I am considering purchasing a resale house which is currently under a leasehold agreement with the existing owners. They present owners say (as does the develop[er) that I can purchase the freehold for an additional sum @ 20 x the annual lease rate. This is a clause within the orriginal purchase contarct between the existing owners and developer.

My question is...............Is this an expensive exercise and are there any tax penalties

If this is a viable option would I need to exercise that option at the time of purchase or could I defer without any additional costs or problems. The current annual lease payment ahs been made up until March 2012

Thanks

House and land owned by a developer who leased the property out to an original owner. But the house and land do not exist by themselves. There has to be common areas to support the moobaan. So the questions will be, what rights will you have over such common areas, or will you have to pay monthly to use these common areas?

In a development where a moobaan was built for sales, such questions should not arise as these common areas will be clearly marked as such and be shared together by the individual house owners.

A foreigner cannot own land in Thailand, there are rare exceptions, so you should investigate just what a 'freehold' house means. If you are talking about the house only, then yes you can own the house separate from the land.

My first question would be why didn't the original purchaser buy it as a Freehold ?

From what I have read here at TV, this is just developer speak and I would obtain independent counsel before I signed or paid for anything

BTW, stop chasing tax "penalities", concentrate on the legalities of this purchase and you can worry about taxes later

Whatever is written in the agreement between the present owner and the developer (I assume the developer was the seller) is really not of your concern and has no merits what-so-ever in your eventual purchase of this property. It is solely up to the present owner to ensure that he/she fulfills his/her duties to the developer. i.e. he/she shall pay of the mentioned 20 times leasing fees, not you. You will negotiate and agree on the prices for the land (assuming you have a Thai spouse) and the house only assuming it was freehold already, but with a condition that the agreement shall only enter into force when the land title is clear.

Do never involve a third party in an agreement!

If the propeety you are looking at has a separate Chanote or NS3G and is a part of a Moo Baan with more than 8 units approved, it has the right to use the Moo Baans roads but not the commonareas like pool/gym etc. This right must be secured.

Tax to remove lease from Chanote/NS3G is close to nothing. Transfertaxes to transfer title to new owner (Thai national or Thai co ltd) is a total of approx 5,8%