Messy Pattaya draws new cash - The Nation,
October 31, 2005
...So even as old troubled projects are washed out, new ones
are sweeping in, bringing more cash to one of Thailand's messiest,
worst governed towns. Twenty years after it became a registered
township, Pattaya is still filled with potholes, unpaved roads and
half-finished esplanades that are left to rot in the open for a
year or more.
Many foreign retirees here are resigned to the ways of local efficiency
and provincial-level competence. ...Eerily, the first Pattaya real-estate
crash came in 1979-1980 following the "Raja Finance" stock-market
crash. At the time there were also many global chains that had opened
large hotels in Pattaya, Hyatt among them. All faded out after the
crash as the properties reverted to Thai hands.
The second Pattaya crash, in 1989, also followed a real-estate meltdown.
As prices in Pattaya outpaced Bangkok the bubble burst and it took
15 years for Pattaya to claw back.
The current boom started two years ago and since then, the Pattaya
housing market has climbed and slumped.
 |
|
2Bangkok: Recommended by roughguides.com
New book from 2Bangkok.com's editor:Last Century
The Tales of an Adventurer in the Asian Tiger Era
Hardback | Kindle
Like 2Bangkok on Facebook
2Bangkok on Twitter
Download a free chapter from The Thai Book, A Field Guide to Thai Political Motivations: "Big Men Always Go Too Far" (pdf)