Why so many gated estates with private security in Hua Hin?

[Baz2512]

Just wanting to say hello, I have holidayed 3 times in Hua Hin and we are seriously thinking about buying a bungalow.

The one question I have is about security, why are there so many gated estates with private security?

Is there a hidden crime issue?

[Title edited to reflect content, topic moved to appropriate section]

[Frank Hovis]

Mostly, gated communities come about because the 'community' is built by a developer/company who buys 10 or 20 rai of land and builds X number of houses on it, the walls are there to delineate the property boundary of the whole plot, while individual houses often have walls of their own as delineation.
Security men at the front gate are cheap so why not have them (and it looks a bit more posh!).

Welcome to the forum.

I edited this to add - Quite a lot of houses are left empty for most of the year, people buy them as holiday homes, so I guess the gated community type thing may well be a deterrent to burglaries of empty properties.

[Baz2512]

Thanks for taking the time to reply

[brianks]

I am a bit surprised at the reply's so far. We live in a guarded development. My wife is Thai and we do not leave our house without locking up every window and door. There are Thai's who will steal anything and if they see a chance to get something they can make money on they will go to great lengths to get it. I was surprised to hear that they even cut the glass out of solid, fixed windows in order to gain entrance. Just keep reading about theft problems in the forum and you may get the idea. Better to have a guard at the entrance who can also periodically walk the project to check things out. Our guard has told us that packs a gun too.

[Dannie Boy]

I am a bit surprised at the reply's so far. We live in a guarded development. My wife is Thai and we do not leave our house without locking up every window and door. There are Thai's who will steal anything and if they see a chance to get something they can make money on they will go to great lengths to get it. I was surprised to hear that they even cut the glass out of solid, fixed windows in order to gain entrance. Just keep reading about theft problems in the forum and you may get the idea. Better to have a guard at the entrance who can also periodically walk the project to check things out. Our guard has told us that packs a gun too.

Your reference about Thais will steal anything if you give them a chance applies to most countries. I don't have comparison statistics, but I'm sure house burglaries in the UK will be as bad if not worse than in Thailand. I would never dream of leaving my home in the UK without making sure the windows and doors are locked, the same as i do here.

[Frank Hovis]

Brianks, I wasn't suggesting that there is no petty thievery here, nor would I expect anyone, in a gated community or not, to leave their house unattended and unlocked. I was simply stating the reason there appear to be to many gated communities isn't because there is a high household crime rate but it's the way developers tend to build groups of houses.

To reply to the OP's second point 'Is there a hidden crime issue' I would reply no, there are no doubt thieves about but that is to be expected in any country but I'd say it's not as prevalent as in the UK, you should remember that many Thai people have hand guns and shooting an intruder in your own house is still seen as self defence here, being a house robber is a much more dangerous career here than in the UK.

[poosmate]

many Thai people have hand guns and shooting an intruder in your own house is still seen as self defence here, being a house robber is a much more dangerous career here than in the UK.

One reason that they would maybe choose to rob a non Thai household

[STEVE G]

Our house is not on a development and we've had no problem with security but my Thai partner keeps closely in touch with the local community in the surrounding area which seems to be the Thai way of keeping secure.
As mentioned above, robbing houses in parts of Asia can be far more hazardous than in the West, I used to live in Jakarta and it was common to read in the newspapers about burglars being killed by residents and there weren't many guns there, they would just get mobbed to death in the streets if they got caught and the police turned a blind eye to it.

[StevePIraq]

Our house is not on a development and we've had no problem with security but my Thai partner keeps closely in touch with the local community in the surrounding area which seems to be the Thai way of keeping secure.
As mentioned above, robbing houses in parts of Asia can be far more hazardous than in the West, I used to live in Jakarta and it was common to read in the newspapers about burglars being killed by residents and there weren't many guns there, they would just get mobbed to death in the streets if they got caught and the police turned a blind eye to it.

Best justice is swift justice,

[hhfarang]

I've been trying to stay out of anything controversial but I have to weigh in on this one. I have had friends/acquaintances in three different gated, guarded communities where several homes have been burgled. In every case, after investigation, it turned out that the gate or roving guards were implicated in the burglaries as they know who is home and which houses are empty for how long.

I have been living in a non community home for nearly nine years with no problems while many homes in the guarded gated communities that I can throw a rock into from my garden have had multiple burglaries.

