Chiangmai Condo Rentals

So the quest for a new living space ended earlier this week. We’ll be moving into a condo on April 1. Why did we want to move from our beautiful current residence?

• It is way too big! The only time we use the second floor is when we have visitors. Nice for them but not really worth paying for all that unused space! We have discovered that we spend 100% of our time on the first floor! Especially since the top floor has a separate entrance and is basically a duplicate of the first floor.
• The roosters down the road never stop crowing! It was kind of a novelty at first. Living sort of in the country, surrounded by local Thai families with their numerous dogs and chickens running rampant. However, after six months of 24-7 crowing, we were ready to find a quieter place.
• The fucking ants! They are tiny, smaller than pinheads, but love marching into the kitchen through every available orifice in the wall at the least hint of food anywhere within range of their miniature senses. They can form a thick black line from their entrance point to their final destination on the counter or in the sink.

It is not difficult finding a place to live here. One of the more popular real estate agencies has over 130 condo complexes listed on their website as well as hundreds of detached houses for rent. Finding something that satisfies the various items on your wanted list might be a little more difficult. Many people have written to me asking about the cost of living here, including rental, etc, so I thought I would walk through our latest little selection process.

I will mention right now that many people seem to think it is some kind of competition!  I keep reading letters from folks around the world asking if they can live on less than $1000 per month in this country. And you will hear responses from people saying how they live on less than $500 per month.  Well, good for them! I suppose this is possible if you live in a tiny room somewhere and eat nothing but street food or rice! Or live outside any of the larger urban centers and/or have no interest in doing anything. This just doesn’t sound like much of a life to me, even if it is possible.

We didn’t really move here for the great outdoors. We could have gone back to rural Canada or the US for that, and probably not be spending a lot more money than we do here!  What Chiangmai does give us is the opportunity to live a great lifestyle in a major city with all its amenities for small town prices. The beautiful weather, friendly people and wonderful food are all bonuses.

So when we set out looking for another place, this was our list of requirements.

• a condo or apartment. We’ve tried the house thing and wanted to check out a condo this time.
• no more than what we are presently paying for rent, about $17 000 baht per month (about $580/month CDN at the last check).
• 1 or 2 bedrooms
• good location within walking distance of day-to-day stuff
• larger than a hotel room
• swimming pool
• decent internet
• TV…we haven’t had one for over six years so not a necessity but would be nice!

After filtering the large number of condos available with the help of these criteria, the original list quickly dropped to a couple of dozen. We quickly decided that finding a decent 2-bedroom place within our price range was really going to limit our options so we focused on finding a comfortable 1-bedroom unit.

If you are not fussy, you can easily find a studio or 1-bedroom condo (and even a 2-bedroom) in the $300-600/month range, with a pool. However, the lower priced units are usually quite small. It seems the most common sizes are 32, 45, and 64 square meters. The first two would be fine for short-term rentals but just seemed too much like hotel rooms as far as I was concerned for anything long-term. Call me spoiled but it was then and there that I decided 64 was the smallest I really wanted!

It also didn’t take us long to figure out that photos don’t necessarily represent the current state of affairs. So beware if you are thinking of renting a place in advance after looking at pictures that you are shown. Some of these were probably taken soon after it was built but don’t give an honest picture of what it looks like today.

And the same goes for pools. It may have a pool; whether or not it is functional is another story! This is something you may need to find out if you really plan on using it to any extent. It is also difficult to find any good reviews about condo complexes since most of them are by or for developers. Real estate investors have a different set of criteria than potential tenants, the most common being that they are often critical of any type of older complex. From a tenant’s point of view, you can sometimes get some good rental deals in an older building. I guess the only way to find out is to live somewhere  and to leave if it doesn’t pan out the way you expected.

Like anywhere, the closer you are to the main part of the city, the more expensive rent will be. It is a toss-up between rental cost and accessibility to the city without a lot of driving. As reference points, we decided that the airport, the train station and the university were all about as far away as we would want to be. These are all within an easy drive or a 20 baht songtaow fare to the walled city. Anything further than that out of town and you would really need a vehicle to make it convenient.

Another way of looking at the map is anything inside the Chiangmai-Lampang Superhighway is a pretty good location if you want to be within range of the city. Anything a longer distance than that and you are “in the country”.

So after looking at a few places, we decided on an older condo in Hillside Plaza on Huay Kaew Road. It is 90 square meters, has two large balconies, and a great outdoor pool. It fits our budget and is within walking distance of the main part of the city. It has lots of storage space, leather furniture and two flat screen televisions (woo hoo!). The hardwood floors and wooden built-in cabinets give it a homey feeling. We looked at many that felt more like hotel rooms than a home. The complex itself contains restaurants, coffee shops, convenience stores and a gym.

Unlike many of the other places we looked at, we do have to pay a monthly condo fee but it only amounts to another $70 or so. Again, it all depends on what you are comfortable paying and what fits into your budget. Many expats here pay less than what we will be forking out per month but many pay a heck of a lot more, especially in some of the more upscale, newer condo and housing developments.

Yes, it is expensive for Chiangmai (just over $600/month total), but for a large, comfortable condo in an urban center of a million people, we think it is a pretty good deal! In the meantime, we will keep our eyes open in the next few months in case we see something else that looks enticing. We are mobile and can move easily in a day!

Here are a few more pics of units you can rent for well under $600 per month. The sky is the limit! When you hit $800-1000 per month and above, you can find some very luxurious accommodation with both condos and detached houses. Each of the following is located in one of the areas in the map above and includes a swimming pool.

Most of the pictures I have included in this posting are from chiangmaiproperties.com. A note to travellers: it is possible to rent some condos for a 1-month term. This is a very inexpensive alternative to staying in a hotel if you are looking at spending that length of time in Chiangmai as a getaway.