House building in Thailand

Tanlic

Tanlic

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Joined
Dec 6, 2011
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Location
Bangkok Thailand
Decided had enough of big city life........much prefer trees and horses to people and would like to go back to living in the country in a few years

So my girlfriend and I decided to build a house in the North East of Thailand

I had another house I sold a while back as I never liked the area.

Outside of Bangkok and the bigger cities building methods are not quite the same as in the UK

so I thought I would give you guys an insight to what it's like in up country Issan

Just about every house is built using concrete columns

I have redesigned more than a few condos here so rather than pay some architect and extortionate fee I decided to design the house myself.

Took my drawing along to an engineer who checked them out and gave us the go ahead.

So of we went and got stuck in..............we started 4 weeks ago and the first building blocks were laid yesterday


These pics may shock and UK builders but believe me they get the job done at the end of the day.

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Do you call these Issan huts? Don't think much of the basic toilet in second photo from the left.
 
I did consider returning to the UK but the only things I miss are a chinese chicken curry carry out on a Friday night, the smell of rolls being made in a Scottish bakery and the racing.

Plus the finished article I am building is over 200 sqm, will have 3 bedrooms all ensuite and the master has a large walk in wardrobe. there's 4 toilets an office and a large open plan living room and kitchen.

Without cutting corners on quality I can finish it including a 7 x 3.5m swimming pool for around 2.2 million baht which is about 45k pounds about 1/10th of what it would cost to buy a similar property in Edinburgh or Glasgow..................stuff that for a game of soldiers

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Do the four toilets include the 3 en suites? Or have you got 7 in total? I see you like your curries but that seems a bit ott ;-)
 
You obviously have never eaten a lot of Issan food :lol:

Just the 3 toilets plus a guest toilet

The actual plans are up in Sakon Nakhon on my laptop as I am h flying back up there on Wednesday
but hopefully the end product will look something like this

hoos.jpg
 
brilliant stuff, tanlic. Keep us posted with photies.

We 'built' our own house 18 years ago. I drew out the basic layout and outside appearance but required an architect - a total plonker, by the way, but he was RIBAS registered and specialised in self-builds - to get it to planning, consent etc, so I'm always fascinated when others do it.

I keep promising myself I'll do it again when the time comes to downsize and that I'll get a Hufhaus.
 
A fascinating project, Tanlic. I will be watching progress with great interest.
Do keep us posted on developments.
 
Looks like a real des. res.

Is it still the case in Thailand that foreigners aren't allowed to own residential freehold?
 
Tanlic said:
You obviously have never eaten a lot of Issan food :lol:

Just the 3 toilets plus a guest toilet

The actual plans are up in Sakon Nakhon on my laptop as I am h flying back up there on Wednesday
but hopefully the end product will look something like this

View attachment 752
Click to expand...

Looks good, Fist :-) though I''d never want to live in that country myself. What would you do all day, drink?
 
archie said:
Looks like a real des. res.

Is it still the case in Thailand that foreigners aren't allowed to own residential freehold?
Click to expand...

I don't know that it ever has been the case. Most foreigners buy condos and most are freehold. Some are leasehold in BKK but that's usually ones that are built on land belonging to the Royal Family.

When buying a condo 51% of owners in the building have to be Thai but that is almost always the case anyway.

That is the only restriction and the Land Office where you transfer title are right on the ball with any loans or the like that a seller might have on a property.

You can actually but a condo here in a matter of 48 hour and your only cost tax wise is 6.3% of the registered value of the property.

Foreigners can't own land but they can form a Thai Company which is very easy to do. They then lease the house they build for 30 yeas from the company or they can put it in their wives name and take a usafuct (Not sure of the spelling) out on that title deed which allows them to manage the property until they die.
 
Desert Orchid said:
"would"???

:)
Click to expand...

I know people who have retired early but nearly turned into alcoholics due to boredom. One guy ended up buying a guest house and last time I spoke to him he said he's doing more hours than he ever did in his previous job but loving it.

Would be my idea of Hell living somewhere like Thailand, but understand that others may love it, or love the idea of it.
 
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It depends on who you drink with I try to chose my drinking friends wisely which gives you a good reason to stay sober lol
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Drinking has never been a problem for me thankfully......................I went out on Friday night and must have had 6 beers and 15 or more Johnny Walkers from 5pm till no idea when I got home......now I couldn't care less if I never had another drink till Xmas 2016.........I keep drink in our condo that's been there untouched since I moved in.

