wordchild

So their target market is farangs who are so desperate for cash that they are prepared to borrow at a 16% rate. And, these "desperate" farangs also need to have full, unencumbered, ownership of a condo in Bangkok or Pattaya, with a value somewhat greater than the amount they need to borrow. For someone in that situation it would surely make much greater sense to simply sell their property and realize the cash they need that way.

Never heard of them but had a quick look at their site. 1.25% per month for minimum term of 12 months ie annual equivalent rate of around 16%! Needs to be fully secured against your Thai property. (This is complicated under Thai law, for a non banking institution, and my guess is that the borrower would likely have to transfer ownership to them in some form -- maybe an enforceable purchase contract for the loan amount-- just my guess) In any event highly risky- for the borrower. Only for the seriously desperate!

Really depends on the situation for that particular condo. eg in Phuket many condos are (or used to be!) at or close to the max for the foreign ownership ratio, so , yes, a condo sold by a foreign owner in such a situation may attract a premium. For most/all condos in BKK the foreign ratio is nowhere near the maximum (49%) and if anything (from my experience ) foreign ownership has declined in recent years. So there is (usually) no premium for sales from the foreign allocation. In my own condo, which is/was popular with foreign renters and owners , the ratio has fallen from c29% to c22% over the last several years

should be the same; everything needs to be done via the land office to ensure legal transfer of title and to ensure all the relevant taxes are paid. Why would it be any different just because the seller is none Thai? I am sure the seller has given consideration to how he/she is going to get paid. Would be cautious about agreeing anything outside the normal procedure with the seller; what would be the benefit for you?

Funnily enough one of the 5/6 shops that i pass regularly and mentioned in the OP (suk area) seems to have just closed in the last few days; just a few empty shelves now. I wonder what the deal was with the lease- maybe his girlfriend can reopen it as a massage/coffee shop!

Yes , i think this is correct; fortunately President Xi is somewhat more astute than much of the Western Media portrays him.

Yes, its not like some of these places are small. i can think of a couple that have serious prime frontage (3/4 shophouses). Some significant cash staked here.

First of all, my apologies if there have been many other threads on this subject, i am not a regular on this forum , but i should have checked. ( The mods are welcome to delete if they feel its appropriate) How do i know about foreign involvement? mainly because i see it; there are 4 or 5 shops that i pass regularly , on my way to and from the BTS (or on school run) and also a couple around my office. In at least 3 of these shops i noticed foreigners involved as the shops were being set up. 1 of them actually has a farang guy on the counter most days when i pass, - doubt that will last long! I ask am i missing something, because possibly i am; I never understood the preponderance of tailor shops along Suk until a Thai Indian Doctor explained the reason to me a few years ago.

There must be more than 30 Cannabis shops , all opened in the last few months, within 1km of where i live in Bangkok. 2 (just opened) on the small soi where we live! My kids like to play "spot the new weed shop" whenever we drive somewhere locally (2 points if a new shop -1 if it was spotted before). It is obvious that some serious money has been spent on many of these places, plus lease and other commitments, yet i hardly ever see anyone in any of them. It seems to me that a great deal of cash is going to get burned here (along with the other substances). Especially as online sales really get going. Am i missing something? Many of these places seem to have foreign involvement one way or another, and i assume that the investors are not completely insane. Can anyone (who knows) explain the business rationale here?

that is exactly how i work, and have done for many years. Computer works well for certain tasks, but , personally, i find a notebook, (to do lists; project/personnel updates etc) works for me. Usually my first job in the morning- review the previous few days of notes and carry on from there. i find it a useful check/reminder and helps my self discipline. I have one sitting beside the screen as i type this right now, and its even got a Pen (yes one of those!) sitting on top of it, poised and ready to write something. We all have our own ways of working , i guess.

https://www.ft.com/content/f280de11-48c7-4526-aa92-ad1e1b7b6ed1 Interesting article in todays Financial Times. Its headed "The Untold Story of the Worlds Strongest Currency" and its about the Thai Baht! I am not sure if its behind their paywall, but the gist of the article is that vs the USD since the Asian financial crisis , only the Swiss Franc (of all the worlds major currencies) has performed better than the Baht. The author then gives his views as to why that has been the case. Personally i would take issue with some of what he says but its worth a read.

