kwoxing

havent seen a thread here like this, i'm sure many forummers here are home owners in thailand.

i'm looking to make my first purchase in phuket, any advises here.

transpac

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/forum/...and-ownership/

forumpersona999

You cannot own land in Thailand. You can only buy a condominium unit if the project overall is sold to at least 51% Thai owners.

Short answer: Unless it is a condo with clear title (chanote) in your own name, do not do it.

Exec Summary:

People work around this all the time by way of usufruct or by setting up a holding company in Thailand that has at least 51% Thai citizens as shareholders (straw men whom you need to pay fees each year and trust to a certain degree). Goes wrong quite often because once you do something creative like this you offer people an attack vector to leverage against you.

The long version you can find plenty of discussion on the link to the other forum someone posted just above.

Tchiowa

Backing up what forumpersona999 said. A non-Thai citizen cannot own land. In theory you can lease the land and own the house, but that would get real dicey if the land owner decided to evict you. There are land developments around Thailand advertising that you can buy a house. But if you look at the paperwork you're not really buying the house, you're buying a share in the company that owns the development.

A lot of condos available. Keep in mind that since they are building condos all over the place, the resale market for used condos is bad. Real bad. If you plan to buy a condo to live forever, maybe. If you think you're buying it for an investment, do a bit more thinking.

whackyjacky

Considering what I've seen of Thai maintenance standards, I would never purchase

transpac

Sorry, I meant to post this link:

http://property.thaivisa.com/can-for...erty-thailand/

I know two Americans who "own" houses here, without the involvement of a Thai partner/spouse, but they do own/operate businesses (Treaty of Amity) here. I never listen to the details but sort of assumed ownership was tied in to the business in some way.

There used to be a great incentive - an investment visa - to buy a condo, assuming you wanted to live in it, but think that may no longer be available?

The OP really needs to define their requirements, then start to do a bit of research.

behuman

Buying is easy, but selling (an older condo with the mentioned "maintenance" standards) is not. So think before Renting from a desperate owner who failed to sell for a couple of years is the way to go.

transpac

Just saw this thread in a different (Jobs, economy, etc) sub-forum...

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/...thai-nominees/

In particular post # 23: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/.../#entry6724228

aBroadAbroad

If you're thinking of buying a home in Thailand, familiarize yourself with the laws first. Ideally, you will try to get that info from a more reliable source than a message board. One real estate company has helpfully posted an English version of Thailand's rules concerning Prohibition on Foreign Ownership of Real Estate Land — there are probably other similar resources out there.

Also, those thinking of skirting Thai property ownership laws may want to consider the bill discussed in this 2012 article regarding a proposed crackdown on such workarounds:
Afaik this plan went nowhere (K. Siracha is more focused on the rice pledging scheme these days). However, TIT — things can change unexpectedly, and foreigners should consider carefully before choosing to knowingly operate on the fringes of the law.

whackyjacky

I know guys who were making decent cake speculating during the boom, buying condos in Phuket & Jomtien in the initial construction stages, and unloading before a soul moved in. Right now, most places seem to be overbuilt, except for the seemingly insatiable Russian demand in Pattaya-Jomtien & Patong. I also know a couple expats who built excellent quality spec homes up-country in their Thai wife's names. 1 is happily married still and the other was tossed out of his own home almost immediately. Her family has moved in and he's just SOL and back in BKK.

Tchiowa

I'm one of the former. My wife had land so we built a house on it. Still married.

transpac

I think it is relatively simple, easy, straight-forward and inexpensive (less than 10,000 baht) to legally document and secure the funds which your acquaintance sunk into the upcountry domicile. All it takes is a bit of forethought, common sense and planning.

Of course such protection might lead to a premature death by lead poisoning - which along with a few other "accidental" means seems attributable to many foreign deaths, but at least your heirs might have a shot at recouping some monies?

Your acquaintance probably also paid a non-refundable (sin sot aka "dowry") deposit on his bride? (Yes, I know these should be fully refundable, or at least subject to a reasonable "change fee".)

So many hard-luck stories here it's sad.

Isaan Lawyers get pretty good marks, for those smitten with a lovely from "up country".

And here is an explanation of Usufruct .


Most reports I've read say the condo market (original and re-sale) remains strong. This forum, all in Thai, have sub-forums for all properties, and allows one to get feel for the options in Bangkok anyway.

http://www.prakard.com/default.aspx?g=topics&f=5

A member of my adopted/extended (from when my parents lived here in 1964-66) Thai family purchased a condo in Bangkok five years ago for ~ 21 million THB, she has just sold it for 35 million THB.

Tchiowa

By law, if a Thai with a foreign spouse wants to buy land, the Thai has to prove that the money is their's, not the foreigner's. And the land is in the Thai name. I don't see any way to secure the money or recoup it in case of a divorce.

transpac

For the land, yes. For any funds provided for the house, furnishings and all the other trappings, it is quite simple and easy to both document and potentially recoup these funds.

In many cases, the cost of the land, if not already "owned" by the spouse, is minimal when compared to the additional funds the foreigner has spent building the house.

I should have been more clear.

forumpersona999

That is probably an isolated success story...

Taking prime Sukhumvit condo prices for new buildings, they have hung around 100,000 - 140,000 THB / sqm in the past years.

Not bad at first glance but if you then drive past these buildings at night and see that 70% of the units are dark at night you start to wonder about occupancy. Lower occupancy will mean less maintenance being done and common fees going up. Many buildings start with THB 40/sqm and within two years of opening you pay THB 60/sqm.

You then look at places like prakard.com and see places listed at a discount and listed forever. Someone will list a unit for sale and bump it every 2 weeks. I saw threads were decent enough condos on prakard.com are listed, the thread is bumped by the OP every other week and 6 months later he/she is still in there bumping it. This should give you an indication of the lack of liquidity in the second hand market. They had thousands of new units come on the market last year.

The only market segment where I see it relatively easy to re-sell and even possible to make a buck is with entry level condos where you have 1 bedroom ~45sqm for under 5M Baht close to public transport.

This is one of these markets where it's almost a better option to buy stocks into the local property developers and put the dividends towards paying your rental house. At least you have liquidity....


Thai residential property
1Q14 stays soft; hope for a better 2Q


Asian Property Dev PCL
Aggressive presales target for 2014


Quality Houses PCL
Low growth target for 2014