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Abrak
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There really is no serious impediment to farang owning properties in Thailand.
Here are 3 routes
(1) Simple 1. You buy land with a 'Thai friend' acting as nominee. You secure ownership of the property by granting yourself a 30 (or multiple of 30) year lease on the property. (If Thai friend goes awol you still have the lease for a minimum of 30 years).
(2) Simple 2. 30 year lease or multiple there of. Under Thai law you can only register a lease up to a maximum of 30 years. You can set a contract to give yourself additional multiples of 30 years. No reason to expect a problem but these contracts have not been tested in court.
(3) Complicated. You set up a Thai company to own the land. This can be done in a number of ways e.g. 1. Thai nominees acting as 51% shareholders (having signed share transfer forms) 2. Thai nominees hold 51% but almost none of the voting shares 3. multiple companies owning each other (e.g. you own 10% of 4 cos and each of the 4 cos own 30% of the remaining 3 = effective 100% ownership). None of these structures have encountered problems but then again none of been tested in Thai law.
Owning a company is expensive to set up and maintain but does offer tax advantages if you sell the property. (Whichever route you choose should depend on your personal circumstances and the value fo the property).
As far as I know, no farang has run into legal problems with owning property (apart from the guys who put the property in their wife's name and then seen her run off!!)
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 12:21 am on July 13, 2004
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LivinLOS
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Abrak, very good accurate assessment.. Personally I would always go the company route as you can then sell the company lock stocke and barrel to the prospective purchaser which can aid in taxation issues..
The only thing I would add is that the comany should not be set up exclusively to own the land (what it is in fact being used for) as thats a no no.. If you have other business interests great. Up to now this has not been an issue but I hear the good old boys at the TRT want to start clamping down on this.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 12:37 am on July 13, 2004
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Abrak
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The revenue department is interested in investigating all 'non-trading' companies as Thais have been using them to avoid various property taxes.
I own 2 properties in Thailand and have not gone down the 'company' route simply because I didnt want the constant hassle of maintaining them (auditing) or the costs of setting up the company (and company structure).
P.S. Perhaps I should add that too much attention is paid to this issue. When buying a house more attention should be paid to 1. the validity of the land title deed (road access, chanote # etc.) and 2. the financial status of the developer (if there is one). This is where a lot of buyers come unstuck.
Simply put... if you are content with a 'minimum' of a 30 year lease on your land, a lease structure is probably more appropriate (still that is quite a big 'if')..
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 12:48 am on July 13, 2004
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NaughtiusMaximus
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There are ways around everything, I have seen many different ways of securing ownership in roundabout ways. But the original question was that the guy wanted to borrow half the funds against the property to buy it. I believe he will be pushing sh_t uphill to do it. A foreign bank will laugh at the structure, complicated and unsure, leases etc etc, they will toss it in the to hard basket, they will see themselves as not being secured properly over the title and therefore their cash is at risk.
I have seen farang do it, but done through wives and also having considerable equity in this or other properties to make it an easy and risk free deal for the banks.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 1:12 am on July 13, 2004
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imac man
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Great replies - thanks.
Regarding my original question "Can I obtain finance in Thailand" it sounds like the answer is NO - I will have to save a bit longer, or try and get someone to go into it with me.
I have read that in Thai law, if after 30 years the land owner does not grant you another lease and they want their land back, they must pay full market value for the property.
I'll have to do a lot of investigating while I'm there.
So you guys think buying a place outright in Bangkok is a much better option ?
Would there be any rental / investment potential in your opinion ?
Thanks again.
7 days to go......
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 3:33 am on July 13, 2004
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ThaidUp
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Quote from NM "I have seen farang do it, but done through wives and also having considerable equity in this or other properties to make it an easy and risk free deal for the banks."
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I obtained 5% down 95% loan married to a Thai wife who does not work (At least that is my impression of what she does)
United States citizens can form 100% USA own companies that also have the right to purchase property for business purpose and have ownership. This is under the joint treaty between Thailand and USA.
Thai Banks are awash in cash. I was personnaly told that SCB did want my business account unless I wanted to borrow money. Since 1997 the average person has been hoarding cash in banks. They are trying to find places to loan this out at 4>5% to make some money.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 4:00 am on July 13, 2004
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NaughtiusMaximus
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WOW, I know where they can put some, got there biz card.
IMAC, it is correct that after 30 years if you have no further option, or if the laws change it goes back to the owner who supposedly must buy the property off you. But only the land, not the buildings. As a farang, you cannot own the land, unless doen in some of the roundabout ways mentioned above. But you can own 100% of the buildings that sit on the land. So, when 30 years comes up, he can say, f_ck you, I dont want your sh_tty 30 million baht house, you can remove it or I will give you 100,000 baht for it. You cannot really remove it cheaply, a lot of work if it can be removed at all and a lot of cost, you say f_ck you, I will bulldoze it then and leave you with the mess and nothing for it, he says ok, I give you 1 million, you say f_ck you, he says f_ck you and whoever says f_ck you last, wins.
Bottom line is, he only has to buy the land back, thats my understanding of it anyway.
But then again, if you have only leased it, they can just take it back for free cos its their land anywya, you own the buildings and can do what you want with them, easy huh.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 4:41 am on July 13, 2004
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manowar
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Bottom line is, IMHO, when you are in a country that is against foreign ownership of real property/land, you never have full protection of the law if something goes wrong because you are NOT supposed to own it in the first place. I think if you are thinking aboue relocating to Thailand permanently or you have married a thai wife and the relationship seems very strong and can last, maybe then you should just petition to become Thai citizen yourself in which case, you will enjoy all the benefits (eg. mortgage, title....) and aversion of risk of a Thai citizen. But do they allow naturalized citizens in LOS ? Anyone knows ?
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Thai Girls : Meet Active Thai Girls
Posted on: 10:39 am on July 13, 2004
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ThaidUp
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I think one requirement is that you speak and write fluent Thai, well in that case I never made it past step 1 to see what other requirements are,
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 11:13 am on July 13, 2004
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imac man
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Maybe you are all right and it is not worth taking the risk.
I would have loved to own somewhere in Thailand, even it was just a good excuse to go there more often.
I have not given up completely. When I arrive in Koh Samui I will check it out for myself, but I do appreciate your comments.
Hopefully I'll have some other reviews to post in other areas of this forum too !
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 1:07 pm on July 14, 2004
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