How Much Were You Able To Get ?

[CWMcMurray]

I realize that this Poll is a bit long, but my wife and I just submitted our application for a mortgage on a house today. Loan in my wife's name and me as the co-signor on the loan.

I have seen this topic come up quite often and thought that this poll might be a good way to gauge how often.

My wife works (own her own shop in one of the local malls), but she would not qualify for the loan amount on her own. I work in Thailand with a WP and if I was a Thai person, I would qualify for a mortgage of about 60% higher than the amount requested.

Would appreciate any info from members on the form.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

100% of the actual amount. The bank's policy is a bit less, but this is on the assessed value of the property, so if they agree it's worth more than what you actually paid then the net result is that you get 100%.

I work, WP, partner (not married, legally) also works.

I recommend you shop around a bit at banks and bank branches. It totally depends on finding a person at a branch who is good to work with. I think it depends on the person/branch more than the bank. One bank told us it would be easier if we were married.. We then considered it would be easier to go to another bank.

Final point of advice: EVERYTHING is negotiable.

Edited December 5, 2009 by WinnieTheKhwai

[CWMcMurray]

Thank you for the info, I am happy to hear you were able to do this without to many problems...

We are trying to buy through a housing project... the sales person advised that they will pay to submit to 3 different banks.

1. SCIB - this is the projects preferred bank (special agreement for 100% of house value), but the sales person advised that when she spoke with the bank, they told her to only submit my wife's info. They did not want me to co-sign, they advised that it "may be possible" if my wife doesn't qualify.

2. Ayuthaya Bank - One of my wife's customers is friends with a branch manager and she offered to go with my wife and ask her friend to help. My wife met with the manager and at first, he was not sure if as a foreigner I could co-sign or not. He made a phone call to "head office" and then advised that as long as we were married and I had a work permit I could. My wife submitted her docs on Friday and I went in today and submitted all of mine. This bank's policy is no more than 90% of property value.

3. Bangkok Bank - One of our neighbors in the moo baan we are renting is a branch manager and advised that he could help us. This is also the bank that my company uses and the owner of my company has offered to help talk to the bank if needed, but I would like to do this on my own if possible. Bangkok Bank only allows max of 80% of property value.

We have already submitted the first two Banks for the time being and will wait to hear back from them before going for the third. This is because we are hoping to get 90% of sale price and Bangkok Bank only offers 80%. So we should her back in aprox two weeks and then go from there...

[trogers]

Is getting a higher % of property value a good thing? Remember the sub-prime mess?

We should aim to fork out more down payment, a lower loan amount, and a shorter repayment period.

If not, we may just be living beyond a means that has some breathing room for unforeseen future event.

I usually make sure my monthly repayment is not more than 80% of the rental value of the property so that in the worst situation, the property repays itself.

[CWMcMurray]

I understand what you are saying, but in this case we will be living in the house rather than renting it out.

Also, even if we were able to get a mortgage for 100% it would only be about 5,000 thb/mo more than the place we are renting now and should still be well within our budget even if the rates increase.

We have been going over this for a while and if we don't buy a house we just end up giving the money to the landlord, so we just figure that we might as well give it to the bank. At least this way we will eventually own the house...

[TheAceFace]

We used SCB....No hassles what so ever. Im married to a Thai and I have a WP. Wife takes care of the kids. 80% morgage was given. I did have to provide statements, visa et al. They also recommended that the wife should have reasonable bank statements.....basically to send money to her account each month that shows you can more than cover the costs of the payments for the home. In our case the statement had to be good for 6 months.

Good Luck.

[needforspeed]

I had the same thing going on about 4 years ago, my wife has her own shop i work overseas and was a co-signer.

Bank staff helping her to make the documents, she paid 20.000 under the table and done within a few days .

"corruption very bad as long as you dont need it".

[CWMcMurray]

Thank you all for sharing your personal experiences.

To be honest, I am pleasantly surprised. It looks like as long as we have all of our ducks in a row paperwork wise, this may not be as difficult as we originally thought.

Looking forward to hearing back from more folks

[jackr]

50% / 15 years - SCB. Fobbed off by BB. Neither of us work and it was based on invoices for work done in the UK up to 10 years previous

[CWMcMurray]

I see this was moved to the housing area, but I put in the General Forum because I am looking for feedback from people who have already purchased their home and received a mortgage. I believe that once some one has already purchased their home they may be much less likely to read the housing forum. They have already been through the process and already have their home, so may no longer be looking for answers.

