Nice work
Andrew Ferrett has published a guide to budget apartments in Bangkok. Bless him. This book can save you a lot of walking around town in dust and noise and 40 C.
I came across this book in Bookazine and bought a copy for 425 baht. I have seen other books about Bangkok rentals but they are often either upmarket or they are commerical catalogues with no attempt at giving independent information.
Mr. Ferrett’s book is an actual guidebook. He seems to have visited all the 400 buildings (what an ordeal!). I have been to some of the buildings he writes about and his comments on rents, standards, locations etc look correct to me.
If you want ex-pat standard living in the 250,000 baht per month range this book isn’t for you. Then the slick agents will drive you around from one pretentious building to the other, and you can get to isolate yourself completely from Thai life together with ambassadors and Japanese executives.
But for the rest of humanity this book is just the thing.
You can order the book from his website >>
PS. For you suspicious minds out there: I don’t know Andrew Ferrett and I get nothing for recommending his book.
Tags: apartment, Bangkok, budget
May 6th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Thx! I have hours online trying to find apts. I’m constantly aware that the real estate PR hype is more common than the facts.
May 6th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
You still have to hoof it, door to door. Ask the motocy boys who’s renting and have them take you. A lot of places only have sub-lets. They make an offer for say 30K and you have to counter offer 25K.
First question is how do they charge electric, if the person showing you the places says something about them selling you “units” of electric—walk away. If they say the “government” reads the meter, take a look at the place.
May 6th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Yes, overcharging for electricity is one of the traps to avoid.
May 7th, 2008 at 4:12 am
Thanks for the recommendation, I’m looking forward to using the book when I’, looking for apartments this summer!