Best Way To Buy (or Better Say ''to Invest In'') Land

Dear All,

I made a purchasing contract with a housing project in Phuket and payed a 5 % reservation fee in advance. In 2 months the land & house has to be transferred and I will have to pay the full amount of 8.000.000,- Baht.

Since the last 6 months I was surfing in the internet, spoke to several Law Agencies, Thai friends and just about everybody I met, who bought a house or want to do so in the future.

I just want to make sure that my investment will be as secured as possible. Here is what I find out and what seems to me by far the best solution.

1. The land & house has to be purchased by a Thai national. (forget the nonsens of a company etc.)

I have a Thai girl friend but I'm living long enough here to know that you should never ever just put everything on her name without any other agreements.

so

2. You give her a mortgage of 2 times the value of everything you bought. In my case 16.000.000,- Baht. Of course you give her the money only virtuell. Actually you let register this mortgage in the Land Title (in my case Chanote) on your name. The mortgage has to be paid back in 30 years. The interest rate of the mortgage will be an annual 6% which she has to pay to you. You have to pay 1.1% as a tax to the government. So everything will be very official.

For me this would be 176000,- Baht. A lot, yes, but I can sleep well at night.

3. Additional you make a lease agreement with her for 30 years for the usage of the Land and House. Forget the 30+30+30 lease extensions since they are not worth the paper. The fee for the lease will be also an annual 6% of the investment. So her interest rates and your lease rate are equalizing eachother.

The only thing which I don't like is that I could not sell the House and Land without her approval (of course, since she is actually the owner). But I know for sure that in 30 years she has to pay the mortgage of 16.000.000,- Baht back to me. If she can't then the Thai Law gives me the right to sell House and Land within a specified timeframe.

You could also let her sign a paper where she is stating that she agrees to sell house and land. But this paper would only be valid as long as her identity card is valid. A thai identity card is valid for a period of 5 years. So make sure that she has an Identity card which just have been issued. Like this you will have the first 5 years of freedom to sell whenever you want. You could continue that as long as you want. She just has to sign everytime again.