Where is the best unit’s location in a new condominium project?

Nowadays, condominiums in potential locations receive massive interests from consumers, including real demand (residential purpose), investors, and speculators who aim to make profits through selling booking documents.

Outshining projects are normally sold out within a few days, and most projects allow consumers to reserve units during the presale period. Unfortunately, not many units, especially ideal ones in terms of floor level, located in the floor plan and views, are left for general consumers to choose, as they are usually taken early by privileged ones in the VVIP, VIP, and Employee rounds.

Luckily, if ideal units are still left in the presale phase, general consumers would still have to compete for them – unless they aim to live on the lower floors which don’t offer any great views.

Hence, buyers who have a chance to book units early should select them wisely with comprehensive knowledge about their locations in the floorplan, because the unit’s location has a crucial impact on living and investment in the following time.

Floor level is the very first important thing you should consider because, besides its impacts on living and investment, the safety aspect is also involved. Generally, buyers tend to choose units on the upper floors, where the view is not blocked by nearby buildings, the air circulation is well ventilated, far from noise pollution and unwelcoming insects, mosquitoes, and poisonous animals.

Moreover, living on the upper floors also negates the chance of flooding. Notwithstanding, you should not select units on the highest floor because the amount of heat transmitted from the roof might be high, and the room’s ceiling might be prone to water leakage when there are continuous periods of rains. Likewise, you would want to live 2-3 levels below the top floor, or lower than that.

If you concern about fire, select units on the fifth floor or above, or the lowest level which is still higher than nearby buildings; the lower the floor, the stronger the mobile phone signal, and the fifth floor is already high enough to be away from noise pollution and poisonous animals, in addition. Hence, levels below the fifth floor are not recommended due to various stated issues.

In reality, relating to feng shui (Chinese belief about location), the most interesting floors among buyers are the 5th, 8th, and 9th, while avoided floors are the 13th, 12A, or any floor that translates to the number 13, as people believe it’s a number of misfortune.

The direction is another factor having effects on the living and investment of a unit. In terms of living, most buyers tend to choose units that face toward the east, because the room will be well-lit by sunrise in the morning and cool off in the afternoon as the sun descends.

On the other hand, units facing the west will be heated by the sun in the afternoon and becomes a decent oven when residents return to the room after work.

However, units facing the east are not always the best option as Thailand’s climate is extremely hot and volatile. In general, monsoons will come from the south and west for eight months, and the rest four months, wind breezes will come from the north and east. In other words, it is difficult to conclude which direction is the best for units to be facing.

It also depends on buyers’ personal preferences; some residents who want to avoid the sunlight completely would select a unit that has windows facing toward the north, and balcony facing toward the south. There’s also an old belief that the head of the bed should not be facing toward the west, as it refers to the direction dead persons lie down.

After you have the right floor and right direction in mind, next thing to consider is the unit’s location in the floorplan. In most cases, units that are taken early and barely left for general buyers to choose during presales are the corner units, because they hold a privilege of having a 270-degree view or two vantage points to overlook the cityscape; corner units facing toward the east and south are especially interested.

Corner units are priced higher than inside units and often reserved early by potential buyers in the VVIP and VIP round, such as executives and insiders. As corner units are hardly left for general buyers and their prices are possibly too high, inside units should be more considered with these characteristics.

Ideally, units should be distant from the mechanical room, elevators, fire escape, and trash room, because these areas have high traffic that might disturb your privacy, and may create undesirable smells in case of trash room.

Another concern is that your unit’s main door should not be jammed with the neighbor’s when opened, but modern condominium projects usually have residential units located diagonally across each other to create spaces between each room.

After exploring three external factors, now let’s look at the internal factors which are the layout and features. Unit’s layout and features definitely have impacts on the living, and investment when renting out.

Exemplary unit’s layout should be organised and has no confined nooks or corners where residents could not put into practical usage. In other word, every square metre of the room should be utilisable. In bedrooms, regarding buyers who concern about feng shui and old belief, check whether the head of the bed points toward the west or not, especially bedrooms where the project provide a fixed setting: wall-mounted TV toward the east and bed toward the west – in this case, look for other units with different setting.

In the bathroom, though most projects provide a similar design with the only distinction in the usable area, check whether there are exhaust fan, windows, or bathtub or not, because these features will help complement the room to be appealing when you decide to rent out – especially the bathtub, a favourite fixture among Japanese.

In addition, the bathroom should be easy for cleaning, and conveniently connected to the bedroom. Some buyers even consider solely on the bathroom when choosing a unit. Next, the balcony should have electrical and water systems for setting up a washing machine; a standard washer requires the balcony’s area to be at least 60 x 60 cm.

Eventually, if you couldn’t manage to choose the best units, regarding the 4 mentioned aspects, try looking for distinctive units. For example, typical units that happen to have the balcony slightly larger than others – extra space for plants or outdoor furniture, or units which are adjoined to the project’s swimming pool, ready for residents to jump in upon opening the door.

Besides ideally-located units, these distinctive units are also popular among buyers, but the price, of course, will be higher than the ordinary ones as well.