Or if you are staying North of the town La Baguette, somewhere around soi 43/45 on Petkasem, also a fav with the local expats. Opens around 7-30 , used to be great maybe expanded too much in recent years and the quality is not quite what it was. Just my opinion!

Morning bread Soi 94 , 1 soi (before) Bangkok Hospital going South from central HH. Great for eggs and bacon (and sausage) and fresh baked bread. Opens 7 am, about 200 Mtrs into soi 94 off Petkasem. A fav spot for the local farangs

Another factor to bear in mind is that VAT is levied on the car purchase price (or at least used to be) when a (2nd hand ) car is bought through a dealer, using finance, no VAT if it is a cash purchase (so i believe) . I am not really sure what the situation is if the buyer purchases the car and then subsequently arranges their own finance on the vehicle. I am guessing that if a vehicle is financed, then the VAT total is added to the loan amount , but really not sure about this. From my experience most Thais (other nationalities as well) don't focus on the total loan amount, they just care about the monthly costs.

One of the buyers I sold too wanted to use finance, it was no particular issue. The buyer was a good credit and was able to arrange himself. As far as I remember, it took a little longer than the other (cash) sales , and more paperwork was required. Also , as I remember, the sale was structured slightly different , but nothing that posed a major issue. I think it’s a bit of a myth that the dealers can offer “finance”, they can’t. Only the banks offer the finance, the dealers may have good bank contacts and (maybe) able to smooth things along a little , but, from what I have seen , that is about it. The major 2/3 banks involved in car finance in Thailand ( Thanachart being no 1), are extremely professional, with huge databases ,likely incl sales values down the chain of ownership and probably covering pretty much every car and model year ever sold in Thailand. They know more about real car values than anyone, and they know how to assess the risk. As long as the buyer is a reasonable credit prospect I don’t see why it should be especially more difficult for them to obtain finance for a “private “ purchase as opposed to buying through a dealer.

As far as i am aware not possible (anymore) to import (legally!) a car that was previously registered/owned outside Thailand. [The car i referred to in my post had been originally owned, by me, in the UK.] I think most/all the various loopholes have now been closed.

Bearing in mind the significant tax element in any new car purchase here (especially for imported brands), the depreciation should be pretty high. My impression is that the market was reasonably ok until 3/4 years ago but has got more difficult in recent years. so price expectations need to adjust.

sold 4 cars over the last 10 years or so. 3 were low mileage, popular brands, sold easily at what i considered to be fair prices, sold to private buyers via online mktg. Funnily enough one sold via Thai Visa to another Farang Thai resident. I dont know if Thai visa (or whatever they now call themselves) still offer that service but i put the car on the site , without any great expectations, sold within a month. The 4th car was very different, it was a very special/unusual car that i had imported originally from the UK (when you could still do that) it had been well maintained but was over 10 years old with high mileage. sold that to an enthusiast who was a member of the Thai Owners Club for that brand. we were put in contact with each other by the garage who had maintained the car for me over a number of years. Also got a pretty good price for that because of the comfort the buyer got from the maintenance history. Actually on that occasion,more important than the price, was the fact that the car was going to a genuine enthusiast for the brand. In summary i would say selling used cars in Thailand pretty much the same as anywhere else; offer a low mileage, in demand, car at a fair price and you will likely sell it reasonably easily.

For International (or expat!) investors simply focusing on the performance of UK shares as reflected in a Sterling based index is not really that helpful. one should also take into account the weakness of sterling against eg the USD over many years. If the FTSE index is restated in USD, then the current level is still 9% below the recent high which was in Feb 2022, ahead of the invasion of Ukraine, and (also restated in USD) the index is an incredible 32% below its level in November 2007. To be fair, the FTSE index does not include dividends. So if one looks instead at the FTSE Total Return, which does include dividends and again stated in USD, then that index is 6% below the level in Feb 2022 and 11% above its level in November 2007. So an investor simply buying and holding the FTSE in 2007 would be sitting on a pretty measly 11% total return (including dividends received) over the last 15+ years. Again i have stated everything in USD. None of this makes me anti UK investing (quite the opposite) as I feel there are a number of high quality and undervalued companies within the FTSE. It is though, a reminder, that as an expat investor one needs to consider currency exposure. I was advised many years ago, when i first worked overseas, to forget about sterling and use the dollar to monitor and measure investment performance. It was good advice and is (i feel) a useful discipline.

