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Last Updated 03/21/2008 02:55 Welcome to the Retire in Paradise Website and congratulations on discovering Hua Hin, Thailand. Before you start exploring the website and learning all about Hua Hin and living in Thailand, I would like to tell my story and how I have found myself in Hua Hin building a website. For most of my life I have worked in the oil and gas industry. Many years of my career, I worked in Canada where I had been born and raised. However about 10 years ago, I took my first overseas assignment and since then life has never been the same. For the last 10 years myself and my family, my wife Anita and 2 sons have followed me around the world wherever the next overseas posting and holidays have taken us. We lived in Singapore, then took a posting in Jakarta, taking holidays when we could and during this time we traveled and explored most of the Asian world. When my youngest son, set off for university a couple of years ago, and I celebrated my 49th birthday I realized we had reached the point both financially and in our life stage where we realistically could begin our early retirement. Knowing this day would come we had been looking at different locations but now the final decision had to be made… where did we want to spend our golden years? We were pretty open to living anywhere in the world, but we had a few requirements that had to fit the formula. We wanted a place that was warm and had relatively good weather. The thought of January’s at – 40 (weather in Canada) just didn’t appeal to us anymore. Besides during our 10 years living overseas prices had risen pretty dramatically in Canada. That was consideration number two. Where we retired had to be inexpensive. We had enough money to retire but it wasn’t going to go far if we continued to have good health and didn’t make a wise choices. We had also looked at buying in Indonesia as it fit the weather and cost factor. Generally though it didn’t appear very safe for either locals or foreigners and the government’s policy for buying homes seemed quite risky. We also needed to consider the quality of medical facilities. I know this is something that a person doesn’t like to think about but the older a person gets, the higher the chances of hospital stays. While we lived in Indonesia, any serious medical condition would always require a trip to Singapore. So that made requirement number 3, 4 & 5. The policy for foreigner ownership had to be secure and the country had to have a stable and calm environment where we could live in relative safety. We couldn’t afford to invest money in a home only to have to government evict us when we were old and gray. Singapore regardless of how much we loved living there, how good the medical facilities were and how well it fit into the rest of the formula was out the equation as well. Houses in Singapore started at over a million and the expenses of living there although the citizens enjoyed safe foreign ownership, security and a high level of services, would quickly chew up our savings. We then began to investigate living in Thailand. We had enjoyed many holidays there and were always surprised at how inexpensive they had been. First, we had a holiday in Phucket. Although popular with many Americans and Singaporeans, it wasn’t quite our style. Yes, it had beautiful scenery but the Singaporeans had already begun buying up much of the property, long before us, thinking about their retirements as well. The end result, the house prices were becoming a little too rich for our bank account. Besides, it was a little too commercial and busy for us anyways. So, it was then that we began searching on the internet looking for other options and our fingers stumbled upon Hua Hin. We had at first been a little hesitant to holiday there, being outside of Bangkok by 2 and half hours we wondered if it would be a sleepy little town, where no one spoke English and there would be little to do. However, we looked at property prices and thought it would be worth checking out as a possibility. As it turned out our first holiday there would be one of many. After visiting a few times, we realized that this could be a place for us to retire. There was also the option for buying a business to provide us with extra income and some stimulation should the need arise. So, we began the search for a home in Hua Hin. Many of the developments we looked at didn’t have homes built on them yet. However, this didn’t fit in well with our security level. Although the new homes offered us a chance to get more the kind of home we wanted, with a western kitchen & bathroom, air conditioners, swimming pool and a big yard, it also posed more risks. We just weren’t comfortable with how this house would look when it was finished and that the cost and quality wouldn’t change before we made our final payment. Would the developer still even be in business by the time the house was completed? Would we have a clear title to the property when we finally took possession? The houses generally took a good eight months or more to build. At that time, we also started looking at the contracts we were expected to sign and when we insisted they be translated into English, realized we just weren’t comfortable with their terms. We looked at many developments and walked away from them before we found a builder we felt we could trust. He seemed patient and flexible with our concerns and most importantly seemed to offer good quality at a reasonable price Although, he didn’t have any pre built homes for sale he had many that he had completed in a style we liked and was willing to make adjustments to tailor the house to our liking. The more we worked with the builder and saw his dealing with other home owners the more comfortable we became. He seemed to have drawn up a pretty solid contract for home