Doing Business in Thailand

Buying a land and house in Thailand is a dream that many of you wants to fulfill with reason. Now you have bought your property within a land development project and think you are home free. But are you really? One of the thing that small developers and buyers tend to underestimate is the real costs of management of small housing projects which is often higher than expected and will result later on in disputes with the buyers that do not want to pay the management bills because they are more expensive than expected.

Now how much does it really cost to run a housing project? It is an expensive endeavor especially if you want to maintain a good quality of services because you will need security guards, a handy man and a manager. Then you will need a budget for tools and products to maintain the common area gardens and swimming pools. If a project wants to be well managed those expenses will have to be made.

We have for 6 years handled the accounting for a small high end housing project in Bangkok. While the management was trying to save costs, the fact is that in order to maintain a good quality of services within the project, the management despite its best efforts was never able to go below a yearly budget of 2,900,000 THB per year or 241,000 THB per month. As they were only 12 units within the project each owner has to pay 20,000 THB of monthly fees to the juristic person. At the time I was living in a 120 unit’s condominium project and our budget was basically the same and I was paying 30,000 THB of common area management fees per year.

That is the problem, living in a small housing project is certainly nice but it will come with a price tag attached. Therefore, if you are living in such a project do not be surprised if the cost of management is higher than you expected. Instead to refuse to paid your bills try to get actively involved into the management of the property and to see what can be done to reduce the costs. A proactive attitude is more into your interest than a dirty fight with the developer and the management people.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any question in relation to this matter

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2. Starting a Business: Cost of Doing Business in Thailand