Udon Condominiums

[rct]

Perhaps I can help with Khondam's question, as I went back on Sunday morning which was much more calm albeit still busy. CP wants to sell the lion's share of the first side "B" of the U shaped building, before they launch any selling of the second side "A" (of the U) at slightly higher prices per square meter, eg works out about 50,000 baht per unit higher. What almost sold out thus far is the "shady side" of the first building which faces the swimming pool, however the back sunny side facing westerly is mostly unbooked.

This is what was explained to me, as they realize the sunny side of building B - facing out to the west, will be the hardest to sell.

[parrot]

KD, I'll stop by and clarify when I go to class this afternoon.

[fatbob]

So if the 'studio' is 32 sq met and you have a bathroom of 2met X 2met that leaves a main room of 5met X 5.5met, mmmm are we talking 'condo' here or good advertising, reminds me of 'Ho' accommodation in Patong, wonder how it looks in ten years time when 80% of the Thai owners don't pay the maintenance fee's and the building starts to deteriorate and go black with mould and peeling paint, all the ground floor rooms become shop houses....that is how every similar development as ended up looking in Phuket after a few years and Udon won't be different, I think I'll have my own property that I can control directly.

[rct]

Coxo, what are you talking about, main room 5 x 5.5? At this project, the area is divided between a main room and a separate bedroom, with a wall and door in between! Aircon provided in the bedroom only.

Reminds me however that I often used to stay at Asahi Homes Court Annexe Roppongi, a weekly mansion in Tokyo, very well fitted out and comfy, example studio is 22 square meters including the bathroom! About $1000 per week at today's exchange rate.

http://www.asahihomes.co.jp/e-roomplan/939

In many densely populated areas of the world where land cost is high, a lot of people must live in rather small spaces. Imagine Mumbai, Delhi, etc. Though some may say that is the point, they would not want to live in such a place if they can afford a better choice.

[fatbob]

32 square metres gives you those room sizes, what are you talking about?

[rct]

No, at this project, it gives you TWO ROOMS,
each room literally about half the size that you wrote!
Based on their plan.
So even worse than what you imagined!

Obviously you could choose to make it one bigger room.
Basically I was agreeing with you dear sir, let me know if you see the logic, just put another way.

[Aardvark]

So we're talking "Prison Cell" size here ??

[rct]

I accidentally hit the FBI button, and a condo page came up, some of these at Skyland sound bigger....

http://www.udonrealestate.com/condosale.asp

Delete if I am not allowed to post here.

[parrot]

The problem with skyland is it's a failed shopping center redone into condos. Zero surrounding green space although that's not what the photos show. A carpark with an insane ramp. And I suspect zero condo management experience. I'll update the cps project tonight, but right now I'm in the middle of an insanely delicious piece of white chocolate cheesecakes and cappucino at le space.......then off to Thai class.

[KHONDAHM]

Does anyone know where to get "reliable" census data for Udon city and province? I'd like to do some fuzzy-math projections regarding the condo market.

[BobHelm]

Not sure how much detail it goes into but I would have thought that here would be the best place to look..

http://web.nso.go.th/

[fatbob]

Hey KD, when calculating make sure you take into account the lifespan of a building, no point in becoming the owner of 36 million bahts worth of real estate as the demolishers ball reduces it to a pile of rubble years down the track!

[parrot]

More info on the CP Condo project

Phase A is on sale at this time. Phase B will be on sale in ?December?

Construction for both phases will begin/end at the same time.

There are quite a few units in Phase A still on offer......a good many on the western side....but don't know if that's a sun issue or a fengshui issue........or possibly a view issue.

The 2 buildings will form a U shape, with the open part of the U furthest from Srichomcheun Rd.

Owners will have cards to operate the entry gates.

Buyers receive a free iPhone 5.

6 total elevators, 3 in each phase.

2 units in Phase A went/go for 701,600 (25.90 sq m). The rest go for 1,084,000 up to 1,593,600. Phase A has a 51.09 sq meter shop at 2,234,600 Baht.

As CP operates a similar style condo unit in Khonkaen, it might be worthwhile to see how well it's maintained or go yak with some of the inhabitants.

The asking price for Phase A's 264 units is 389,774,000.

[KHONDAHM]

Owners will have cards to operate the entry gates.
Translation: The gates will be left open at all times.

Buyers receive a free iPhone 5.
Translation: If you don't want the "free" iPhone 5 (16 GB, to be delivered in 3-4 months), you can opt for an additional THB 20k discount.

6 total elevators, 3 in each phase.
Translation: 1 in each building will be broken within a year, 1 in each building will be turned off to save electricity and turned on only for moving in/out, leaving 250 residents and their guests with the use of 1 elevator serving 12 floors...

I am noting that their first condo across from the museum sold out in 1 day. This one is taking a bit longer. The next probably longer still...sounds like we shall soon see what the demand-side limit will be.

www.condokp.com

I am also noting there are no actual pics of previous projects on that site. Perhaps a trip to KK would indeed be prudent...

[KHONDAHM]

Indeed, it looks like they are promoting 5 projects in total. This would imply they have the management, labor, and other resources to build them all simultaneously over the the next 2 years? That seems a stretch, doesn't it?

There are some actual pics if you dig into the site, but just people standing in front of a property fence. If anyone has contacts who could do a drive-by of these other KK projects and could get some pics up for the board, that would be great. I'll call a niece I have down there, but I am not sure if she will follow-through.

[rct]

2 units in Phase A went/go for 701,600 (25.90 sq m).

This is a clever way to then advertise all over town

"Units from 701,600 baht"
rather than
"Units from 1 million baht up"
which is the reality for 99.7% of the units in the project, or something close to that percentage.

[KHONDAHM]

So, I asked the wife about this company and she tells me they are reputable. Allegedly, they did many things in BKK and CP Condo is just one of many interrelated companies in their organization.

Still, being the cynic: "Where's the beef?"

You'd think such an organization might have someone who can update pictures on the Progress page they have there for each project? Venturing into the conspiracy realm: Slap up a website with a bunch of renderings, lease some land in KK, clear it and put a fence up, accept deposits at 30k per unit x 500 units x 3 projects = THB 15M, rinse and repeat at the next town...then OOPs! GOTTA GO, GOTTA GO! I'm not exactly there, yet, but I sure would be more comfortable if the KK projects are well underway...

(For our non-American board members, that's a catch phrase spawned from a series of extremely popular 1980's commercials which basically begs to always challenge hype)

[KHONDAHM]

Wife did some sleuthing and found out from someone (a guard supervisor, I think) on-site at the project across the museum that they have teams specializing in this or that who build the condos assembly-line style, except the condos are stationary (duh, obviously), so the teams move around in turn. Makes sense (*gasp*!) - unlike some of the typical buildings I'd witnessed going up where the whole shebang is built by a single large gang of workers.

[tataw]

If anyone is thinking of purchasing a condo maybe they should read this story

http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket-pro ... laws/63101