Non Married Farang Man buying land in Thailand.

[simon43]

Bullshit you can buy land in Thailand.

here's a link

http://www.siam-lega...buying-land.php

According to the details in the link that you provided:

Option 1 - Totally illegal, unless you are using the land for a business, such as operating a hotel on the land

Option 2 - This is leasing the land, (see my previous post), not buying it

Option 3 - Your wife owns the land, not you

[fosseway]

It is not possible for you to buy land in your name....only for Thai citizens.

It is not possible to trust a Thai friend to buy your land in his name and for problems

not to arrive in the future.......would you buy land in your home country in someone else's name ?

why is it not possible to trust a Thai friend? I have plenty of Thai friends that I trust. Maybe you don't know the right type of Thais and live in Pattaya or some other place like it.

Absolutly agree with gamani, how can namatlira possibly say don't trust a Thai person, without knowing the circumstances.

[simon43]

why is it not possible to trust a Thai friend?

It is a question of risk. To trust any person with a financial matter, whether they are Thai or not, family or not, carries a certain risk. IMHO, it is therefore better to minimise that risk by trusting no-one. This is especially so if losing the investment would be a tough blow to your finances.

[BB1955]

Usrfruct then you control it until you die , I think thats what its called

[puukao]

Usrfruct then you control it until you die , I think thats what its called

i'm 90% sure if divorced your usufruct arrangement is null and void

Edited June 2, 2016 by puukao

[khunPer]

Usrfruct then you control it until you die , I think thats what its called

Sorry to say it, but if it's a question of protecting your investments and yourself – from reading the bad horror stories – one (foreigner) shall in Thailand always be worth more alive, than dead...

[simon43]

i'm 90% sure if divorced your usufruct arrangement is null and void

I think the OP is single, better to stay that way

[Konini]

Usrfruct then you control it until you die , I think thats what its called

We thought about doing this, but someone made us rethink with one simple sentence; we would be worth more dead than alive.

[Konini]

The OP is 57 years old, foreigner, single?

My suggestion: Lease the land for up to the maximum-allowed term of 30 years. He can lease the land in his name only, not involving any Thais. Then build a nice teak or Mai-daang house to live in on the land. If some problem should occur in the future with the land (pig farm built next door etc), just lease another piece of land and transport your house to that new piece of land.

I have leased land in Phuket on 4 occasions (for business), in my name only. Each lease contract fixes the monthly rent for the whole term, (ie the rent never increases each year - it is a nominal amount, typically 16,000 THB per month for half a rai of land).

My lease contract is registered at the local Amphur office. It is a lease contract in my favour - the landowner must honour the lease for the whole term, but I can walk away at any time without having to pay the balance of the lease. I can build whatever I want on the land (subject to planning permissions), and I can demolish or remove those buildings at any time if I want to.

What you are suggesting here is exactly what we would like to do, but when I asked the question, I think in the Investment forum, I was told that if we have a 30 year lease (which would likely outlive us and we have no children to inherit so if dead we wouldn't care about any capital improvements we had made and would lose) that the payment of the full amount of the lease is required up front. This is more money than we would be prepared to walk away from.

I was looking into the idea of shipping container conversions - we have friends who have made lovely homes from shipping containers in Australia, insulation is good enough to keep out the heat and there are no noise problems - with the idea that if the proverbial pig farm opened up next door we could get Colin the crane driver to come and pick up and relocate our containers (or teak house or whatever).

As said, it was mentioned that the entire 30 years had to be paid up front and that is just not an option for us. If we could set this up without that upfront payment our superannuation fund could take the hit of the $20-30,000 that it would cost to buy and convert containers or build a house. Wouldn't be happy about taking such a big hit but it wouldn't leave us living on bread and water, and we would be prepared to take that risk knowing we could relocate our home if necessary, the only way we would lose altogether is if we had to leave Thailand and were unable to sublet or sell the building to someone else for them to relocate.

Of course, as it was noted, we would then be worth more dead than alive, perhaps it would be possible for our superannuation fund to have the lease and our estate would be able to sub-let or sell whatever we had put on the land; we would be dead, we wouldn't really care but I would rather it be made clear that us dying wouldn't mean the land owner got greatly improved property if we 'happened' to have an 'accident'.

Are you able to confirm that we would NOT have to pay the entire 30 year rent/lease amount up front? This is just for a home, no business attached.

[khunPer]

The OP is 57 years old, foreigner, single?

My suggestion: Lease the land for up to the maximum-allowed term of 30 years. He can lease the land in his name only, not involving any Thais. Then build a nice teak or Mai-daang house to live in on the land. If some problem should occur in the future with the land (pig farm built next door etc), just lease another piece of land and transport your house to that new piece of land.

I have leased land in Phuket on 4 occasions (for business), in my name only. Each lease contract fixes the monthly rent for the whole term, (ie the rent never increases each year - it is a nominal amount, typically 16,000 THB per month for half a rai of land).

My lease contract is registered at the local Amphur office. It is a lease contract in my favour - the landowner must honour the lease for the whole term, but I can walk away at any time without having to pay the balance of the lease. I can build whatever I want on the land (subject to planning permissions), and I can demolish or remove those buildings at any time if I want to.

