New land ownership

[oceanbreeze851]

Wife and I live in Korat. We went to Sattahip with my stepson and his wife. I love the area. We decided to look for land to own and build a house. We found a 2 plot area with total size of 210 wah. Put down a deposit and will pay it off before end of January. We had looked at house designs and builders on the net and figure we could easily afford about a 4-5 million construction cost. I figured that I would pay about 1/4 down and finance the rest of the cost. I am being told now by a friend that no bank in Thailand will lend to a foreigner. The bank loan would have to be in my wife name and seeing she has not worked in Thailand for 10 years and has no assets in her name (until January when the land will be in her name), her loan would be refused. This seems wrong as we have our retirement IRA in Charles Schwab worth over $300K. I do not plan to move from Thailand as I have sold all assets in USA. I have not been to a bank yet. Any suggestions other than holding the land for a couple of years then selling or raiding the IRA and take the tax bit to pay for the house in cash?