We had heard that apartment hunting in Chiang Mai for a two month period was going to be somewhat challenging – we hadn’t anticipated just how difficult it would actually turn out to be!

After arriving in Chiang Mai on November 15^th, we dived straight into the task of apartment hunting. It was just coming into high season, and we felt that we shouldn’t waste any valuable time as we wanted to get settled as soon as possible.

We used the usual research sources of the internet and looking through the classified sections of the local newspapers. After about two days of trawling the internet, flicking through newspapers and scooting around on our motorbike, we hadn’t viewed one single property!

Most of the places we contacted were only interested in renting for a minimum of six months, and as we were only looking for a two month lease, every enquiry we made left us with the same feeling of disappointment and frustration.

It began to feel like we would never find a suitable apartment, and our original preferences of a one bedroomed apartment with the facilities of a gym and a pool went out the window!

We reached a stage where we were willing to settle for any type of apartment/house as long as it was clean, comfortable and secure.

A two month stay in a guest house was looking all the more likely at this stage, but we decided to give it one more day, and that’s when we had a breakthrough. This came in the form of a local real estate agent named Sam!!

We found Sam through a website called http://www.homebyhouse.com/, and he couldn’t have been more helpful to us. We called him and explained exactly what we were looking for in terms of our budget (17,000 baht) and our requirements (pool, gym, one bedroom).

He was friendly, informative, and his English was perfect which is always a plus when trying to finalise contracts etc.

Sam explained how it is extremely difficult to get a short term lease in Chiang Mai, but he said he’d do his best. And that’s exactly what he did! Sam had two properties lined up for us to view within two hours of our initial phone call, we were so excited about the prospect of actually viewing a property!!

The two properties he had lined up for us were the Hillside 2 Condominium located on Nimmanhaemin Rd, and One Plus Condo in Suan Dok. Here is a brief description of what each property had to offer:

One Plus Condo

This one sounded very promising, and this is the description we were given by Sam: 1 bedroom, a living room with balcony, a bathroom, all furniture and fixtures included; a refrigerator, a microwave, a washing machine, a television, a sofa set, dining table with chairs, shoe box, etc.

The condo’s facilities; a swimming pool, fitness room, sauna, 24 hr. security, internet. And all this came at a price tag of 15,000 baht a month. (electricity and water rates were not included).

The apartment itself was brand new, quite big, modern, clean, comfortable and had everything we needed.

There was one only snag, the apartment was located in the new wing of this condominium building which meant that the swimming pool, gym and sauna were not in operation yet, and they wouldn’t be ready for use for another 4-6 weeks.

This was a problem as these were the facilities that made this property so appealing to us in the first place.

Hillside 2 Condominium

This was a studio apartment that was conveniently located on Soi Nimmanhaemin.

The following is the description we were given by Sam: The condo unit offers all furniture and fixtures; an LCD television 32” with cable, a washing machine, a microwave, a refrigerator, an air conditioner, a sofa, a heater water, 2 closets, a queen size bed with accessories, and kitchen utensils provided.

The floor of the room is laminate and total living space of the unit is 31 sq.m.

The condo facilities ; key card access, 24 hr. security guard, 7-11 on ground floor, salon and laundry shop. The monthly rental of 9,000 baht includes INTERNET WIFI and CABLE TV 60 channels. (Electricity and water rates not included)

After weighing up the pros and cons of each option, the Hillside Condo seemed like the best choice for us.

The rent was cheaper, the location was excellent, and it was clean, comfortable and secure.

We had planned to spend a considerable amount of time in the gym during our two month stay in Chiang Mai so another pro for Hillside was the state of the art gym that’s located just around the corner from the condo.

We paid one months rent in advance (9,000 baht) as well as a security deposit of 4,500 baht.

Our landlord is extremely helpful and lives in the building too so he’s always on standby if we need any anything.

If you’re finding apartment hunting in Chiang Mai more difficult and stressful than you originally anticipated, I’d be happy to put you in touch with Sam. Just PM me and I can send you on his contact details.

And there you have it!

We’re at the end of our lease at Hillside, and we’ve have zero problems.

If you’ve any questions about finding an apartment in Chiang Mai, then hit me up in the comments and I’ll be happy to help out as best I can.