Chiang Mai Has Best Quality Of Life

In a recent government survey concerning the level of security for people living in Thailand’s 76 provinces, it was found that Chiang Mai ranked the best, while Bangkok ranked the worst. Surprisingly, Phuket was listed as the second-worst province in the nation for safety.

The human security score averaged 69.65 per cent out of 100 for Thailand as a whole. Bangkok could only manage to score 11.62 per cent, but Chiang Mai racked up an impressive 87.87 per cent, thus earning it the title of Thailand’s most livable city.

Other towns that scored less than 50 per cent includes Chonburi, Nonthaburi, Samut Sakhon, Samut Prakan, and of course, Phuket. The scores were calculated from a broad spectrum of criteria such as household income, crime rate, employment rate, population density, Internet access, and ratios of students to teachers and hospital beds to doctors, reports 1ST.

The official in charge of the survey noted that “the report identifies the strengths and weaknesses of each province. The information will be useful in improving the human-security situation.” Other towns that scored high were Phrae, Lamphun, Nan, Phayao and Lampang, all cities in northern Thailand.

Thai Real Estate ‘Insulated From Crisis’

Thailand’s property market is well insulated from the global financial crisis as it is far less dependent on debt than most property markets, said real estate firm CB Richard Ellis Thailand.

Chairman David Simister, as a longstanding player in Thai real estate and resort property, said Thai politics had been troubled for over three years so real estate investors have been cautious.

Purchases have been made for use or investment rather than short-term speculation, he said. Also, outside Phuket and Koh Samui, the bedrock of commercial success has been sales to Thai nationals, reports BKP.

“In my opinion, Thai market caution has resulted in the following: muted demand; a low level of speculation, despite rising prices; low borrowings to value; and possibly as low as 50% debt to current valuations, with buyers acting well within their financial capacity,” he said.

Unlike in most western markets, Thai property is not propelled by the availability of debt finance. Nor are maximum mortgages the norm. Thai banks also have a strict approval policy, he said.

He added that the Thai banking industry learned a very hard lesson in 1997 and – both in project financing and domestic mortgages – prudence has since been the order of the day.

Unlike many foreign counterparts, Thai banks have stayed away from structured finance and concentrated on unadventurous domestic business, with property loans rarely reaching 70% of the banks’ own valuations, he said.

Mr Simister added that foreign buying has been 100% in cash, as purchasing a condominium under the foreign quota requires buyers to show they have brought in funds from abroad covering the full purchase price.

“Thai real estate developed in the last five years has been a cash-driven market,” he said.

Though optimistic, Mr Simister said his company had seen fewer launches and a lack of products for sale in some areas of Bangkok and Phuket.

“We expect this situation to continue for another 18 months,” he said. “More importantly, with the bulk of products under construction having sold well, we see no chance of a market crash.”

He said committed buyers continue to make serious property searches at its Phuket and Koh Samui offices but are finding almost no new high-end products.

“Given the lack of good oceanfront sites, we are bullish on the limited volume of developments that are proceeding,” said Mr Simister. “Thai property has proved to be resilient to numerous external problems and I am convinced that it will prove to be, for tomorrow’s buyers, an excellent medium-term investment.”

Buying A House In Thailand

The Thai law is a little different than in most other countries. But because of the international relation, the Thai government will probably change the law so that non-Thai citizens also can buy real-estate on their name. But for now that is still not possible, with exception of people from the U.S.A., for them it is already possible to buy land on their own name. Also apartments and condos can already be put on your name only the land stays on a Thai persons name.

Who can buy land

Only citizens of Thailand are allowed to buy land, so foreigners can not. A foreigner can own a house in Thailand he has than the exclusive right to use it. This right can be registrated.

Do we know this in Holland too?

This construction looks a bit like the hereditary tenure in Holland. In Amsterdam and Rotterdam you also can’t buy ground to built on, but you can buy the right to built a house on it. This hereditary tenure is than for long term, mostly 70 till 80 years. You will pay every year a amount to the owner of the land for using his ground. At the end of the period  the things you built on the land will be the property of the land owner. The person who built or buy the house is the “economic owner” and the land owner is the “juristic owner”.

The right of the economic owner in Thailand

The economic owner, and he alone has the exclusive right to use the house how he wants it to use. He can act like a normal owner. If he wants to rent-out the house or rebuilt it, than that’s no problem. The exclusive right will be registraded official and has to be respected be everyone. The right is normally for 30 years and can be extended 2 times with 30 years, o in total you will have the right for 90 years. The registration has to be done by the official owner. The costs of this are euro 950,- .

The economic owner can sell his right

The economic owner can sell his right to somebody else anytime, he doesn’t need approval of the land owner to do this. He can’t stop you from doing that to because it will all be arranged in the contract you make when you buy the right. The buying price of this right – the economic ownership – is parallel to the pries of real estate in the surroundings, so the economic owner better keeps his house in a good shape to get a good price for it.

The Thai land owner can’t sell

The property of he land will be registrated at the “land office”. This organization will give you the title deed. Those are called “yellow Chanot” and will have a official stamp and number of the government. The economic owner will get the “yellow Chanot” so the juristic owner can never sell.

Paying Taxes

The economic owner will pay in Thailand, yearly to the Thai government his taxes, just like the OZB in Holland. For the houses on our bungalow park, this will be around 150 to 200 euro per year.

Chiang Mai and surroundings / the building fases of the houses .

Chiang Mai is the second city of Thailand with around 350.000,00 inhabitants.
This is the economic centre of the North of Thailand, 700 km from Bangkok. Chiang
Mai has much to offer like many bars and restaurants, the world famous “Night Bazaar” and the historical centre. Chiang Mai has a big international airport. A national flight to Bangkok that will go almost every hour, will cost around 42,- euro. LTU flies from D?sseldorf to Chiang Mai.

The last few years, big retailers like Tesco Lotus, have settled in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is also the touristic centre of the North of Thailand and offers many sights and a beautiful nature. Every year, around 2 million tourists will come to visit Chiang Mai.

The building fases of the houses are situated in Mae Rim, 15 km from Chiang Mai. Trough ribbon development Mae Rim and Chiang Mai slowly grow together. A taxi drive from Mae Rim to Chiang Mai will cost around 8 or 10 euro and takes around 20 minutes. But you can also take a bus or tuk tuk for around 0,30 to 7,00 euro.

The 2 building fases lie 500 meter from each other and 1 kilometer from the centre of Mae Rim. Fase 1 is completed with 125 houses. Fase 2 is just as big as fase 1 and is now completed for 55%. The Thai law says that every fase has to be occupied for 60% by Thai people. This means that we built real houses and not just holiday houses like Landal Greenparks in Holland. Every house has a fenced surrounded peace of land. The Fase is also totally fenced and has security. We don’t really need security because there isn’t much crime over here so it’s more for the status of the park.

Not long ago people could built on almost every land. But now a days you can’t built on land that’s originally for farming. This because of the food crisis. This means that we can’t built as much as before anymore, but the good thing is that your house will increase price very fast. The last few years the prices increased already with 10 to 14%.

The houses that aren’t permanently inhabited are in a rental construction with some tour operators. We are working on a combination of 1 week in a apartment in the South of Thailand (pattaya, Phuket) and 1 week in Chiang Mai.

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