Under the Condominium Act, Section 19, a foreigner purchasing a freehold condo must obtain Foreign Exchange Transaction (FET) forms or equivalent bank letters identifying that the funds came from overseas and were exchanged into Thai Baht in Thailand.

My question concerns the amount that can/must be covered by these FETs (or equivalent). My original understanding is that the total amount needed was required to be equal (or greater) than the sales price. Recently it has been brought to my attention that the Land Office will only accept total FET amounts up to the assessed value of the condo, which in most cases, and in my particular case, is below the actual sales price. Does anyone know from experience if this is true?

The reason this is important to me is that I currently have two letters from my bank (FET equivalents) that cover the assessed value of the condo I am purchasing, but does not cover an amount equal to the actual sales price. If it is true that the Land Office requires and accepts FETs up to the assessed value of the condo, then I'm in good shape. If the Land Office requires FETs covering the entire actual sales price of the condo, I will need to obtain a third letter to satisfy this requirement. The amount in question (difference between what I have covered by FET and what I would need to cover the actual purchase price of the condo) is quite small, 13,000 Baht. Do I need to obtain this additional letter to cover the full purchase price of the condo, or is it enough to have covered the assessed value of the condo?

If I were to get this additional letter so that I have covered the actual sales price of the condo, would the Land Office recognize any amount over the assessed value. My understanding is that it is in my interest to have the highest amount recognized by the Land Office so that when I go to sell the condo I will be able to repatriate that amount with no difficulty. Does anyone have any insight into this? Do I need this additional letter?

Recently it has been brought to my attention that the Land Office will only accept total FET amounts up to the assessed value of the condo, which in most cases, and in my particular case, is below the actual sales price.

Land office assessed values are for tax purposes and have nothing to do with the FET

Just because you may have paid over the valuation that the Land Office comes up with does not mean that they will not accept your Foreign Exchange Transfer form unless they feel that you are purposely overstating the value to circumvent currency controls

Their assessed value is the minimum valuation, not the maximum