Hi !

I have tried to search for relevant thread/info but to no avail.

I understand that foreigner cannot buy landed house in Thailand. To do so one has to buy via wife's name or company. My question is, after I register an empty shell company under my name, can I raise a mortgage (via my company) to purchase a landed property ?

Many thanks !!

As it is illegal to buy land using a shell company, the quick answer is no.

saorsa hit the nail on the head.

Using a shell company purely for ownership of property is illegal so there is zero possibility of getting any form of finance.

If you have a properly operating, Thai majority owned, company with a reasonable record of accounts then it is not illegal for that company to own the property and, subject to approval from the bank, no reason why it should not be able to raise a secured loan.

EDIT Whilst the shell-company route is illegal, Thaivisa have not heard of any person / company actually being taken to court and losing property held in this manner.

If you are an individual raising a mortgage then the mortgage company can do a credit check on you and ask you for evidence of employment and expenditure in order to prove ability to pay. If you have a shiny new company set up to purchase this one property, what exactly do you think you will be showing the mortgage loan company in the way of ability to pay?

The simple answer is no...

Even a fully legitmate trading company with a track record wouldnt be granted a mortgage...it would be a commerical loan

Even after having a company for a long time owning condos for rental purposes i did investigate the possibility to get a mortgage.

I found it to be no problem at all, the reason was that i could produce financial statements showing profit and assets. I ended up not using it, as the 6-7% interest rate would eat away a large chunk of the possible ROI, so i waited to accumulate cash over a longer time, missing out on that deal to discover just as many good or even better deals later.

The minimum number of years you have to produce statements for is 3 years.

What the OP wants is firstly highly illegal, punishable by fines, jail time and blacklisting for visa purposes. With those odds against you would someone really think a bank is that stupid?

The ones that were adviced the company route using cash money of course as there is no other way to buy otherwise are somewhere in the future in for a big suprise.

Get rid of it while you can!

When someone has tilted their windmill towards the purchase of a house, no wheeze is out of the question, particularly when they don't have the money in the first place to make the purchase. The beautiful girl, the house, the life of happiness. It all beckons.