My understanding is that the standard 5 year licence is still valid for upto 12 months AFTER the expiry date. I certainly renewed my last one several months after the expiry date and without any issue. It may also suit , in terms of the length of the validity, of your new licence, for you to wait until after the stated expiry date.

of course it is always right to be cautious, (because things can change) and get specialist advice if you have concerns. it also depends on your situation in Thailand; ie expat retirees who receive pension income from abroad- probably not worth worrying too much about this. For those of us who work and file taxes in Thailand it is a different matter. Personally i think it is well worth paying for specialist (local) tax advice. Most people who work here do this, from my experience.

Fwiw , in the distant past, I had parts of the law translated line by line and explained to me by a Thai tax lawyer and, unfortunately,(as far as I remember) there is no single passage that one could quote that makes the exemption on (prior year) overseas income clear and explicit. As was explained to me then, the reason such income is not taxable is because it falls outside the definition of what constitutes Thai taxable income. Also some of the subtlety (of this definition) gets lost when translated from Thai. Income earned outside the Thai tax system in prior tax years is not regarded as income ,that could be taxed , rather it it is regarded as now being capital that was earned in the past ie so no longer subject to current year taxation. Actually it is in the countries interest that this capital can come back into Thailand rather than being held offshore. Also remember it is not just a narrow group of expats who have benefited from this treatment: major Thai corporations and wealthy Thai individuals also benefit from the treatment. There are plenty of excellent summaries of the situation by the likes of PWC et al.

i am not sure if it is relevant for the OP but, from my experience, it is much easier to transfer out securities (ie bonds or shares) than cash. If you have an investment account with a Thai broker it is relatively straightforward to instruct them to transfer the securities (and even the cash within the account!) from that account to another account overseas eg in Europe. As long as the account you are transferring too is in your name I have done this myself on 4 or 5 occasions, without issue, moving both single stocks and on one occasion an entire portfolio (which included some cash) . Sign a couple of forms, complete the relevant details and it can all be done over a couple of days, and your assets are now outside Thailand. It is one reason i maintain an account with a local broker for investing in local stocks, it also has other uses! From my experience the local brokers and, even those that are linked to banks are much more user friendly and flexible than the bank branches. One word of caution; i am an established customer of the local broker i use; I would be cautious about opening a broking account as a device just to move funds outside Thailand. You may have issues with the local money laundering Feds. But for the OP if this is a "one and done" moving your asset out of Thailand and, you are confident you can explain the source of funds, if required, then this maybe something worth exploring.

Yes i have come across this before (a few years ago) , and it is one reason (among others) that i closed the FCD account I had then. I was told by my (Thai) bank that i could not transfer USD directly from my FCD account to my Singapore bank (USD) account. Instead I would have to transfer my USD back to my Thai Baht account and then do a further currency transaction (back into USD!) to get the funds out and send to Sing. The reason i was given, was that otherwise the bank would lose the ability to make any money from the currency exchange. The Bank officer explained that with a completely straight face! As i said, this was several years ago, so maybe things have changed, but from my experience FCD accounts with Thai banks are expensive to operate and of limited use. Better hold non TB assets offshore from Thailand; eg with my Singapore multi-currency account i can transfer funds anywhere, with minimal fuss, in the currency of my choice, without the need to suffer the additional cost of a currency exchange.

depends on employer, but a number of international corporates pay non Thai staff a proportion of salary (or eg their annual bonus) outside Thailand, eg to an account in a tax friendly jurisdiction. sometimes this is dressed up as "consultancy fees" for another part of the business. I know it sounds dodgy but it is a fairly widespread practice and has been for many years.