I was hoping that this topic could have remained on the general forum for at least a few days in order to collect more data. Then it could have been moved to the housing forum as a reference for those looking to buy their home.

If any moderators agree with the above, I would appreciate it if this could be moved back to the general forum for a couple more days.

[stromasher24]

Also through SCB, the projects 'preferred bank'.

With WP got 55% over 15yrs, Wife is a Thai and works.

SCB reckoned that as my WP wasnt continual for the last couple of years but had a couple month break last year 50-55% was all they could give?

Not sure if thats the same elsewhere or a just a line they were spinning?

They wanted a bit of paperwork, well seemed a lot to me being the lazy sod that I am.

55% works out ok thankfully, leaves enough for San Miguel and all those other essntials

[CWMcMurray]

This is pretty interesting...

One point that is particularly surprising is that 14 people were able to get 100% mortgage and another 3 where able to get 90%. This coupled with the fact that only 12 with Thai wives/husbands who are working... this means that a least five foreigners (possibly more) were able to secure 90-100% mortgage based upon their income alone.

I wonder if these folks had PR or just working in Thailand with WP and 1yr visa extensions.

[quiksilva]

UOB mortgage 95% of value, work here with a work permit, Thai wife also works.

[torrenova]

I understand what you are saying, but in this case we will be living in the house rather than renting it out.

Also, even if we were able to get a mortgage for 100% it would only be about 5,000 thb/mo more than the place we are renting now and should still be well within our budget even if the rates increase.

We have been going over this for a while and if we don't buy a house we just end up giving the money to the landlord, so we just figure that we might as well give it to the bank. At least this way we will eventually own the house...

I talked to SCB, through whom most of my business cash flows (though they have no idea where it comes from or where it goes) as I wanted my partner to get a loan (not then but about 6 months from the date I spoke to them).

I wanted to put the argument that on a nominal Bt3m, with a 20% deposit (Bt0.6m) and loan of Bt2.4m at around 6%pa, the repayments would equate to the rent that we were paying. In addition, a Bt16,000 vehicle finance payment would have finished by then, freeing up approximately the same amount as the mortgage as well. Net net, She / we would be Bt16,000 ahead on total costs and net zero on housing costs at the time of the proposed application.

What I wanted was their help and guidance on how they would like to see things presented to them in say 6 to 9 months at the time of application. I would have no WP nor verifiable income (business income is back to back with loans for tax purposes) but my partner could have any income they wished to see, backed up by whatever paperwork they would require.

The general answers were that they wanted bank books / statements showing the history going back at least 6 months. They would also need tax receipts and some documentation from her "employment". If she wanted to apply as a sole trader or business then they would require audited books (so that was a non starter).

I was left with the feeling that if she were to volunteer to pay tax on a sufficiently high enough income to satisfy their multiples (2x or 3x or whatever it is) and get the receipts from whatever government body one pays tax to and as long as someone or a company would write her some letter regarding her employment, and the net figures were deposited into her bank account, then there would be no problem.

I would have been prepared to put more on the table but as many business people, tax receipts rarely show the full picture and yet it is those figures they wanted to see. If you were putting down much more in terms of a deposit, I think you can bypass many of the "rules".

My decision to do it was to pay the same as rent (save for the deposit) and then take a huge second charge over the property to make sure that any increased value would never outstrip the massive (say Bt100,000,000 second charge), thus rendering it under my control or the control of my estate, for the benefit of our daughter, leaving her unable to sell it and have the family bleed her dry.

[MJo]

I'm planning to do the same so interesting information. Actually the % is not that much concern for me as i plan to loan only around 30% to 40% max.

But how about interest rates and load duration. Best deal i have got for now was MLR - 1.25% from UOB (this rate after 3 years, the first three had better rates...).

Appreciate if anyone has any recent info on the rates. Negotiable or you have to agree on their standard rates ?

[torrenova]

I'm planning to do the same so interesting information. Actually the % is not that much concern for me as i plan to loan only around 30% to 40% max.

But how about interest rates and load duration. Best deal i have got for now was MLR - 1.25% from UOB (this rate after 3 years, the first three had better rates...).

Appreciate if anyone has any recent info on the rates. Negotiable or you have to agree on their standard rates ?

I got the impression that everything was done "somewhere else" aka "head office" and it was a take it or leave it scenario. I don't know if there is a discount for low LTV ?

[CWMcMurray]

LATEST UPDATE:

Just got word from the housing project that SCIB has finally confirmed to them that a foreigner can co-sign for the mortgage and they asked us to come in tomorrow to give them all of my info and docs.

