Good website rentsbuy.com, I though it providing very good information about renting, buying property and business in Laos. I don't know a lot about real estate in Laos. My question is can you build or buy a decent house in Laos for around $25,000?

Yes, $25,000 US can get you a comfortable house in Laos, but not in the middle of the city.

People who have very little money like to build a simple house to begin with, and slowly add/fix things along the way into a bigger house.

Admin Saovaluck wrote on 21^st Aug, 2010 at 12:47am:

Yes, $25,000 US can get you a comfortable house in Laos, but not in the middle of the city. People who have very little money like to build a simple house to begin with, and slowly add/fix things along the way into a bigger house.

Just like buying a brand new car in the US with that prices. I don't grow up with much, so a simple house, motorcycle, car that is paying for sound really good. Buying house is cash only or  you can get a bank loan for more expensive house?

There's a lot of nice house in Vietiane, some really nice one are expensive too. How come most house don't have a garage? They don't like to use them?

The banks in Laos are reluctant to give loans to buy a house unless you have the ability to pay them back.

There's probably not enough room to build a garage. Most people park their car and motorbikes inside the house, such as the lounge room or kitchen area during the night.

Admin Saovaluck wrote on 21^st Aug, 2010 at 11:13pm:

The banks in Laos are reluctant to give loans to buy a house unless you have the ability to pay them back. There's probably not enough room to build a garage. Most people park their car and motorbikes inside the house, such as the lounge room or kitchen area during the night.

Even in US without Bank loan and government support. Most people will not be able to buy a decent house. Most people don't have $100,000-$200,000 cash laying around. You had to have good jobs, credit, 20% down payment to buy decent house. But if you're a low income or first time home buyer. You can get help from charity or government program. Right now house is cheap because of economic recession, but its still difficult to get loan, bank are very strict.

I think it depend on the design. You can build house above the garage instead of on the side of the house to save space. I think some house in Lao are well build and well design. But in the US average house are simple design, they make good use of the space. Average house can be build in three month. Let say 3 bd rm, 2 bath, 3 car garage. About 95% house in have car garage and all the new build house come with garage. Time is money here, they has to build it quickly as possible.

   

25 grand is tons of money in laos, in america you could probably fit 25k cash in your pocket and back pockets but in laos no way! hahahaha there be like tons of paper money sticking out your pockets.

anyway i think 25k for a house is more than enough, you should be able to buy a car too, and a wife and have some extra left for livestock. i mean isnt $25k american money worth double in laos?

$25,000 is about 205,000,000.

The value of the US dollar is very low in Laos at the moment.

$1 US = 8,200 kip

Therefore,

$25,000 US = 205,000,000 kip

When people make a large purchase on a house or car, they normally pay in US dollars or Thai baht because Lao kip has too many notes and it takes a long time to count.

Admin Saovaluck wrote on 22^nd Aug, 2010 at 10:30pm:

The value of the US dollar is very low in Laos at the moment. $1 US = 8,200 kip Therefore, $25,000 US = 205,000,000 kip When people make a large purchase on a house or car, they normally pay in US dollars or Thai baht because Lao kip has too many notes and it takes a long time to count.

My calculation was way off. Thank for the correcting me. hehehe
;) ;D

ok so i have a question,

how many different bills is in lao money?

an example of american money there is the 1 dollar bill, 5 dollar bill, 10 dollar bill, 20 dollar bill, 50 dollar bill and finally 100 dollar bill. so altogether there 6 different bills. of course there is the 2 dollar bill if you want to get technical. so how many bills like america money are in the lao money system?

Longhang, We use 500 kip, 1000 kip, 2000 kip, 5000 kip, 10000 kip, 20000 kip and the highest denomination is 50000 kip.

At the present time, 50000 kip bill is about $6 US.

How about 100,000 kips bill so people don't have to carry a suitcase of money around. Do people in Laos use Debate Card or Bank card for purchased?

Maybe they will introduce a 100,000 kip bill in the future. Lao people usually don't have alot of money to carry around. Those with alot of money will have some Thai baht in their wallet/purse.

Some people have debit and credit cards. These days, there's lots of ATMs around so bosses like to deposit employee's salaries into their bank account and they can withdraw cash using their card.

Not many places in Laos accept plastic cards for purchases. Major hotels, travel agents and some high class restaurant will accept cards, but you can't use them for general shopping.

In the US they use bank card or credit cards for almost everything. But they charge fee. So its very easy to spend your money, but you have to work hard to earn it. Maybe that's why some business don't want to use it yet. Because of the fee and also have to buy the machine to process credit card transaction.

The United States is a modern country so they are always ahead in nearly everything. People are still learning in Laos, most Lao merchants don't know how to use electronic gadgets such as a credit card processing machine. There's a fee charged to the customer, and the banks also charge the business a fee for processing credit card transactions. It's better to receive cash in hand, saves all the hassles and scams.

Admin Saovaluck wrote on 25^th Aug, 2010 at 1:02am:

The United States is a modern country so they are always ahead in nearly everything. People are still learning in Laos, most Lao merchants don't know how to use electronic gadgets such as a credit card processing machine. There's a fee charged to the customer, and the banks also charge the business a fee for processing credit card transactions. It's better to receive cash in hand, saves all the hassles and scams.

That's true there is lot of scam going on criminals can steal your ATM card or credit card number easily too. But they have law protecting consumers. There's pro and con. Using bank or credit card is very convenient, but can be expensive every time you use debit card ATM machine will charge you about $2-$3 fee and bank will charge you another $1 for each transactions. Laos is catching up, it'll take time.

Main reason Some business don't like to use them is because of fraud, ususlly the bank charge the business 0.5% of the transaction, small business may be 1%, but if the card holder is not exist (fraud), then the business will lose the entire amount, of course, there is insurance but it's trouble.