Each day I meet with owners needing some guidance in setting a rental price for their houses or condos during this economic town turn to attract long term lessees. Essentially our role as brokers is to create deals where both parties are satisfied and currently owners need to make more concessions to attract long term tenants.

One immediate concession is to ask the owner to reduce their prices. At the present time, prices have dropped by 25-35% on most rentals. So let’s say a house was renting for 45,000THB, it is reasonable to ask for 8-10,000.00THB off in price on a one year lease.

With many houses available at the moment, the competition between owners to get good tenants on a long term lease is much more than before and owners need to include additional amenities to ensure the deal closes.

Normally when renting a house, it would be up to the tenant to pay for UBC cable, internet, gardening or pool maintenance if any, and cleaning services to name a few. As it stands, all tenants must pay for their own water and electric usage.

More clients are asking for free internet and cable in addition to the rent decrease than before and owners are agreeing. As for pool and gardening, most owners pay a yearly fee to a management company to do the needed maintenance and this is often already included in the rental price.

Many owners in the past would rather let their house or condo sit empty until they got the price they wanted but this is no longer a feasible possibility with more supply than demand at the moment in Hua Hin.

Some other points owners should consider in attracting more clients is to really fully furnish the house and upgrade old appliances or electronics. Make sure 2 sets of sheets are available instead of just one and add a few extra pillows, a new crockery and dishware set will make a world of difference, as well as a coffee maker or kettle, toaster and microwave. Two items clients really like are a flat screen TV with DVD player and a washing machine. These small investments by the owner will keep the tenant happy and may help in keeping your tenant from looking elsewhere.

In conversation with an owner last week, he said he had 2 new houses, both fully furnished, for sale but was considering renting them out as no one had approached him for quite some time to buy. I said it is better to have the house occupied than vacant to make sure the house does not deteriorate. This is also a very good reason why owners should get a tenant as quickly as possible; to make sure the house does not get the “Abandoned Orphan” look which makes it even more difficult to sell later.