Moving to Bangkok

[mcqueen]

Hello Ozzie,
excuse me, I would like to ask you, how much you are paying for your room/flat per month (including everything, water and electricity)? You place and it's location sound very good to me.
Thank you for any help!
Best wishes Mcqueen

[Guest]

(mcqueen @ Jun. 11 2007,09:19) Hello Ozzie,
excuse me, I would like to ask you, how much you are paying for your room/flat per month (including everything, water and electricity)? You place and it's location sound very good to me.
Thank you for any help!
Best wishes   Mcqueen

Sorry mate I would prefer to keep details about how much I pay for rent to myself.

However very easy to find out for yourself what rentals are like by checking out some websites.

I pay 2.5 baht per unit electric which is a great deal because most places are 5 or more. So I end up with about 2K baht per month electric. About 1200 baht for internet and UBC is included in the cost of my rent.

[Road Runner]

Herself own's her apartment so no rent.

Electricity;-  is about 900 - 2000 Baht/month depending how much she uses the airconditioning.
She gets charged direct for this by the electricity company so there is no loading by the building management company.
As Ozzie says this is quite common and can be a big extra on what you pay!

Water;-  there is a monthly charge of 38 Baht and the total is usually round about 200 Baht which she pays to the building management.
I do remember in a previous apartment the water charges averaged about 600/month  -  so again do check as the rates vary greatly.

As Ozzie says do a Goggle search 'apartments bangkok' and you will get a good idea of rental charges.
Managed apartments (those with maid service included) average about double the rate for normal rental.

Sometimes there is a service charge which pays for the building security and maintenance. This may be included in the stated rental or sometimes it's an extra.
Typically this wil be around 20 Baht/square meter  -  say 1500 Baht/month on a 1-2 bed apartment.


RR.

[mardhi]

The key is to do your homework and not be rushed into anything. You can find good studios in nice privately owned condo buildings for around 12-18k month bang in the centre of the action. Important things to look out for as others have said is how extras are charged - if you get bills direct from the supplier - they are way cheaper than having the billing done through the management company as others have said.

The best way, is go and look around the area you are thinking of and be prepared to do a lot of walking and going into receptions and asking if any owners want to rent places out. The reception staff normally know or otherwise there is a notice board. Real Estate agents are not so interested in this relatively low level of commission earning but some are.

Cheers
Mardhi

[Guest]

OK well here are a few of my costs from last month.

Internet - 1230
Electric - 2586
Water- 153
Condo Fee - 660
UBC - 1568 (turns out I was wrong this was not included)

Today my lunch cost me 50 baht I bought noodle soup and khao pad gung. Just drinking a san miguel lite from tops supermarket 30 baht.

Cheers,

[Stewart]

This is great stuff guys - very helpful

[Snick]

As Mardhi say it requires a lot of leg work to get a good place, but they are definitely there. The most visible places are the most expensive - the serviced apartment aimed at expats with an expense account.

[mcqueen]

To all the kind gentlemen above:
Thank you very much for supplying all that useful information and for sharing your valuable experiences.
Excuse me Ozzie, but what does UBC mean? (I'm not a native English speaker).
Do some of the receptionists in the appartment buildings speak English? My Thai is a bit, ahem, limited.
Thank you again for all your help and if I see you at the Guess bar, I will buy you a drink. Just look out for a mid-thirties, tall geezer, with no hair on his head anymore, in mid August and September.
Cheers!

[Snick]

UBC is for Television, they are the local dish satellite provider - if you want English (or Japanese) TV you have to get UBC.

http://www.truevisionstv.com/eng/news_truevisions1.aspx

( Looks like they just changed the name, but everyone still calls them UBC )

[Road Runner]

Hello McQueen,

UBC is a satellite TV service.  Thai TV is s@#t in my opinion !!!!    

For UBC you pay different rates depending on the package.
Also to be able to get it your building will have to have the dishes on the roof to pick up the signal and enough feeds for each appartment.

Personally I don't rate it that much but I am very choosy about what I watch  

I cannot guarantee that any of the staff in your building will speak English.   Many in the management staff will speak some but the standard of English teaching in Thailand is not good.

Sign language is universal  

RR.

[mcqueen]

Speaking of quick replies....-
Thank you again, gentlemen!

[divertwo]

...great info from those that live in LOS.....thanks.......

[Guest]

Thanks for the suggestion of this reading......got some good info.

With regards to cable TV......is it available where I could get any decent US stations? The thought of Thai videos all winter is a depressing thought. Plus, I would like to see an occasional N.E. Patriots football game.....maybe that's wishful thinking though.

Nhscotsman

[thaimeup]

Most people get satellite TV from UBC ( small Dish like DirectTV in USA ), they offer multiple tiers of programming.
The channel selection ranges from bad to 'ok'
You get HBO and Cinemax, but the Asia variety which shows a lot of old crap movies too. For TV shows their is 'Star' and other channels - at best they are 6 months behind USA in shows like Lost, Heroes, etc...; for news you get CNN, BBC , CNBC and Bloomberg (and fortunately YOU DO NOT GET FOX !!!)

For my TV fix I really on bittorrent and download shows a few days after they air in USA.

[stogie bear]

For my TV fix I really on bittorrent and download shows...

Me too. NFL football I can stream live through my computer and most other stuff I download.

UBC is a nightmare - crap TV, B movies and nothing I want to see.