In my opinion you are better off outside a guarded community as long as you use lighting, alarms, and possibly dogs to alert you to intruders.... and never leave your home without securing all windows and doors and turning on the alarm (I have one with a phone dialer that calls me in case it is tripped when I'm not home, never happened, but I recommend it). I've known of people who went out to walk their dog for ten minutes and got robbed while they were gone.

[Ralfredo]

The one question I have is about security, why are there so many gated estates with private security?

The guards are there to salute you when you arrive or leave. It's also nice to have them when you find an unknown scary snake in your garden...

[dtaai-maai]

The one question I have is about security, why are there so many gated estates with private security?

The guards are there to salute you when you arrive or leave. It's also nice to have them when you find an unknown scary snake in your garden...

I agree. And you should never rely on them to direct you out of the gate onto the road. Always double check! At least ours haven't been issued with a whistle...

[Takiap]

I am a bit surprised at the reply's so far. We live in a guarded development. My wife is Thai and we do not leave our house without locking up every window and door. There are Thai's who will steal anything and if they see a chance to get something they can make money on they will go to great lengths to get it. I was surprised to hear that they even cut the glass out of solid, fixed windows in order to gain entrance. Just keep reading about theft problems in the forum and you may get the idea. Better to have a guard at the entrance who can also periodically walk the project to check things out. Our guard has told us that packs a gun too.

To be perfectly honest, I am very surprised by your reply, and can only assume you spend most of your time in LaLa Land or something. In my time here in Thailand, starting from 1997, I have found that the average Thai is very decent and honest.

My wife is also Thai, and if she could, she would lock her shoes on her feet. Thais, in general, tend to be extremely paranoid people, which is why they are so insistent on locking everything. We have been live in Hua-Hin since 2004 and in all that time, I have never ever bothered locking our doors when I leave the house, and no, our home has never been broken in to. We don't have high walls; we don't have burglar bars on our windows, and neither do we have alarms; cameras, intercontinental ballistic missiles; smart bombs and etc. We do have dogs (Dalmatian & Rottweiler) but even they were bought as pets rather than for security.

As another poster has mentioned, most burglaries seem to take place inside the gated communities. Those high walls and the lack of people walking about are just perfect for burglars. They can scale the wall anywhere on the developments, and once they've done that, they can proceed at leisure.

In a nutshell, if you flaunt your wealth, then obviously you'll be a more appealing target for thieves, but Thailand is DEFINITELY NOT any worse than any other country. I have only been a victim once, and that was when I was living in Scotland, and had come over here for three weeks. I returned to Scotland to find my home was completely empty, and I mean "completely" empty. I certainly wouldn't turn around now and say the Scottish will steel everything from you if they can, including your underwear, so to tar all Thais with the same brush is a tad unfair.

OP, the first reply in this thread is the most accurate.

[margaretcarnes]

Gated communities look flash and add to the price of the properties. Developers seem to think that is what farang buyers want.
Overall there is probably no difference in the crime rate on properties than anywhere else, although I doubt any stats are kept in HH on property crimes - and would be pleased to be proved wrong on that.
Yes - there have been, and probably still are - spates of burglaries which are usually attributed to migrant workers from Issan etc, who are working on the very building sites which are making HH a desirable place to live. So in some ways it's a no win situation.
But I still think the best deterrent to crime is to have a friendly Soi dog on your side. And - like anywhere else - to get to know the neighbours.

[Big Boy]

My personal opinion is that Gated Communities do very little more than provide a revenue income for the developer after the construction work has completed.

When we arrived in Hua Hin, we were taken to many different properties, including some in Gated Communities (even though we had always stated if it's in a gated community we were not interested). Once we were there, we always listened with interest. There was one very large development where they wanted the first year's maintenance (is that the right word?) money up front with the deposit. This amounted to just under £4K. What would we get for our £4K? Waste collection and a clean road plus security - didn't seem to be very much else that we wanted. Waste collection is now included in our < 60Baht a month water bill, and my wife is capable of sweeping the road outside of our house. So if we take 240 Baht per annum as being generous to pay for waste removal that leaves a lot of cash to pay for security x every house on the development. Maybe I'm missing something major, but it seems to be a nice little earner to me.

I do not feel any less secure not living in a gated development.