purchasing and everyone was for the most part fairly happy with their final construction. We also saw the opportunity to make a higher rate of return on our retirement money. At the bank we were getting 2% interest if we were lucky. We had been noticing that each time we came to Hua Hin house prices had been higher. The more we investigated this, the more we realized that investment in the Hua Hin housing market would be relatively safe. We had seen property selling well and so we decided to buy a few more lots and build houses on them knowing that the difference in what we spent today would be increased by the time that they were built just out of the rising cost of material and the construction prices on new houses. This would provide a safe return on our money. Besides, we were fairly sure the other foreigners would have the same concerns as we did and would like to see a pre-built house before they buy. Since waiting lists for house building were long (and still are due to the housing boom) we thought many buyers would like to get a jump start on construction by purchasing a pre-built home or one well under way. We suspected as well that other foreigners would appreciate a website with a gathering of information so to speak. We felt this would help them to make a wise decision on whether Hua Hin was right for their retirement. We also wanted to include general tips and information to make those first few months of resettling to Hua Hi, if that was where you landed in retirement, easier. Since we have been living here, we have met many others who are close to retirement. They are a little smarter than us, in some way and are buying houses in Hua Hin to use as a high end vacation home for a few years before transitioning more slowly into retirement. This is an excellent tip, as they will be able to use those last few high earning years to pay for their house and set their home up the way they like, before moving in full time. Regardless of who you buy from, residential real estate in Hua Hin, if you investigate your purchase carefully can be a very good investment. We feel prices are on the rise and will continue to rise at least for the next few years. With the new highway to Bangkok being built and number of direct overseas flights from the Bangkok International airport increasing, this is sure to bring many new potential home owners into Hua Hin. So that’s my story… at least so far. I’ll leave you now to begin exploring the website at your leisure. We hope you will find this website useful and come back to visit often. We are planning on up-dating routinely as we learn more about the Thai people and events and will be reviewing restaurants, shopping and everything in between as it comes up. “May the worst days of your future be better than the best days of your past.” April 2006. Anita and I have now lived in Hua Hin for 9 months now so I thought I better update the about us information. It has been a real fun time for us and we have been learning a lot. I found out the old saying above was easy to accomplish, all you have to do is move to Hua Hin. Hua Hin is becoming known as Paradise City for a good reason, the quality of life here is great. We also learned that once you have paid for your house and car the 60,000 baht per month income requited for your retirement or work visa is about impossible to spend in Hua Hin. ( requirement is 50,000 for people from EU and UK ) A year ago we had the idea that if we built a few extra houses, by the time the houses were complete the prices and building cost would have gone up and provide us with a better return than the banks. 100% correct. Prices in Chan Tha Village have gone up more than 20% in one year. It looks like this year it may only be 12 – 20% which is still a very good return. Prices in the area are still well below other resort towns and their prices continue to rise as well, only at a slower pace. For at least the next 2 or 3 years investment in the Hua Hin area looks like it will provide strong gains in value. So it looks like my retirement here will actually be more of a semi-retirement. With the last 5 houses we built in Chan Tha Village we also decided to try to improve the quality, and comfort, while reducing the time to build. For quality, the answer is independent and frequent inspections. We now inspect every house under construction at least twice per week with an independent inspector. For comfort, we now use Super Blocks in the walls, which is very cool stuff. Stronger than a hollow core cement block, but very lightweight with a higher insulating value. Click on this link for their web site . Three weeks ago, we moved into our new house built with the Super Block and we could not believe the difference. In all future houses, we will also put reflective foil under the roof tile to add further improvements to the comfort level. Time to Complete, for our first 5 houses in Chan Tha Village it took 7 – 12 months to complete. Out next 5 were all done in less than 7 months. We are now doing construction management for other developers and our average is now below 5 months per house. (One Story Houses) We accomplished that by improving the quality at every stage so we have less rework at the end. We still have a small way to go, our Target is 4 months from start to handover (5 months during the wet season). What is next? Well I always wanted to plan my own subdivision so with the help of some partners we now have Chan Tha Village started 1.4 km. north of Chan Tha Village. Still within 2 minutes of Palm Hills golf course, it looks like it is off to a good start. http://www.chanthagardens.com/ I guess retirement will have to wait a little while; I am having too much fun. Feel free to send me emails with your questions, comments and concerns and we will answer your emails as best we can. Wishing you a happy retirement….. Leo |