When buying property in Thailand it is important to look at the location of the property. There are always floods in Bangkok and property developers have taken this into account when developing property. Floods in Bangkok are rather common and you should always look at the property location before deciding to buy or rent in the area. The Thai government does provide online flood maps for each year and you can find the information there.
Real Estate & Floods
Banks have also started to take this into account when the provide a mortgage loan. Many developments have incorporated flood mitigation into their designs and this has also been a selling point for many developers. When it flooded in 2012 property sales for low rise developments in the flood zones saw no sales. This however also depressed sales in other areas as nobody was investing or buying during this time. Flooding affects the values of all properties.
Home sales normally take off near the year in the in the fourth quarter. Non-flooding areas as well as projects in the inner city tends to sell very well compared to other areas. After the 212 floods developers started their designs for flood mitigation and it is something which you need to speak to your developer about or ask your attorney in Thailand when doing the due diligence report to look into the flood zones and where your property is located. If it was built in a flood zone, then your next question should be what flood mitigation has the development taken.
If this is an older development and the project had no flood mitigation designed into it, while in a flood zone means that selling the unit later is going to be very difficult. This can be a problem if you are not able to recover your initial investment or the developer having to sell units below market value. These are issues that you have to consider when buying any real estate in Bangkok.
Flood mitigation is a costly business as land needs to be raised as well as roads going to the property. This is normally designed into the project from the start. Add on flood mitigation has mainly been by adding sand dykes around the project to keep water out in the event of a flood. The entrance of the building however will cost more to raise later. Electricity poles also need to be lifted to higher ground as well as telephone connections to the project. Electricity supply also has to be above the flood levels and some projects have designed their power units onto the second floor of the building.
With newer developments many might have the living space on the second floor with the ground floor only being used for storage or as a car park. Commercial developments also now use backup generators for pumps in the event that electricity is lost during a flood. As stated that take proper legal and financial advice is always the first step when buying property or any real estate in Thailand.