You're friend who bought the guest house is a wise man. No matter how much money you have or no matter which country you are in you will get bored doing nothing........The bars are fun but it so easy to get laid you soon get bored with the same old same old.

I started a real estate company here which I later sold. I had 3 rental movie shops and sold them. Then I met a guy who wanted to buy a condo cheaply and asked if I could help. I found him one about 2 million below market value renovated it for 1.5 million and he ended up with the best condo in te building for the least money............then all his Aussie mates wanted the same so that kept me busy.

So yes you should find something to do if deciding to live here........If I was a young guy with a few million baht I would be over here like a flash and buy land in Chaam or Huahin....I actually just did buy some in Chaam and my best pal who was the CEO of HP has bundles and he just bought 40 Rai right next to where the owner of Chang Beer starts one of the biggest projects in Thailand next year. Golf courses resorts condos houses you name it. Chaam and Huahin are in different provinces but that is about to change and it will all become Thailands most popular resort for families unlike that sh!thole Pattaya where every would be gangster thinks he Al Capone. Only thing they got in common with him is syphilis lol ......there's a new express train opening from the Airport right to the centre of the new resort which is expected to be completed in 5 to 10 years

So my advice would be not to put all your eggs into one basket.....Buy a bit of land and sit on it no maintenance and only cost 500 baht a year for tax and will go up at least 5 fold in 10 years if recent history is anything to go by.. You'll probably make more off it than you will spend. Open some sort of small business to keep your interest up and then you can have a great life with very little worry loads of girls and sunshine and not have some ignorant young teenager asking you "what the fook are you looking at" but calling you handsome man or ATM if you are stupid enough to believe them......
 
Wolf said:
I know people who have retired early but nearly turned into alcoholics due to boredom. One guy ended up buying a guest house and last time I spoke to him he said he's doing more hours than he ever did in his previous job but loving it.

Would be my idea of Hell living somewhere like Thailand, but understand that others may love it, or love the idea of it.
Click to expand...

Yes. Mate of mine retired from HSBC on a big big pension at 53. He did used to try and sort of make out that he was happy with it all but frankly he was bored senseless. Not a drinker though

Went to a mates condo in Spain a few years back and there were a number of blokes (geezers i should say) who had "retired"early and were in the bar every night at the same time. Nice friendly blokes but they just sat there drinking san migeuls staring at the sports channel every bloody night. They were bored out of their minds.

Have a theory about this. Look at artists. They work until they drop and a very high proportion live very long lives. Keeping mind active is key. Others retire without a clue what to do and are then found decomposing in a bedsit at 66 with empty bottles of lidl vodka scattered all over the place

In HK you have loads of girls all over you in the bars. Its funny at first but does get tiresome. Thai ones look more like boys though. Not for me...

I would miss way too much about here to live in far east but each to own
 
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Thai ones look more like boys though.cheesy.gif Those are boys. Thai women are absolutely stunning, feminine and there are millions of them if you know where to look outside of bars.

BTW if you are talking about Wan Chai on Hong Kong island most of those bar girls come from the Philippines and Thailand. To meet Chinese bar girls you have to go to Tsim Sha Tsui but they have very little interest in anyone other than rich chinese men.

You talk about some guy who doesn't drink and ended up bored in Thailand and guys ending up in bedsits alone and decomposing......those people would end up there no matter what country they were in.

I have friends from OZ who come here time after time 3 have already moved here full time and have great lives. None has ever hinted at going back and another friend of theirs is also on his way in 2015

Where I am building my house is 2 hours from the nearest large town and there are 5 other foreigners already built houses there. One belongs to a swedish guy, it's 20 yds up the road from us...you can see his red roof on this old pic 8173.jpg.........in Udon Thani and Sakon Nakhon there are hundreds of expats happily married with kids living there..........I doubt if many are alcoholics or many are living alone but the chances they would be had they not moved here? who knows?............bored in Thailand? Sure!!!! if you are a boring old fart to start off with.


Anyway my tiles 3100 of them arrived to day and my girlfriend sent me the pics......10274.jpg lucky for the tilers it will be pretty cold by the time they start........December in some parts of Thailand can be damn cold in the mornings. about 15 or 16 c
 
Don't need that sh!it just yet....I think it's down to the fact I wasn't born until I was 22 which makes me in real terms ??@#??.................eh! hmmm! thinking...Sh1T that fooking mad cows decease fucked up my counting..you work it out :lol:
 
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I watched The Brighton Modern Mansion episode and thought it was a bit naff......the internal was very nice finished but the design was shocking. Column running up the centre of rooms could easily have been avoided with better planning but to each his own
 
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