Thailand and Phuket in particular is a fantastic place to live and a wonderful holiday destination.
We have found that some of our guests are actively looking to invest in property in Phuket and have therefore decided to create this Real Estate Buyer Agent Service .
In short: We will be your representative for property purchase in Phuket and will on your behalf scout candidate properties, view them (video and photo tour) and present those that fit your criteria to you for consideration. When you find the right property, we will negotiate price and terms on your behalf so you get the best deal possible.
Why? Because most if not all agents have their portfolio of properties they want to sell to obtain commission from the seller, and they are therefore biased to show you only properties they can make a profit on. We never work as a seller agent and are your unbiased advisor.
Phuket real estate market – Buyer Beware!
If you are looking for a holiday home, rental unit or relocation to Phuket for yourself, there are a number of “problems” you will face that makes it more difficult:
- The market is NOT transparent.
- There is no MLS or other authoritative website that shows all properties for sale or previous sales prices or public valuation
- Seller Agents typically do NOT get exclusivity. This means that the SAME property can be listed on 10 different agent sites, with different pictures, prices and descriptions.
- For the same reason, you will rarely get the exact location of a property on their website and only realize the real location on actual viewing.
- A property can be sold with agents knowing it = even if listed, it might no longer be available
- Real Estate agents are getting a percentage commission from the seller. The higher the price they can get, the higher the commission. Also newly build projects typically give higher commission than resale properties, so agents focus on these.
- Price for a property can be compared to the cost of buying the land and building yourself.
- Construction costs: If you want to build western style houses with a Pool, then expect a building cost of 35-45.000 baht per m2 build-up area (depending on selection of materials).
- Land costs: Differs based on the area and location. Cheapest we currently know about in Phuket is 6-8 million baht per rai in Thalang area with Laguna / Bangtao and Patong 3x-10x this price
- Renovation costs are relatively low in Thailand, so do not be afraid of purchasing a property that needs attention (as long as the price reflect this). We can assist with good and reliable builders for the renovation.
- Location matters more than you think. Phuket island is 49 km long and 21 km wide – so everything is relatively close. But due to mountains, bays and the infrastructure the prices wary significantly. As an example (november 2024): A 2-bedroom apartment in good project with communial pool:
- Mai Khao, Thalang: 1,3-1,8 million bath
- Kathu: 3 million baht
- Patong: 5 million bath
- Size:
- Size matters. In general the bigger the build-up area, the less the m2-price (for same location and quality)
- In Thailand it is normal to include the build-up area in the size. This includes terraces, carport, garages, pool and other outdoor areas that is not planted
- Land sizes in Thailand is based on square meter. The naming system is:
- 1 Wah = 4m2.
- 1 Ngan = 100 Wah = 400m2
- 1 Rai = 4 Ngan (1600m2)
- Typical land sizes for a 2-3 bedroom in southern parts of Phuket is 300-500 m2 and more North is it 0,5 rai (800m2) to 1 rai.
- View matters: Premium to price goes from
- crazy (absolute beachfront) over
- very high (panoramic seaview) to
- high (seaview) to
- medium (open mountain views) to
- None (no view)
- Foreigners are not allowed to own land in Thailand. If you are looking for a detached house, this poses some challenges. Typical solutions are:
- Buy the house and lease the land. Now Thailand accepts 30 + 30 year agreements, and a new law allowing 99 years are in the pipeline. Leasing is not straight forward
- Establish a Thai limited company with majority Thai shareholders that own the land (and house), and lease it from that company. This requires minimum 2 Thai nationals and a lot of trust and paperwork
- Foreigners can own houses (without land) and condos as foreign freehold, if the majority of units are owned by Thai Nationals or a Thai Company. Those units are typically priced higher than the Thai freehold condos in same project / building.
- Most projects and condos have a monthly maintenance fee and extra fee for water and electric that is determined by the juristic person (community). This maintenance fee can be substantial and price for water and electric can be 2x – 10x the price if supplied from the public electric / water companies. Worse: Owners can have little control over prices.
Buyer Agent – how it works
You pay us a non-refundable retainer and answer our questionaire about your dream property, budget and timeline and we then do an intake interview with you.
We then go to work to hunt down the right property for you. When we find any property that we believe fit the bill, we will do a video walk-through and send you all the details.
The retainer covers
- Detailed information about the Thai property laws, taxes, payments etc that apply to you
- Our services to scout for and FIND the right property for you*
- NEGOTIATE the price and terms on your behalf (we guarantee that you will get a discount that pays the retainer, which means our service is effectively free)
* The purpose of the non-refundable retainer is to work only for serious buyers that want to commit within 12 months. We will keep scouting for properties for you until we have presented you at least 6 properties that fit your criteria.
When the right property is found, we can – for normal fees – assist with making a purchase contract, check titles / community rules / lease agreements etc and assist in setting up the right structure etc.
Depending on the property and location, We also offer Rental Management, Maintenance Services and even a Relocation Package so you have a one-stop turnkey solution for relocation to Thailand or obtaining a profitable holiday home.