[CWMcMurray]

Just want to add another bit of information I learned wen speaking with the bank...

They advised that if you have income from overseas it can be considered, but it will need to be transferred into your Thai Bank account monthly... if you simply withdrawal from an ATM every month, then it can not be considered.

[portpower]

It looks to me like you just....Roll The Dice at The Banks and take your Chances.

If you have no luck ......Bribe a willing bank staff member... ......Too easy

[geordie]

Just learned today that Bangkok Bank will loan me and the wife 3 million, which is about 65% of the morgage. It has taken 6 weeks to get the decision and i will co sign.

[CarlBkk]

Wait a minute, the poll results show a surprising number of successful mortgage applicants who either live in Thailand without a WP or don't live in Thailand but still got a mortgage through a Thai bank. Is it true that some Thai banks will give a mortgage to a foreigner (after checking foreign bank statements/accounts) and rely on his wife to secure the loan?!

[CWMcMurray]

Even more surprising to me is that with only 19 Thai spouses working and 34 mortgages aproved.... that means that at least 15 mortgages must have been aproved based upon the income of the foreigner alone.

[CWMcMurray]

Well, no answer before the new year.... hopefully hear something back the beginning of Jan.

Banks all said that we should have an answer within two weeks and it has been a little longer than that...

Not sure how much stock to put into this, but the sales person at the moo baan said that if they will not offer any mortgage they will normally tell you within a week...

The wife's opinion is that they are waiting until the new year because it is likely that the Bank wants the mortgage to be on the books for 2010 instead of 2009.

[mark5335]

Even more surprising to me is that with only 19 Thai spouses working and 34 mortgages aproved.... that means that at least 15 mortgages must have been aproved based upon the income of the foreigner alone.

I was successful in getting 2 mortgages approved during the last year in my (non-working) Thai wife's name, based on me as guarantor (under-pinned by a Thai baht salary from a large MNC). Both my wife and I have good credit records in Thailand with NCB which helped alot with the approval.

Loan details are 80% LTV on a 15 year loan (StanChart), and later 70% LTV on a 10 year loan (BBL). Each property cost < 10MB.

[DegenFarang]

Can a foreigner living in Thailand on an ED Visa, who is not married or have a Thai partner he wants on the loan, possibly qualify for a loan? Say I was willing to put 50-60-70% down as a down payment, had strong bank history from within Thailand and a long history of verifiable income coming from overseas, is it possible? Or do you still need to have a Thai person involved?

[JohnM]

Other options do exist for foreigners seeking finance for their Thai property acquisitions.

ww.mbmg-international.com.asp1-4.dfw1-1.websitetestlink.com/-tid169.aspx

Edited January 4, 2010 by JohnM

[CWMcMurray]

Well it looks like they may have just been waiting until after the new year like my wife thought....

The wife just received a call from the Bank today (SCIB) and they asked her few more questions about her business and about my job. They told her that they would be sending someone to her shop to take some pictures and that she should be getting a call from a manager soon.

They also asked her if she was in a hurry to sign the contract or not? Not really sure why they would ask that question unless they were planning on approving a mortgage, but he couldn't provide any details, would only say that a manger would be calling her "soon".

So wish me luck !!!

[CWMcMurray]

Well the latest is that they asked for another copy of my passport and asked me to sign a release for them to check my credit history with the National Credit Bureau. They advised that we should have the answer by the end of the week.

[CWMcMurray]

Well latest update...

Received a call from the Sales Person at the Housing Project. They advised that they received notice from the Bank that the mortgage was aproved and that we could come in this weekend to sign the contract, but that we would not get "offical notice" from the bank uptil the contract has actually been submitted.

That being said,the Housing Project has confirmed that if the Mortgage amount is less than 90%, then we will have the option to back out and the depost will be refunded in full.

So will we are likely to have the final answer beginning of next week.

[dvdlock]

Well latest update...

Received a call from the Sales Person at the Housing Project. They advised that they received notice from the Bank that the mortgage was aproved and that we could come in this weekend to sign the contract, but that we would not get "offical notice" from the bank uptil the contract has actually been submitted.

That being said,the Housing Project has confirmed that if the Mortgage amount is less than 90%, then we will have the option to back out and the depost will be refunded in full.

So will we are likely to have the final answer beginning of next week.

Good luck, I hope it all works out for you.

What sort of interest rates are 'typical' for a mortgage in Thailand?

Regards

Dave.