Pattaya Property and Thailand’s Real Estate is a slim book that was sent directly to the Pattaya Mail for review. Written by Nick Pendrell (ISBN 978-0-9561448-4-3, Informer Books, 2012), the book is designed to assist the reader buy Thai condominiums, homes and villas. As many different factors abound for the different types of dwelling, this has been a large project for author Pendrell.
His interest in the real estate market began in Latvia, but his first foray into putting his knowledge came in 2007 in Egypt, where he had his own RE office. Seeing the hieroglyphs on the wall, he left Egypt before they blew the place up and so he discovered Pattaya and its booming RE market. Pendrell believes that prices here are not going to stay at their present level, so the time to buy is now. Moving here earlier in 2012, he has been researching and advising “buyers to find their dream home in the sun.”
In the first few chapters he gives general advice, of the style we were all given at the closest bar, such as visas, the 49 percent maximum holding by a farang in a Thai company and even how much money is needed for a foreigner to live here. And how to open a Thai bank account, about which there is much folklore but little fact. Author Pendrell does accurately describe the niceties and logistics, even to the point that if one branch of Bank A is not helpful, another branch of the same bank may be quite the opposite.
Finally, he compares various developments between Naklua and Jomtien and Bang Saray and even East Pattaya as a distinct entity and is not afraid to give his personal recommendation.
As his final piece of information (and a very helpful one), he has created a table in Excel format to crunch the numbers when you are looking at various developments. The calculator can be downloaded for free by using the link printed in the book.
At B. 599 it is not over the top, and the advice is sensible, though I did feel that he was not giving unbiased advice when the company he was recommending for legal advice was also mentioned in the acknowledgments at the front of the book. But then again, ‘transparency’ has never been one of Thailand’s long suits! However, he does come out in the open and touts for the reader’s business at the back of the book. If you have been looking at property in Pattaya you will also have noticed that Pattaya is more than well served in RE developers, RE agents and sales personnel, some as employees and many others freelance. Buying off the plan is pushed by the developers, and some folk have done well out of this. But others have had their fingers burned. In RE probably more than anything else, the old adage “Caveat Emptor” (let the buyer beware) should not be forgotten under any circumstance. If the Pattaya Property and Thailand’s Real Estate book has made you become very careful, then it has done its job!
