renovation

[buad hai]

The homes in the moo baan in which I currently reside are about 15 years old and of very poor quality. They have two normal sized bedrooms (12 square meters), one half sized bedroom, two Thai style bathrooms (cistern and squat toilet), a moderate living room and a small room for a kitchen. In the two years that I've lived here a number of these places have sold and been renovated. Some of them actually look quite nice.

Until a month or so ago our next door neighbor was an older Mor Du (fortune teller) and his much younger wife who works for the tax department. They didn't do much to the place and allowed the front yard to revert to jungle and did no outside maintenance. They moved out, the house was sold and the new owner is renovating.


You can see it here, in the background, before the work started.


A whole crew of Isaan (not Korat) workers moved in over the weekend and started work. It looks like they will extend the living room out on to what was the front porch.


These materials began to arrive the day before yesterday. They will replace all the existing doors and windows.


It looks like they'll also extend out the back right to the rear wall.

I'll try to remember to take and post photos as the project progresses.

(Might as well; nothing to post on my own house. Grrrr.)

[buad hai]

They removed an old window from what was once the front wall and reused it. Since they brought in dozens of window frames I thought they were going to use all new windows.


Here's a view from the other side.


Removing the old front wall.


Notice the new masonry.


This guy's using a sledge hammer to remove the wall on which he is standing. Note the standard safety gear.

[WhiteLotusLane]

LOL.. nice pics, thanks.

Still I can't help but feel it's a bit of 'beating a dead horse' in that location.. Whatever they do to it it'll still be very average I think? And this is Khorat right, so not a real shortage of affordable land you'd think to build something that can still be modest, but more airy / spaceous?

Then again.. they probably bought it for under 500K or so, now spending about 100-150K ... Guess it could make sense.

[buad hai]

^It wouldn't be my choice, but you're probably right on the numbers. Quite a few renovations going on in this area. The blocks of land in this moo baan are about 50 square wa. Residential land in this vicinity is selling for around 12,000 baht per square wa.

[WhiteLotusLane]

In compounds you mean? Or is it located in the city area? Otherwise 12K per sq. wa is rather high I think?

[buad hai]

In compounds you mean?

Yes, I should have been more specific. That's the amount most developers charge. Further out (say, JoHo) it goes down to about 9K.

[Wallalai]

Note the standard safety gear.

Nothing to worry about, he should be wearing his amulet.

[klongmaster]

This guy's using a sledge hammer to remove the wall on which he is standing.

lovely turn of phrase BH...did you hang around to see what happened when the wall on which he was standing toppled over?

good thread as usual...some here on TD have said that there's no real second-hand market in housing in Thailand but that doesn't seem to be really true...

sure there has always been the Thai reservation about the ghosts of the former owner etc. but everywhere around me in nonthaburi people are buying old or unkempt houses and doing them up...they don't seem to have any problem in reselling...oh but the price is not a lovely 9-10k/sq wa...



.

[buad hai]

^Well, the guy avoided death or serious injury. Every time he whacked the wall he managed to pull that leg out of the way. I guess the amulet worked.

In this area, at least, the second hand house market is booming. Maybe I'll take a few photos of other completed renovations in the neighborhood. Many of these old homes have been made to look very nice.

[buad hai]

It's always tough to gauge land prices where there isn't much of a real estate market and things seem to be changing fast. We bought 200 square wa in a residential area on the other side of Korat last year. It's about 5K from the city center and is in a developed area with paved streets, water and power and lots of houses around. The price was 2,500 per square wa. That compares with 12,000 in the walled moo baan compound.

Here are some renovated and "fixer upper" houses in our current neighborhood:


This one was gutted, renovated and then sold by the lady who owns the local mini-mart. It has a vacant lot next door.


This mess is for sale for 500K and includes the two story monstrosity that was built on top of the car port. It was previously renovated, but has been vacant for at least two years and is in horrible shape.


This huge two story house started out as one of the two and a half bedroom, single story places. It was renovated by the owner over a five or six year period and has since become a pre-school


The place was bought by an EGAT employee who did most of the work himself. He gutted and redid the interior, replaced all the windows and did nice job of repainting and doing up the garden.


Here's the latest on the place next door to us.

[Butterfly]

^ no pink coloured houses yet ?

[WhiteLotusLane]

It's always tough to gauge land prices where there isn't much of a real estate market and things seem to be changing fast. We bought 200 square wa in a residential area on the other side of Korat last year. It's about 5K from the city center and is in a developed area with paved streets, water and power and lots of houses around. The price was 2,500 per square wa. That compares with 12,000 in the walled moo baan compound. Here are some renovated and "fixer upper" houses in our current neighborhood:

Ah, I see, that's an excellent deal!! The trouble for me is especially finding low priced land in the right size. Like if I do find 2500 baht/sq. wa then there's not 200 wa^2 of it but a couple rai's worth, so then you're still looking at millions of baht in total.

