Phuket
Phuket is one of the southern provinces of Thailand. Phuket is the largest island in Thailand, located in the south in the Andaman Sea and connected to the mainland by a bridge. Neighboring provinces are Phang Nga and Krabi. The island is served by Phuket International Airport, located in the north of the island. (In the Thai language, the ph is pronounced as "p", so the name is pronounced (roughly) "Poo-ket".)
The island is mostly mountainous with a mountain range in the west of the island running from the north to the south. 70% of the island is covered by forest. The western coast has several sandy beaches, while on the east coast beaches are shallow and sometimes muddy.
In the mountains towards the north of the island is the Khao Phra Thaeo Wildlife Sanctuary.
Patong Beach on the central western coast, is one of the most popular tourist areas. Most of Phuket's nightlife and cheap shopping is located in Patong and the area has become increasingly developed. Patong Beach was one of the hardest hit areas during the Tsunami in 2003. Within a year this area was completely rebuilt. The news would have had you believe that the entire Island was wiped out, but only about 5% of the beach areas were actually involved. Many areas in Phuket didn’t even know it happened until they saw it on the news!
Other popular beaches are located south of Patong. These include Karon Beach, Kata Beach, Kata Noi Beach. Around the southern tip of the island, Nai Harn Beach and Bang Tao Beach. In the past, these areas were generally much less developed than Patong, and sought out by individuals, families and other groups with a preference for more relaxed and less crowded areas than Patong. However, over the past few years, these areas are developing very fast. Not targeting the rather rounchy nightlife of Patong, they are developing their own appeal.
Phuket is a popular place for people interested in retiring. Good quality medical care and hospitals, an international airport, and continued growth of all the modern conveniences including first class international restaurants, shopping malls, multiplex movie theaters, and much more adds to the appeal.
Night life runs the full gamet from British pubs and 5 star restaruants to Transvestite super shows. Many large Hotel chains operate here as well as independent and privately owned Foreign and Thai owned luxury resorts.
Property and housing is on the upper scale. This is due to the simple truth of supply and demand. Phuket is popular with Foreigners! It’s hard to fault them as the Island offers many delights, activities and nightlife. Property developers are building Western style homes, Condo’s, Bungalows, Apartments and Resorts. There are many activities to keep you busy, including at least 3 major Marina’s, Golf Courses, shooting ranges, hiking, boating, fishing, swimming, scuba diving, sun bathing, shopping and dining.
Phuket is without a doubt, somewhere to consider for a long term stay, vacation, or eventual retirement.
Koh Samui
Koh Samui can be described as a tropical paradise soaking in the Gulf of Siam. It is the third largest island of Thailand, after Phuket and Koh Chang. Within the last two decades, Samui has become a hard to bypass tourist destination in SE Asia! You will discover white sandy beaches, diversified landscapes, numerous Buddhist landmarks, inland trekking, smiling friendly people, tourist traffic, nightclubs to rival anything in SE Asia and Restaurants that will make your scale cringe with anticipation.
Koh Samui being the largest island in the Gulf (280Km2) and its archipelago (including Koh Phangan, Koh Tao, Angthong Marine National Park as well as hundreds of small islands) have even more delightful surprises for you.
Samui is literally an island of coconuts and forested hills with mountains reaching 636 meters. Its beautiful beaches, jungle, hills and waterfalls create a very changing landscape, rarely found in other islands.
This is not to say that development isn’t changing Samui. It is, in a big way. No longer the “backpacker” dream destination, Samui now boasts many 5 star luxury resorts, beautiful beaches, dive sites, and all the activities that make up a 21st century vacation and retirement community. You no longer have to go to 5 different markets to do your shopping as Tesco/Lotus has now been in operation for a couple years. Starbucks and McDonnalds are also there, so the Western influence is becoming more apparent.
Having said that, there are still places on Samui where you can get away to wind swept beaches, private islands and forested treks.
For the holiday, long term stay or retirement, Koh Samui is well worth taking a serious look.
Hua Hin
For years this once sleepy little town has enjoyed great prestige with the Thais. Hua Hin was the original holiday destination for royalty and jet-setters, who would escape from Bangkok's unbearable heat. Hua Hin, Thailand's oldest beach resort is located on the Gulf of Thailand, 200 km south of Bangkok.
Despite its expansive growth as a well-established beach destination with word-class facilities, the splendor of Hua Hin remains intact. The market is thriving with a strong focus on high standard developments. If you enjoy walking through quiet streets, sampling delicious seafood or practicing golf on one of the seven international golf courses, Hua Hin could very well be what you're looking for.
In Hua Hin, you can find an international hospital, 2 international schools, 2 international universities plus 3 Thai universities. A rapidly improving infrastructure is giving Hua Hin all the facilities of any modern community, including big shopping complexes and first-rate spas which have been receiving rave reviews for their top notch service, first-rate signature treatments and employing state-of-the-art technology.
Thailand, and especially Hua Hin, are becoming well known around the world for their golf courses, and that is as it should be. If you like golf and are planning to buy your holiday home in Hua Hin you are definitely coming to the right place. Many retirees decide to buy a property on the exclusive beach - golfing town in the Thailand gulf. There is great golf to be played here, in addition to the countless other activities available to the non-golfers in the family.
The Hua Hin housing market is flourishing. Over the past twelve months, many new housing developments have started up in Hua Hin. It is estimated that in Hua Hin there is somewhere around 1,500 new homes under construction and the large majority are not located close to the sea.
Projects initially involved building homes for tourists who wished to settle down in Hua Hin. There were only a handful of developers and these were almost all Thai. The development industry quickly grew, and soon large plots of land were being bought from locals and divided into plots for sale. Now there are many developments all over Hua Hin, not all are Thai owned or operated. Hua Hin developers are targeting up-market buyers - therefore houses are built to higher standards.
The housing market will continue to rise supported by, higher quality materials and strong demand from Thai visitors, retirees and expats from Bangkok.
Want more information on real estate investment opportunities in resort areas in Thailand? Simply contact us today for more information. contact@companyvauban.com
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