A Thai woman I know, early 30's, employed full time as a sales clerk earning about B15,000/m  has received 500,000 Baht from her family, her share from the proceeds of some family land just sold.   She lives not far from Mega Bang Na in a rented room.  Though she plans to put a large portion into CD's, she would also like to purchase a small condo.  Apparently, there are many studio units in nearby older buildings selling in the B250-B500K range.  She's put about 30% down and finance the rest.

Does anybody know if the government has any kind of first time condo buyer programs for Thais similar to the program they had for 1st time new cars buyers a few years ago?

As far as I know, there is no such program.. but even if... do you know how many people lost their car due to some small problems like loosing their jobs or income going down?

I know about it as I am the one who took my wife's car out of that program.

Most Thais don't have or know about safety cushions for investments and possible future problems

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Financially it would make sense to purchase the condo outright and then have a regular savings vehicle  in place. Any mortgage rate will be far more than interest gained on a savings  plan. 

On 7/10/2018 at 6:50 PM, dddave said:

Does anybody know if the government has any kind of first time condo buyer programs for Thais

Why are you asking us?

We are all foreigners, get her to ask some Thais for advice.

On 7/10/2018 at 6:50 PM, dddave said:

Does anybody know if the government has any kind of first time condo buyer programs for Thais similar to the program they had for 1st time new cars buyers a few years ago?

There is a government program for "low cost" housing

https://www.nha.co.th/view/1/Home

 

Quote

Baan Eua-Arthorn, one of the NHA’squality housing development projects, has been developed with a keen awareness of the significance of the institution of family and in the hope that this project would serve government policy in providing standard residential quarters for the target groups. These include the disadvantaged, low-income earners, junior civil servants and government employees, all with not more than 22,000 baht / month income per family (income as of 2006 - present). Project implementation began in 2003. The government provides subsidies in the amount of eighty thousand baht per unit for the cost of construction of public utilities. As of December 2006, there are seventy-two completed projects encompassing 65,293 housing units in total

 

Why would you want to finance a condo which costs 500k if you have 500k on your bank account? You feel sorry for the poor banks and want to give them some of the money?

9 hours ago, jackdd said:

Why would you want to finance a condo which costs 500k if you have 500k on your bank account? You feel sorry for the poor banks and want to give them some of the money?

First place; not me.  I have no money in this.   Lady asked for my advice.

The theory behind long term mortgage borrowing has always been that over time, you are paying back with cheaper (inflated) money while your capital works for you and the property appreciates.  This has been argued about for years.

On 7/13/2018 at 11:20 PM, dddave said:

First place; not me.  I have no money in this.   Lady asked for my advice.

The theory behind long term mortgage borrowing has always been that over time, you are paying back with cheaper (inflated) money while your capital works for you and the property appreciates.  This has been argued about for years.

Except such a property imo will not appreciate. It will be next to impossible to get such a loan on 2nd hand condo. The interest is ridiculous. If you have the cash, buy it outright. She'll do ok if she plans to live the balance of her life in it. How much would this rent for? Not much, especially in years ahead when it's even more dire.