How Does It Work With Farang's Buying A House/condo In Thailand?

[FlavesEnt]

I saw some advertisements for some really nice houses on the island of Koh Tao for around 3 million baht, which is about $100,000 USD. I could sell my house and purchase one in Thailand and still have money left over. What are the requirements to be able to do this? Any links or information is helpful. Thanks.

[thaisail]

I saw some advertisements for some really nice houses on the island of Koh Tao for around 3 million baht, which is about $100,000 USD. I could sell my house and purchase one in Thailand and still have money left over. What are the requirements to be able to do this? Any links or information is helpful. Thanks.

Only a Thai citizen can own land in Thailand. However, many farang people will do a 30 year lease which is a good alternative. If say after 5 years, you want to sell, the house and land may appreciate so that you can sell the remaining 25 years to another farang. If you are married to a Thai citizen and you buy a house together, the house will be your Thai wife's name and if she were to die and there were no children, you would have one year to sell the land and or house. I am not sure what would happen if the house was in the farang/Thai child's name.

A Condo is another situation. The building that you buy your unit must have 51% Thai owners. Often the Thai residents do not pay their maintenance fees while the farang have no choice or face problem with immigration or police. This means that often the foreign residents are subsidizing the Thai residents. There may also be properties that are only for farong residents but these have to be checked carefully by a good lawyer to be sure that you are not being scammed. The best is to seek legal advice from the lawyers that work from this website.

[antony77]

If you are married to a Thai she can buy a house or land. To be on the safe side get her to give you a 30 year lease and have it endorsed on the back of her title deed. If you break up she can not sell the house and you can live in until the lease expires

[xylophone]

On that subject, let's say that you and your Thai wife buy a house, whereby you own the house, and lease the land off her for a thirty-year term. Ten years down the track, can you renegotiate the lease with her so it runs for another 30 years??

[samILO]

There are many alternatives to purchase land as said 30 years and extension rights, superficies (life time), right to use (life time) only to mention a few. Mots important for you to know is that any of the agreements for a term of more then 3 years have to be recorded at the land department in order to be valid for 3rd parties. Also a subject is if you can pas on such agreement to your hires, with differs to the agreements you make. I would suggest you get professional advice an the issue as it all depends on your interest in the property and use of it.

[loverboy44]

I agrre with the above.

Very important too is to let the land title be checked by an independant lawyer that has to give the result to you in a wriiten form.

For example in Koh Tao, as you mentioned it, you can not buy any land as it is government land.