Thursday 22 August 2013

Flat hunting in Bangkok

Once we arrived in the sprawling concrete chaos that we now call home, our first priority was to find somewhere to live. My lovely wife's employers had arranged for us to stay in a hotel - oddly they'd elected to put us up in the heart of Nana, one of Bangkok's least salubrious and most sleazy neighbourhoods - but we needed something more permanent. We'd been scanning the various internet ads for weeks to get an idea of what was available, and ended up with the impression that something odd was going on. The same apartments and condos kept appearing, week after week, seemingly staying on the market for months on end. Being used to London's cut-throat letting market, this seemed very strange. Our last London flat was on the market for one day - we were the first people to view it, and we called the agency to snap it up the moment we left, knowing from experience that it would be gone within a day or two. The only explanation we could see was that these properties were not actually available, but simply posted as bait ads to get you to call a particular letting agent.

This left us a little worried. What properties would actually be available? Would there be anything suitable in our price range? This concern was compounded by the expat cat - very few places seemed willing to take a pet. Still, we needed to find somewhere, and so we contacted a few agents and let them know what we were after.

The results came as a surprise - we needn't have worried. The rental market here is very different to what we were used to in London. The first agent we met said he knew of a place that would be ideal for us, and so we met him and took a taxi to the building. On arrival, he walked up to the office and asked if they had a one-bedroom apartment available. At this point, I started to become a little concerned. It seemed like this guy didn't know whether there was even an empty place here and was just chancing it. But it turned out there was one available, and we were given the keys and went to take a look.

Over the next few days, this pattern was repeated with different agents. What they knew, and we didn't, is that pretty much every apartment building and condo development in Bangkok has places available more or less all the time. Coming from the high-pressure, move fast or lose out market in London, this was a hugely pleasant surprise. Hunting for a home actually became a pleasurable experience for once, as we calmly made our way around viewing various different places, confident that we could take our time and choose carefully without needing to snap one up before someone else did. The sheer amount of choice on the market is such that we became glad of the limitations imposed by our furry flatmate, because it helped to narrow down our options to a manageable number - otherwise there would be such an overwhelming number of possibilities I don't know how we would have chosen. It became clear, too, that those ads we were so suspicious of were genuine after all - some of the places we saw were familiar from the photos we'd seen again and again online.

As it turned out, though, we ended up renting that very first place we saw. A spacious one-bedroom apartment just one storey above a magnificent pool, in a city full of high-rise shoeboxes. It became more and more apparent that we weren't going to find anything we liked more, and it was the cheapest place we found. We began the moving-in process, and had another pleasant surprise - no fees! Back in London, where letting agents charge an awful lot for very little, we were accustomed to handing over a few hundred quid in various fees, charges and other expenses. Here, nothing of the sort. The agents make their money from the landlord's side, and all we had to cough up was the deposit. No references required, no complicated bank transfers to arrange, just sign on the line, hand over some cash, and enjoy your new home. Like so many things here, wonderfully and refreshingly simple and easy. We're very happy here. But it's a little empty. Time to start filling it with some new possessions.

1 comment:

  1. Hi. Moving to Bangkok with 2 cats. Your post has given me some hope! Thanks.

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