Thai price on apartments in Khorat

[uncle tom]

My little lady is in nest building mode (first sprog due November..) and I'm looking to rent a small apartment to keep her happy, somewhere near her mother's house in Nakhon Ratchasima.

Can anyone give me a rough idea as to what this is likely to cost, and how the Thais normally do business when renting property to each other?

Cheers,

Tom

[Spitfire]

Depends where exactly you want one, if inside the city then you're looking at about 4-6k a month for an OK to decent one, includes security, car parking, air-con, some places even do 2 rooms for that price. Electricity will be about 6.5 baht a unit, water about 100 baht or so. Might also have to stump up 2 months rent in advance and a months rent as a deposit, but not all places ask for that. If the air-con is in use all night then you might get a electricity bill for 1500 baht a month.

If outside the main city then can be cheaper but you need to have some transport. Cost of living wise, I'd say somewhere like Korat (Nakhon Ratchasima) is probably about 50% of what it is in HH or somewhere like it, probably why there has been an explosion of foreigners moving to such places in the last few years, living by the beach has got more expensive due to the exchange rate adjustment.


There are of course cheaper Thai style places as there a thousands of students around too but guess you wouldn't be interested in that.

A lot of these apartments have drive through business people that are there for a night and don't want to pay hotel prices, so are OK and fairly comfortable.

To keep the average Thai woman happy, then close to her mother is good, plus near to an open air market for food etc or next to the big mall in the middle of town. Guess it depends where her mother resides and what the transport situation is around there.

If you get stuck then PM me and I will point you to a few good ones in the area/price range you want as am pretty familiar with that city from my wanderings.

[uncle tom]

Thanks for that Spitfire - her mum lives in Chainarong road, Muang Nakhon Ratchasima - but I've never been there in person..

I'd like her to be able to get everything she needs (and go to her mum's) without using a motorbike - I've seen how Thais transport their children! - so a market in walking distance and a handy bus stop would be my priorities.

Are Thai-spec rented apartments normally unfurnished?

Cheers,

Tom

[Spitfire]

OK UT, this is a good map site..................http://mappery.com/map-of/Korat-City-Map

You can scroll around and zoom in etc.

The road your lady's mother lives on is the eastern side of town as you look directly from above and about two blocks in from the main road in red that circles the city to the east. The main road, in thick red is Mittrapharb Rd from BBK to Korat that then branches north to Khon Kaen but also goes eastwards and then southwards onwards to Buri Ram whilst circling the city as a mini inner ring road.

There will be rent available places around there and should suite your requirements as it's fair central.

Most places of 4k a month and up should come with a bed, small TV, wardrobe and a few bits and pieces but nothing too fandango. I wouldn't bother with buying furniture until you are here and can supervise, she'll get enough from the apartment place to suffice for now.

There will be some places around there though, fairly close to the monument in the center of town, don't think you'll have too many dramas there and should be enough local transport to not need the bike stuff.

[fach3003]

Hi all

Been up there in Korat a few times since moving here
as the Missus was from there also...

Its much cheaper than here...and i enjoy going for
a couple days.....quite a busy city...
Theres a modern mall with a disnay style waterfall outside...
Cinema etc....

We stay in a cracking hotel for 450B...would be well over
1000B here easy...
Mind im just happy to hang round at her folks
Chill out few beers on an evening etc etc...

Her Sisters apartment is 4500 a month and its fine...
Her mothers place was 1200PM and reminded me my
grandads old wooden garage in the country......
Was clean enough mind...

He always come back with loads of shopping
veg , kitchen ware, kids clothes etc...
more than 50% less.....

Mind i love being we i am now!!!!

Hope it helps

Regards to all

Fach

[uncle tom]

Well, the little lady has found somewhere - 4000thb/month (+4000 deposit)

All I have to do is translate her text message of the address and try and work out where it is..

"Room 4** Pornthip Apartment 1522 Moo 1 Soi Benjarong Tombol Huatele City Muang Province Nakronratchasima 30000"

If anyone can work out where the commas go in that address and correct the spelling so that Google maps can understand it, I'd be very grateful!

Cheers,

Tom

[Spitfire]

To hazard a guess Uncle Tom, I reckon it should get commas as follows.....

Name,
Room 4** Pornthip Apartments,
1522 Moo 1 Soi Benjarong,
Tombon Hua Thale City,
Muang,
Nakron Ratchasima 30000



Spelling, I'd go with 'Tambon' rather than 'Tambol' and 'Hua Thale City' as opposed to 'Huatele City' for Google purposes. There are two spellings of the road 'Benjarong' and 'Benjareng' so try both as will get hits from both.

However, if you want to send her something by post/DHL etc then they are pretty good with spelling variants as there is no official English spellings for most Thai words, excluding the obvious, and will still get to where you want it to.

Google might struggle with giving you an accurate map as it's probably a small or average sized family owned apartment block.

Best bet is to ask your Mrs if it has a web site or email, might get an idea of where exactly it is.

Tambon Hua Thale is the bottom right area of the map, which I have roughly enclosed in a red square, and moves off to the right off the map too but I'm guessing the apartment is going to be located to the top center left area of the red square highlighted as that would be close to her mother's road. So, just south of the road you mentioned earlier on in the thread that her mother lives on probably.

The apartment block is probably not too far from a big hotel called 'The Hermitage Hotel' and you might want to get her to tell you where it is in relation to that place as that is easy to find on the maps.

I did try to Google the apartment block with correct spelling, but no joy, maybe Google maps will do better, don't know I'm afraid on that one.

Edit -Couple of typo direction errors.

[uncle tom]

Thanks spitfire - you're a star!

Have found the main street on Google now - they spell it 'Bencharong'

Do you think this is going to be on Bencharong Soi 1, or is it the first 'moo' of the main Soi Bencharong?

Cheers,

Tom

[Spitfire]

It's probably going to refer to the first 'Moo' on the main part of the road as this word usually refers to a village/hamlet or such like and these have often just been swallowed up by city expansion even if at one time it was one it's own. There are probably no real visible boundaries either to where 'Moo 1' is to where 'Moo 2' is as Korat is like Bangkok in the way it has grown in a haphazard and chaotic way due to the fact that they are old cities with no real planning having gone on previously.

[usual suspect]

At least when you go to see her from HH you can use the posh VIP bus from here...BTW when are you due back here?..Nov 6th??..ha-ha!

[uncle tom]

I'll be back earlier this year, as the baby is due on Nov. 27th..