Question about the Condo Act.

[Frank78]

Hello everyone.

I believe a lot of people here are familiar with the Condo act.

I wanted someone to explain to me the line (5) in this paragraph. Especially what they do mean by "or evidence of withdrawal of money from Thai Baht account of the person who have residence outside the Kingdom". Unlike the sentence before, they don't seem to talk about "foreign currency" here.

Section 19/3 (ter) In transferring of ownership of an apartment to an alien or juristic person as specified in Section 19 shall the applicant for transfer of ownership of apartment shall notify the Competent Official of the name of the alien or juristic person as specified in Section 19 together with the proportion of space of apartments already owned by such aliens or juristic persons, and the alien or juristic person who applies for holding the ownership of apartment shall present the following evidence to the Competent Official;
(1) For the alien as specified in Section 19 (1), evidence of being permitted to have residence in the Kingdom under Immigration Law must be presented;
(2) For the alien as specified in Section 19, the evidence of being permitted to enter the Kingdom under investment promotion law must be presented;
(3) For the juristic person as specified in Section 19 (3), the evidence of being registered as the juristic person under Thai law must be presented;
(4) For the juristic person as specified in Section 19 (4), the evidence of obtaining promotion certificate under investment promotion law must be presented;
(5) For juristic persons stipulated in Section 19 (5), they shall produce evidence of bringing in foreign currency into the Kingdom or evidence of withdrawal of money from Thai Baht account of the person who have residence outside the Kingdom or withdrawal of money from foreign currency account in the amount of not less than the price of the apartment to be purchased.

Thanks a lot!

[Delight]

This is my understanding of the paragraph:

(Do not take this as definitive –it is only my interpretation)

(5) For juristic persons stipulated in Section 19 (5), they shall produce evidence of bringing in foreign currency into the Kingdom or evidence of withdrawal of money from Thai Baht account of the person who have residence outside the Kingdom or withdrawal of money from foreign currency account in the amount of not less than the price of the apartment to be purchased.

A Juristic person is a company so :

They shall produce evidence of bringing in foreign currency into the Kingdom.

This is straight forward i.e FET(foreign exchange transfer) certificate issued by a Thai bank.

Evidence of withdrawal of money from Thai Baht account of the person who have residence outside the Kingdom .

(I am reading ‘person ‘ as a Juristic Person i.e a company)

So here a company external to Thailand which has a bank account designated in Thai Baht will transfer the relevant amount.

The evidence will, I assume be an official letter from that overseas bank confirming the transfer.

Withdrawal of money from foreign currency account in the amount of not less than the price of the apartment to be purchased.

This is where the seller has requested that he be paid in foreign currency (say Dollars).

Again an official letter from the overseas bank confirming the ‘withdrawal’

(possibly a better word should be ‘Transfer’

The foregoing makes sense to me ,however it is only my interpretation

[Frank78]

Thanks a lot for the explanation, that's what I needed to now. Thanks a lot.

But if I take the general paragraph that goes as follow:

Section 19 Aliens (foreigners) and juristic persons regarded by law as aliens (foreign) may hold ownership of an apartment if the are the following:

1. Aliens permitted to have residence in the Kingdom under the Immigration law;
2. Aliens permitted to enter into the Kingdom under the investment promotion law;
3. Juristic persons as provided in Section 97 and 98 of the Land Code and registered as juristic persons under Thai law;
4. Juristic persons which are aliens under the Announcement of the National Executive Council No.281 dated November 24 (current section 4 Foreign Business Act), B.E. 2515 and have obtained promotion certificate under investment promotion law;
5. Aliens or juristic persons regarded by law as aliens who have brought in foreign currency into the Kingdom or withdraw money from Thai baht account of the person who have residence outside the Kingdom or withdraw money from a foreign currency account.

The line (5): Could it means that a person (alien) who has an adress, and pay taxes abroad, can withdraw money from a thai bat account and buy a condo with them? It's really unclear to me because I've seen a lot of times the notion of "...the alien must bring foreign currency, change it into thai baths inside the kingdom"...

[KittenKong]

5) Aliens or juristic persons regarded by law as aliens who have brought in foreign currency into the Kingdom or withdraw money from Thai baht account of the person who have residence outside the Kingdom or withdraw money from a foreign currency account.

The line (5): Could it means that a person (alien) who has an adress, and pay taxes abroad, can withdraw money from a thai bat account and buy a condo with them? It's really unclear to me because I've seen a lot of times the notion of "...the alien must bring foreign currency, change it into thai baths inside the kingdom"...

It surely relates to non-resident accounts. See near the bottom of this page: http://www.bangkokbank.com/BANGKOKBANK/PERSONALBANKING/SPECIALSERVICES/FOREIGNCUSTOMERS/Pages/Openinganaccountnew.aspx

[Delight]

Just to correct my earlier post:

It should read:

Withdrawal of money from foreign currency account in the amount of not less than the price of the apartment to be purchased.

As KittenKong highlights this is a withdrawal from a Thai based foreign currency account -so no transfer involved.

I am not certain if the withdrawal can be in foreign currency or must be converted in Thailand to Baht.

What is certain is that the bank will have to provide official evidence that the money came from this type of account.

I think (but are not 100% certain) that if a foreigner sells one condo the proceeds can be converted (in Thailand) into a foreign currency and held in just such a bank account.

This clause in the condo act then allows these foreign deposits to be used for subsequent condo purchases.

This dispenses with the transfer OUT of Thailand and then transfer back INTO Thailand activity.

’

[KittenKong]

As KittenKong highlights this is a withdrawal from a Thai based foreign currency account -so no transfer involved.

I am not certain if the withdrawal can be in foreign currency or must be converted in Thailand to Baht.

What is certain is that the bank will have to provide official evidence that the money came from this type of account.

There are two sorts of non-resident account, THB and currency (usually USD), though not all banks seem to do the former. Both types of account should fit the needs of the Condo Act regarding farang-name purchase as all funds in these accounts apparently have to originate from overseas. The Bangkok Bank link describes how all transactions for their non-resident THB account are processed by head office.

The quoted wording of the act seems to imply that funds can be withdrawn as currency or THB.

I see no reason why someone should not have both resident and non-resident accounts, and use the former for day-to-day banking and cash withdrawals.

[Frank78]

Guys , big thanks to both of you. It really helped me!

[cheeryble]

I've got a couple of condos.

I don't recall storing any FET form.

If I wanted to sell and expatriate the funds is the mere fact that I MUST have gone through satisfying the Land Office therefore I imported the funds evidence enough to export them?

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa app

[KittenKong]

I've got a couple of condos.

I don't recall storing any FET form.

If I wanted to sell and expatriate the funds is the mere fact that I MUST have gone through satisfying the Land Office therefore I imported the funds evidence enough to export them?

No, but your bank should give you the form if you ask. Not sure how many years back they will go though.