Maintenance Fees (CAM Fees)
Maintenance Fee vs. Common Area Fees
Common Area Fees, Maintenance Fees or CAM Fees they are all referring to the same thing. It is a monthly standard amount collected from each unit owner in the same compound by the management to cover general repair and upkeep spenditures, monthly cost of keeping the common areas in a good shape such as common area gardening, pool cleaning, security and other staff monthly salaries, garbage collection, common area lightings, common area electric and water costs etc.
How Much is the Maintenance Fee per Month?
The amount of this payment can be vary project to project but it is safe to assume it should be between 40 THB per square meter goes up to 80 THB per square meter.
It is usually collected once a year to avoid the hassle. The amount tend to be lower on big condominium projects since the cost is shared by many different unit owners. Meanwhile if it’s a small project, this amount can be higher.
Does It Worth Paying Too Much Maintenance Fee?
Even though it can sound like a high monthly expense, it actually is a good sign that you’ll live in a well maintained project. Not well maintained projects tend to look very old very quickly. Especially in a tropical country like Thailand that gets high volume of monsoon rains every year.
Having a property in a well maintained project is also going to increase your chances to sell your property at a high value when you decide to sell. It will keep your property value high. In Phuket there are some projects like Sai Taan Villa or Botanica Phase 1, have always been highly sought after just because they are well maintained by the property management companies.
Some developers use their in-house teams to do the maintenance of the projects, but some developers using Property Management Companies such as CBRE, JLL or Knight Frank.
What Are The Things to Consider When Paying Maintenance Fee?
It is always a good idea to investigate the details of the common area fees before you purchase a property. What are those fees cover, what’s included to the price, which company they will use to maintain the project. These are good questions to ask before committing anything.
Some people mix this up with Sinking Fund, but that is a completely separate cost. Which you can find out more about it via link here to our Sinking Fund article.
