Rayong is better than Hua Hin

Hua Hin has become a very commercial city whereby lots of tourists are there thus prices has gone up.  Properties prices have risen too.  Rayong is a much better place when compare to Hua Hin as its less tourists, more local, much quieter and beach is better too.

Hi, I liked your post as I am also a new member looking to buy a house around the area you like to vacation in (Rayong).  I like it as I don't run into lots of people like me all over the place and it is real thai living!!   I love the "Leo DeCaprio) (sorry spelling is wrong)!!  Also other small places around this area.
Eating is good and cheap!  My small concern or large depending on how you see it, is whether to rent for awhile before buying.  I have already located a great house that I like a lot and is 1/2
the price of a USA house even in our depressed market.  I have a really good Thai friend who who showed me this area as this is where she wants to live and retire to--but any thoughts about renting first vs buying, please let me know.

But I too believe in your area!!

Balina

Hi

If you already better like this place would I look for buying. Rent is good but never like its own home. Where you can add all your personal things. I have now rent for the last 4 years and if I had the money would I have bought already. My plan is to buy my own piece of land inside a resort. The resort offer best security and maintenance. It is difficult to find people to take care of your house or apartment.

When I finish my work here will I go to Rayong or Bangkok. Bangkok also because of the price level and work but not a nice place as Rayong.

Rayong is also changing a lot and in the last 12 month has renting go up by 100 %. It might sooner or later affect the price. I just hope it never ends up like Phuket or Hua Hin.
Another reason for buying in a resort is also you often can get buy back guarantee. It means for some reason if you have to move can you any time sell the house without losing any money.
I know a resort is a lot higher price than just a local house bought of a Thai developer. But my “investment” is more safe and buying house is a big investment for me.

Thank you for you advice regarding buying into a resort area and the advantages.  The house I am thinking of buying is a Thai developer and not a resort property but it is  a close together house to house setup with a variety of housing pricing from expensive to mid to lower and different styles, not all alike.
The one I am thinking of is is in the lower, so the advantage is hopefully it will not go lower because of the other more expensive homes.  And hopefully if someone is going to rob this area I don't think they would start with my house.  But you did give me food for thought.  I don't like the close to close as much but find at my age (59) having already raised children and lived and taken care of big homes and gardens, little garden area and 1500 sq feet not so bad.  Thanking you for your post and thoughts.

There is one question I do need to ask or you can redirect me to the right area.  There is in the USA a home inspection outfit that you can hire to inspect the house.  Even though this is a new house, there is a large tile outside lifted out with a pipe underneath.  Why?  My intelligence says a problem of some kind.
Guess would be this pipe, whatever it handles, (looks like a large
8" pipe) does not handle what it is supposed to so someone lifted the cemented tile block up to let it drain out easier than having it flow into the house.  Is there someone I can hire to look at this before purchasing? or something similar to USA that is a home inspection?  Thank you.
Balina

Please check the Thai laws first before buying a house as Foreigners are not allowed to buy house with land.  They are allowed to buy apartments and only those that are legally approved.  The cheap apartments are for the Thais.  Consult a lawyer first before jumping into it as you are putting lots on money.  Those foreigners who buy houses are actually buying long term lease like 20 or 25 years.

There are many in Phuket, Hua Hin and down south as many Swedish buy long term lease for the house for retirement.

Those foreigners who buy the houses are through proxy and can you trust the person for it?

According to buy property do you call it leasehold and freehold. Freehold do you use in condominiums. 49 % of the property can be sold as freehold to foreigners.

If you choose to buy a house is it only the land people not can own but the house can be bought directly as a condominium.

To own the land can be a lease hold 30+30+30. It means you can lease the land up to 90 years. Who live 90 years? I will say who own a house for 30 years?

If you have a thai wife is it easy. Let her own the land. You can also make a company and let the company own the house, so it is quite easy to own the land and the house.

To buy the land through a thai, as your wife might be the easiest solution according to a thai developer but leasehold is also a very safe model.

I am currently living in Chiang Mai. I am getting really bored.  I am not the kind of guy who likes bars, drinking, or expensive. 

I was wondering about Rayong, would like some photos and concepts on living there. I don't want to give large deposits, as Thai's don't refund deposits, and don't want to here "I'm not like them," as I have been ripped off by nearly 90+ percent of people who say that.  One landlord in Pai was great, but she took yabba for chinese new year, her brain "closed the door" and I never got my deposit back and a great many other problems.  Paying in advance is NOT thai culture and money is not refunded.

I like paying month to month and living if/when the thai break the contract.


I am also single, and would like to find a place with the possibility of meeting a nice woman, (moderated: comments maybe offensive)

Any positive feed back, please write.

I can understand.  I don't drink and cannot do an expensive style of living.  So as an expat I do not want to get into an expat scene where the aforementioned is the style of living.  But moving around when you want to, I think, is a good asset.  It lets you experience different parts of a country and different communities or lets you experience different countries. 

I would recommend you take some time and go looking down around the small fishing villages in that area if you like the water and fish and like a thai community.  It is certainly much more humid and hotter than where you are now and I don't know the area all that well.  Only the coastal area.  It is a big area.

If that is not your scene since your in Chiang Mai (the north), did you ever think of Luang Prabang in Laos.  There is a nice expat scene there that is not into drinking and expensive!  And it is a lovely area. 

Sorry I can't offer more info on this area, maybe someone else can.

Balina

I would appreciate information about Luang Prabang. 

1. Places of quality to stay:  with costs for short term and long term.

2. Medical care comments and expense.

3.  Medicine availability and expense.

4.  Activities if you are not into sitting in a bar.

5.  Are most expat males single or attached?

6.  Ages in Laos

7.  Ration of expat males to expat females.

8.  Length of stay, do you need to leave the country, visa information.

I am getting ready to vacate Thailand and considering returning to the USA. For now, I would like some information about Luang Prabang and Vientienne, and any place people can give me concrete data.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated kindness.

@easyrent_asia YUP. I couldn't agree with you more. Rayong is one of the last mainland hidden gems in Thailand (go a little further into Trat close to the Cambodian border, and it's even cooler).

Hua Hin is far, far from my favorite places in Thailand. And the love of the locale by middle income and wealthy Thais makes everything expensive.

And the beach is not good (relatively speaking, for Thailand)

IMO Hua Hin is an aged decrepid ***hole.  It is a weekend 'getaway' for Thais in Bangkok and like all tourist towns it is a massive ripoff - everything.  There are lots of great resorts on the coast that the well off Thais stay in and look at the ocean and swim in the pool, but there is not a lot of places to live well for Expats within the local Thais.  The public beach areas are all dirty, and being an Australian I know what a real beach is and that aint a real beach - that is more like a sandy shore on a lake - and the water is dirty (grey sand).  That the old King has a palace there and used to visit has been abused over the decades by local Thais and developers. Whta was probably once a charming local fishing village with beaches, aint that anymore.  We stayed once in the hotel where the King stayed when first visiting the area - a massively over-priced run-down old-school heap of **** from the 70s/80s.   We have visited there a few times and we once stayed for several weeks - couldn't wait to leave - never going back.

Rayong Province (well past Rayong City) is nice and there are lots of good places to live - but it is very remote from most of the services that older Expats need - especially golf courses   There are a few very nice resorts down that way - great places to stay. Not sure about Expats living there though - we did not see many Expats when we were visiting there - that may be a good thing to some.