How To Get Out Of An Off-the-plan Condo Purchase Contract

[clokwise]

Last year my wife and I purchased an off the plan 2 bdrm condo from Supalai at Srinakarin with the intention of living there. We've been making our monthly installments to the developer and we anticipate we will need to pay off the full amount appx. one year from now when the building is completed and title is transferred.

However we've recently decided that we don't want the unit any more. I suppose we could keep the unit and rent it out, but we're really DONE with Bangkok, we're moving to Chiang Mai in a couple weeks.

As my wife explains it to me, we are not able to sell the property at this stage without incurring a penalty from the developer. We do not expect to have enough cash on hand to pay the full amount next year, and we already have a mortgage on another property, so getting a second mortgage approved could be tough, but not impossible. On the other hand, the value of the condo has apparently risen a fair amount since our purchase so we would like to see a small profit from this if at all possible. Any penalties or mortgages will surely eat that profit all up.

Are there any mechanisms available where we could effectively sell the condo to a 3rd party prior to the transfer of the title from the developer to us?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[misterman21]

I cant see any reason why you cant sell the contract. Just a case of exchanging names on the contract for a nominal fee and the new person takes over payments. If the value has gone up then thats a good selling point.

why would the builder object to changing names on the contract?

[alive555]

I cant see any reason why you cant sell the contract. Just a case of exchanging names on the contract for a nominal fee and the new person takes over payments. If the value has gone up then thats a good selling point.

why would the builder object to changing names on the contract?

Check the assignment clause in the sales and purchase contract . The chance of there being any meaningful restriction is highly unlikely IMHO

[ThaiPauly]

I thought it was never a problem to sell on a contract.

When I was buying one it was stated in my contract that I could, but there would be a 20,000 Baht charge to change the name of the purchaser.

Many people buy Condo's in the hope of "Flipping" them prior to completion so they don't have to come up with the full sale price and make a tidy profit.

[quiksilva]

It usually depends on the developer and the contract you signed some are fine with it, some are not, some charge a fee as Thai Pauly mentioned. Read your contract carefully and then decide, or transcribe what it says here and we might be able to help more.

[tangoll]

I have heard from Thai buyers that Supalai is one of toughest developers with regard to name change on purchase contracts. So please post here what are the general conditions on name change; is buyer an individual or a company, and what is wording?

Asian Property charges baht 100,000 for a name change on their purchase contracts, but done willingly.

What bugs me is that real estate agents charge 3% commission calculated on the supposed sale price of the property, but in fact what is being sold is the value of the purchase contract whose value is just the imputed price of the property less the unpaid installments at the time of re-assignment. That value is all that the assignor of contract receives. What is being sold is not the property itself; just the value of the purchase contract. So the real estate agent makes a large commission (in % terms) when the commission paid is viewed against the value of the contract. This is a rip-off.

[thaigene2]

Unfortunately, you are now competing with all the 'professional' flippers/speculators. The thai-chinese 'gamblers' and their families. Supalai was one of the more affordable developers but the places are always massive concrete 'echo chambers' as someone else mentioned in another post.

Still - you know - every place has a price that someone will pay - you just need to offer a keen price that someone will pay. The Supalai places sre usually in good locales.

Good luck - with persistance and attention to pricing I'm sure you'll succesfully divest. Otherwise, just bite the bullet and complete, tart it up and rent for a keen monthly rent...mindful of the competition of course!