I think the disconnect between 2500 and 12,000 inside a moo ban is too high though. In the mooban that you show the pictures of, is there actually still a gate and security in place? And a club/pool? I think moo bans may be worth it IF they're managed properly, but ssooooo many of them go downhill fast.. then you wonder what the 12,000 baht was for, it's not much more than a scam really, i.e. print some nice brochures, promise secrurity and a well maintained safe environment, then take the money and run and let it all fall to bits back to the 2,500 baht / sq. wa level.

Rant over. (And not aimed at this particular mooban, more a rant in general, I'm sure just looking around all over Thailand you will find these types of rundown moobans.)

[Butterfly]

^ very good point, saw it many times, even in the "luxury" mooban

[everglaze]

What's the crime wave like in this area?

[buad hai]

In the mooban that you show the pictures of, is there actually still a gate and security in place?

The Moo Baan where we paid 12,000 is not the Moo Baan in the photos. I'm living in this one until the house in the other one is done. Phase one of the other one is about six years old and still has 24 hour security guard and gate and is quite well maintained. And, the same company's first development, which is 10 or 12 years old is also still in tact and well maintained.

The Moo Baan in the photos in this thread never did have a gate or security guard. And, there are no public areas to be maintained. It's a simple un-gated subdivision.

What's the crime wave like in this area?

Been here two years plus and never heard of anyone being robbed or burgled.

[ChiangMai noon]

^
still sounds very pricey.
I think ours was 7,000 a sq wah and it's within spitting distance3 of the city.

[buad hai]

^I agree, but that's what prices are here. I have no idea why so high. Land and Houses wants 12,500 not far from here. Home Garden wants 12,000 here and 9,500 up at JoHo.

That said, there's a funky little Moo Baan about 500 meters from here that is selling 3BR homes on 50 wa for 900K; no gate, no guard, no public areas. They've been selling for over two years now and only three houses have been sold.

In the development where our new house is (might be?) the same sized house on a slightly larger lot sells for 1.6 million and they are almost sold out.

[everglaze]

Been here two years plus and never heard of anyone being robbed or burgled.

That is a far better then Pattaya.

[WhiteLotusLane]

still sounds very pricey. I think ours was 7,000 a sq wah and it's within spitting distance3 of the city.

I agree, but that's what prices are here. I have no idea why so high. Land and Houses wants 12,500 not far from here. Home Garden wants 12,000 here and 9,500 up at JoHo.

It depends on the specific development, even within the same town. I'm in Chiang Mai too and my mooban is 12K through they're upping it to 15K! It's truly a nice one though, not overly big and was originally established about 10 years ago. Lots of really nice, big houses.

Like Buad Hai said, I think it's best to buy in an existing mooban, preferably run by a company that has several other ones so you can see how well they keep maintaining it even after all plots have been sold. With new ones, no matter how nice and promising they look, you can never be sure.

The exact same thing applies to condominium units; if you're paying extra for luxury, facilities, services or fancyness then you want to make sure you're getting what you think you're paying for. And then it will keep the value very well; the bank at no issues appraising the land at 12K for a loan.

[Butterfly]

I think ours was 7,000 a sq wah and it's within spitting distance3 of the city.

how about walking distance ? how far ?

7000 that's fucking cheap

[The Ghost Of The Moog]

A renovation fit for a king !

[WhiteLotusLane]

7000 that's fucking cheap

Fucking cheap is at Wiang Ping Rd since Santitham was cleaned up.

Anyway, you have to see it before saying something is cheap. Distance from town only partly enters into it, some of the most run-down developments are a lot closer to town than some of the more fancy ones.

In a couple of years it won't matter that much anymore as the city expands; then 'all of it' is considered city, say everything within the outer ring.

Take one of the very first 'high profile' developments in town, Chiang Mai Land. You need a boat to get there in September. Something similar applies to Palm Springs; they're keeping it up alright and security is good, but there's a couple weeks in the year that you're not really leaving there without wet feet. And some of the very high priced developments are actually way out. Jury's still out if those will make it, but also proven compounds like Ban Nai Fan are really quite a bit outside the city center, it's actually not even Muang (city) district anymore there.

[ChiangMai noon]

how about walking distance ? how far ?

well, not really.
it's about 10 kilometres.
I have also been told that land prices are up to 9,900 baht a wah.

[ChiangMai noon]

Anyway, you have to see it before saying something is cheap. Distance from town only partly enters into it, some of the most run-down developments are a lot closer to town than some of the more fancy ones.

actually, muy place is very nice.
we moved in because the earlier phases still looked great after quite a few years.
the club house and pool are fabulous.

[Butterfly]

it does look very nice, are you still selling ?