johnnyk

Buyers often first decide where they want to live, for numerous reasons. Rather than relying on numbers concocted by drones in cubicles, check out similar properties in the area. The buyer is looking for the best value for his money. Act accordingly.

Make sure you are at least 50 years old.

Estate agents are always ready and willing to fit suckers, er, buyers with a new set of pink lenses.

Prices in the toilet? No pompem, great buying opportunity. Hurry!

Prices in the sky? No pompem, get in now before they go up even more.

The price is exactly what someone is prepared to pay. P.T. Barnum's spirit lives on.

Thais are notorious for not paying their condo fees. So the building slowly crumbles through lack of money for maintenance, repair and contingency fund. Your "investment" crumbles along with the bricks.

Try

xe.com

- they do money transfers simple and quick - I get regular payments from Canada and Australia to Thailand at exchange rates generally better than the banks and I'm sure the other way would be the same. You know you are going to get crapppped on for exchange rates anyway!

Not sure how easy it is to buy USD here - especially in large amounts. Most high-street exchanges only sell baht.

Or just repeatedly use your Thai ATM card back in the US. You'll get that standard bank rate.

He wants to move $US OUT of Thailand, not in.

Forget western Union. Terrible exchange rate, ridiculous charges.

Paypal doesn't work with Thai banks and is only good up to $8000 anyway. Useless if you want to transfer sums larger than spending money.

The Granola Ghetto.

Never heard of most of them.

A celebrity is a person famous for being well-known.

To get a work permit you must set up a company capitalized at 2 million AND have 4 Thai employees on the books. Don't let them near any money, cleaning and cooking ok.

They will likely be the biggest headache.

If you can manage with just your GF then pay 4 Thais to stay home, just pay their gov't health and pension contributions. Paperwork PITA so hand it over to a bookkeeper.

Boy and Boom, immediately behind the main temple downtown. Walk through the grounds and emerge where Binthabaht joins Poolsuk at the T-junction.

New bikes are 4000/month, older ones 3500.

Manual and auto available.

Bring your passport, they will photocopy on the spot.

Had quite a few first dates in ST rooms but the relationships didn't really jell.

I unravel the belt and buckle up every time. Never had a problem from drivers or ground staff.

Kingly standards have slipped badly.

We need to bring back le roi du soleil, Louis XIV, to reset the proper style.

He owned every inch of France (well worth owning), very fish in every river and every animal in the forest.

And you can enjoy visiting his house at Versailles or his 440-room "hunting lodge" at Chambord.

No point in being King if you can't enjoy it!

HH Immig office is on the canal road, right side going north. Extension is 1900 baht plus pennies for photocopies you may need.

I can buy an interest in all of the land that I want in Thailand. If you think land in Thailand is undervalued buy a Thai Real Estate Investment Trust. Someone can educate me otherwise but I think all Farang can buy a REIT on the SET.

http://www.set.or.th/en/products/listing/criteria_p7.html

A REIT is paper. Holding shares in a REIT is not land ownership and the holder has no influence on how the land is managed. The share certificate doesn't allow the holder to possess or use the land in any way, it is totally indirect.

Someone is comparing Denmark foreign ownership policy to Thailand . again I give up. Denmark along with UK dutch Spain etc were worlds apart from Thailand. Let's stick to point. Thailand needs change even at cost if expats living high on the hog.

Do you really think that the government in Thailand has any way to keep land prices under control? Do you see all of the new construction going on?

Good point. I am trying to work out what is driving all the condo developments???

I'm in kanchanaburi at present. Nice place but many joints empty. Why I see 3 five story developments. Correct me please but this must be from very rich Thai groups same as drives pattaya jomtien etc. Someone please tell me this is foreign driven.

Wash, rinse, spin. Repeat as needed to clean it all. Capisce?

Enough of the Lanna Care sandbox spat, the thread is about banks and falang money.

Go to another branch.

He can walk along the beach all he wants. Nobody is stopping him. Just get on the beach without trespassing, not a difficult concept.

I can only answer in respect of leasing land for 30 years upon which I have built my(cheap-to-build) property:

2) Are all 30-year leases paid in advance as a "leasehold" purchase? Or are they / can they be structured as a standard monthly payment, due every month for 30 years? (And would any property owner ever even go for that?)

I pay monthly, with no 'key-money' or initial deposit.

So at the end of 30 years you lose your house? Or is there some way you can see a return of its value?

Pretty much yes. The landowner can buy it from you though I suspect he would offer peanuts, take or leave it. Or, he could tell you to move your pile of bricks off his land, pronto.

Residential or commercial property lease?

Most 30-yr leases are residential offered by developers who want it all up front. Not great because you must factor in opportunity cost. By paying a large sum upfront rather than monthly you forfeit any earnings the capital might earn.

Example: you pay 3 million for 30 years upfront. A reasonable assumption would be 4% return on that 3 million or 120,000/year x 30 = 3,600,000 baht opportunity cost.

Most commercial leases are 3 years at a time, or 2 years 364 days so the landowner doesn't register the lease to avoid tax.

Clearly, if you could pay 100,000 a year over 30 years you could pay it from income earned by the capital.

The 30 year up front payment is a bit of a loser for the buyer but many developers (most falang ones) want the money up front because they build their developments without bank financing.

At the end of the 30 years you have nothing if it was all paid up front.

Green Garuda is land deeded to poor people but AFAIK with no right of resale as it has been granted by HM to help poor people in rural areas. The land can't be used for a quick sale to bail out Somchai from gambling debts or whatever.

The Red Garuda is 99.9% safe but the state retains the right to expropriate the land if deemed necessary but are supposed to compensate fair market value.

There is a third, clear no colour Garuda which is absolute 100% airtight land ownership.

Johnnyk please provide links to your information on Green Garuda land papers? Because i believe you are totally wrong.

lannarebirth you wrote that with Green Garuda land papers "has a prohibition from selling for typically 5 years" where did you get this information?

ThaidDown answered the OP question with a great link, here's another

http://www.thailawonline.com/en/property/title-deeds-in-thailand.html

No links, I was told by a Thai neighbour who owns several properties one with green and one with clear, ot hers with red. Not a rice farm lady but university grad living in Norway but my neighbour during holidays.