Buy To Let Mortgage - Any One Any Success?

[GentlemanJim]

Wondering if anyone has found any Thai banks that are amenable to giving buy to let mortgages? I am interested just in purchasing condo's in BKK or Phuket etc but of course instead of buying one with 10 Mil, I was hoping to buy 5, sure you get the idea. Anyone with any info from their successes or failures I would be happy to furnish you with lots of beer or wine as appropriate Please reply or send a pm, thanks in advance.

[GentlemanJim]

Boing!

OMG! really surprised there is no info on buy to let mortgages. Thanks anyway.

[thepanom]

Boing!

OMG! really surprised there is no info on buy to let mortgages. Thanks anyway.

Go to a bank and ask them, Kasikorn looks like the one with the most easy acces, its not the information you asked for but I am still interested in your free beer award !!!

[mark5335]

When seeking a mortgage from a Thai bank 2 years ago to assist in financing the purchase of a buy-to-let property, the mortgage sales staff advised that the loan would not be approved if the intention was buy-to-let. They said we should disclose the purpose as for our own residence or for a close relative such as mother. I cross-checked this with another bank and they had a similar policy. The subject properties (we bought 2) were in the 8MB range located in central Bangkok).

[ExpatJ]

Jim

I looked around last year- HSBC Premier will give you max. 50,000 USD for a home loan on request, no questions, but its less than you are looking for.

I have actually decided to go different route - to only buy condos outright and then rent them. I do for two reasons- firstly takes the stress away, even when there are months without tenants since i own it i only have a smallish maintenance fee to pay. Secondly, i work full time so don't have time to hunt around and manage a number of properties. I currently have one condo in Jakarta, which i rent out.

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I just posted in the general forum- cut and pasted below- would be interested in hearing your opinions since you seem in the the know.

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I am thinking of buying a condo in bangkok to rent out as an investment. But i'm worried about oversupply and difficulties in finding a tenant. Does any one have experience of finding a tenant- success or failure stories?

From what i can see the high end condos by the BTS - @6-7 million baht for a 1 bedroom would be easier to rent out, but the rental returns would be only @5% realistically (i.e. for 7 m condo i think you'd be lucky to rent it for 40,000 baht per month). The cheaper condos 2-5 million for 1 bedroom seem to have higher rental returns but also seem to be harder to rent out...

Has anyone here based there retirement funds on owning and renting out condos? Its something i am thinking about as a long term goal...

If you have the cash to buy outright it seems there is no other investment product these days that give you cash every month and allows you to keep your initial investment.

Edited July 12, 2011 by ExpatJ

[Khun Jean]

Buy cash. If you can not afford a 1Mb condo buy a 500.000 baht one if you can not afford that buy a 250.000 baht condo.

Actually the cheaper the condo the higher the ROI. Using a mortgage kills your ROI and it can get into negative territory very easy when occupancy rates, or interest rates change.

Don't do it! When something unexpected happens you could loose your investment!

I started with buying one condo every 4 months. Then when my income increased i bought one every month. When i was without income for a half year i lived of the rents. When income came back i bought a condo every two months. It adds up quickly and adding condo's get easier.

Edited July 12, 2011 by Khun Jean

[ExpatJ]

Buy cash. If you can not afford a 1Mb condo buy a 500.000 baht one if you can not afford that buy a 250.000 baht condo.

Actually the cheaper the condo the higher the ROI. Using a mortgage kills your ROI and it can get into negative territory very easy when occupancy rates, or interest rates change.

Don't do it! When something unexpected happens you could loose your investment!

I started with buying one condo every 4 months. Then when my income increased i bought one every month. When i was without income for a half year i lived of the rents. When income came back i bought a condo every two months. It adds up quickly and adding condo's get easier.

Interesting. Do you have any trouble finding tenants for these cheaper units?

The only problem with having multiple condos is it takes increasing amount of time to manage them- find tenants, organise repairs, collect rents etc. -and i have a full time job which makes it tricky so im aiming to buy units that i can rent out at a minimum of 1000 US$ per month to try and make it cost/time effective for me to manage them..

[Khun Jean]

Interesting. Do you have any trouble finding tenants for these cheaper units?

The only problem with having multiple condos is it takes increasing amount of time to manage them- find tenants, organise repairs, collect rents etc. -and i have a full time job which makes it tricky so im aiming to buy units that i can rent out at a minimum of 1000 US$ per month to try and make it cost/time effective for me to manage them..

Finding tenants is not the problem. finding the right condos is. In fact when one gets empty it is rented out in only a few days. And that is because we use those few days to check/repair everything.

We have a list of people looking for a cheap condo so if we buy one more it is occupied from day 1.

Finding someone who can pay 1000us$ per month, now that is very hard!

Another advantage when using more condos is that if one or more are empty the other ones still generate income. And you need only a few days in bangkok walking around the 'farang' oriented areas to find many many empty appartments. Don't know where you want to look for condo's but it seems to me that the Thai are the majority.

Edited July 12, 2011 by Khun Jean

[GentlemanJim]

Guy's a sincere thanks for the very useful replies so far.

Sorry for the tardy nature of my late response but I have just been on a business run-a-round of the ME. I am back now and will dig into things much deeper and give those that requested it some feedback. I fully understand the sense behind the 'buy cash' philosophy.

Thanks again. back soon!

[gregb]

When seeking a mortgage from a Thai bank 2 years ago to assist in financing the purchase of a buy-to-let property, the mortgage sales staff advised that the loan would not be approved if the intention was buy-to-let. They said we should disclose the purpose as for our own residence or for a close relative such as mother. I cross-checked this with another bank and they had a similar policy. The subject properties (we bought 2) were in the 8MB range located in central Bangkok).

Mortgages in Thailand are only allowed for owner occupied residences. This is common across all banks.

If you wish to do rentals, you need to apply for a commercial loan. These are generally shorter term. Usually around 5 years. The advantage here is you can use the rental income as a basis for repayment of the loan.