What you are suggesting here is exactly what we would like to do, but when I asked the question, I think in the Investment forum, I was told that if we have a 30 year lease (which would likely outlive us and we have no children to inherit so if dead we wouldn't care about any capital improvements we had made and would lose) that the payment of the full amount of the lease is required up front. This is more money than we would be prepared to walk away from.

I was looking into the idea of shipping container conversions - we have friends who have made lovely homes from shipping containers in Australia, insulation is good enough to keep out the heat and there are no noise problems - with the idea that if the proverbial pig farm opened up next door we could get Colin the crane driver to come and pick up and relocate our containers (or teak house or whatever).

As said, it was mentioned that the entire 30 years had to be paid up front and that is just not an option for us. If we could set this up without that upfront payment our superannuation fund could take the hit of the $20-30,000 that it would cost to buy and convert containers or build a house. Wouldn't be happy about taking such a big hit but it wouldn't leave us living on bread and water, and we would be prepared to take that risk knowing we could relocate our home if necessary, the only way we would lose altogether is if we had to leave Thailand and were unable to sublet or sell the building to someone else for them to relocate.

Of course, as it was noted, we would then be worth more dead than alive, perhaps it would be possible for our superannuation fund to have the lease and our estate would be able to sub-let or sell whatever we had put on the land; we would be dead, we wouldn't really care but I would rather it be made clear that us dying wouldn't mean the land owner got greatly improved property if we 'happened' to have an 'accident'.

Are you able to confirm that we would NOT have to pay the entire 30 year rent/lease amount up front? This is just for a home, no business attached.

Just a remark – Simon43 has good experience with Lease Agreements – but take a look at Superficies agreement, either together with a lease or as separate.

When a Land Lease Agreement is registered at Land Office, tax has to be paid of the full amount, i.e. all payments due for the full period of for example 30 years (think it's still 1 percent), so lessor will normally always claim that expense prepaid together with some deposit or advance, if you can make an agreement of monthly, or other term, payment.

[JaseTheBass]

Look into a usufruct argeement.

At last. Someone who has a clue.

[balo]

Buy a condo, in your name 100% .

[simon43]

I was told that if we have a 30 year lease (which would likely outlive us and we have no children to inherit so if dead we wouldn't care about any capital improvements we had made and would lose) that the payment of the full amount of the lease is required up front. This is more money than we would be prepared to walk away from.

The land owner is trying to take the p*ss! Of course, a greedy land owner would want the full lease amount upfront. But there are plenty of land-owners who will readily accept a quarterly or annual payment, and no legal requirement for you to pay the balance if your circumstances change and you cannot honour the full lease term.

I found that when I passed the word around in my local area that I wanted to lease a plot of land for 15 years, paying quarterly, I was inundated with offers from local villagers. This was for rubber tree plantation land (the price of rubber has collapsed). I can rent as much land as I want, at a low price. I pay 16,000 baht a month to lease 0.75 rai of land for my little resort, it is 5 minutes from the beach and the same time from the international airport. My lease fee never increases over the whole lease term - in year 14, I will still be paying 16,000 baht per month.

The only thing that you do have to pay fully upfront is the land tax, which is based upon the lease amount over the complete lease term. This is paid at the land office. I paid about 40,000 baht for my 15 year lease.

[Konini]

Thank you Simon (and Khun Per) for the info. That it all had to be paid up front was advise from here on Thai Visa when I first started to think about the idea. I think it's a little unfair that one party (the renter) can up and leave whenever they want without obligation but the other party (the owner) is tied to the contract for the full term. Good for me as a renter, but really not fair for the owner.

Thanks again, this is going to make the way we look at our future living arrangements a lot brighter (and be a nice little project for me).

[Rancid]

It is not possible for you to buy land in your name....only for Thai citizens.

It is not possible to trust a Thai friend to buy your land in his name and for problems

not to arrive in the future.......would you buy land in your home country in someone else's name ?

why is it not possible to trust a Thai friend? I have plenty of Thai friends that I trust. Maybe you don't know the right type of Thais and live in Pattaya or some other place like it.

You can't think of half a dozen reasons straight off the bat how that could go wrong with even the best of intentions?

[ardokano]

set up a company....a friend built 13 houses in HH. Setting up a company just to buy land is a no-no. Using hilltribes people on your board is questionable, also. I wouldn't do it, but some how that Indian guy paid 1.2 billion for that lot on Sukhumvit soi 8, and never had a problem

It is illegal. So if there is no problem in the past, there is no guarantee that there will be in the future.

[ardokano]

I am an unmarried 57 year old American man buying land here in Thailand.

1. You may be a 57 year old American, but;

2. you are not buying land here in Thailand.

Otherwise: Go straight to Jail, do not pass Go!

Why? it can invest 40 ml and try to get a permit for the possession of owner land up to 1 rai

[Mudcrab]

Aight, I've watched the usual comments for a page or so.

But the best answer, for an unmarried man wanting land: Marry a woman who already has land.

(Ideally lots of it, some of it easily be salable, to buy the land you'd really like.)

Why would a Thai woman that has lots of valuable land want to marry an old Farlang? They only want us for our money anyway and only think about what they screw out of us not the over way around.

What a sad life you must have.