Buying House

[BROKENHEART]

What Do You Need To Do When Buying House With Thai Wife
So That You Will Not Lose Your ****?
Have Read Many Threads But Not Sure!
Also When Buying Car Can You Just Put In Your Name?

[domifletch]

Ho Brokenheart,

I found this on Thai Visa .... Hope this helps
Domi

Better rent than buy condominium in Thailand


In recent weeks I have received several enquiries with regard to

buying real estate property. These have inevitably been from a

middle-aged (or older) expatriate who has decided to settle in

Thailand with the girl of his dreams that he met last month or the

month before, who loves him so much that she¹s leaving her place of

work in Soi 8 or Pattayaland Soi 2 to settle down in the nice little

house she¹s found for them somewhere along Jomtien Beach.



Usually, the enquirer wants to find out why the property cannot be

held in his own name, and if it¹s okay to put it in his girlfriend¹s

name.



Some of these enquirers are so naïve that they even ask how they can

obtain a mortgage on the property. ³Oh dear,² I think when I hear

these tales, ³Not another oneŠ²



For their own protection



At the height of the currency crisis in 1997, Thailand had agreed

with the IMF to liberalise its laws with regard to foreigners owning

real estate in Thailand.



The matter was debated in parliament and the press at great length,

and the usual jingoistic (some would say xenophobic) statements were

aired that if the protectionist laws were amended, we greedy farangs

would sweep in and buy up all the land in Thailand and exploit the

poor innocent Thais in our typical colonialist fashion.



(I wonder why the fact that Thais or anyone else with money can buy

any amount of landed property in the U.K. or U.S.A. is never aired as

a counter-argument, and neither the British nor Americans seem

terribly worried that their country is going to be taken over by

colonising Asians * but that perhaps is another topic for another

day.)



So the debate went on and on, and announcements were eventually made

that the law was going to be amended to allow foreigners to lease up

to 1 rai of land for up to 30 years, on which to build a residential

property * provided this was preceded by a remittance equivalent to 10

million baht of hard currency from overseas deposited in a bank in

Thailand.



However, like several other politically unpopular bills, this one also

is still pending, as far as I¹m aware.



Nonetheless, some local real estate firms trumpet in their

advertisements that foreigners can now own their own property. But

this is just a clever ploy to get you through their doors. The

mechanism which has been used for years to get around this

protectionist law has not in fact changed.



The facts

An expatriate can own a condominium in his own name provided not more

than 40% of the apartments in the condominium complex are owned by

foreigners. That has been the case for a long time already.



But if you want to buy a house or land, an expatriate can only do so

through a legally registered company, of which a single expatriate

cannot own more than 39% of the shares (recently amended from 33%),

and collectively not more than 49%.



You also need at least six Thai partners to hold the remaining shares

(although you can go a long way to protect your interests by being the

sole authorised signatory and ensuring these local partners sign their

undated resignations and share transfer deeds at the time of setting

up the company.)



Of course, you could avoid the costs & hassle of setting up a company

by putting the house in your wife/girlfriend¹s name. This will

undoubtedly make her very happy * even happier than the visits you

made to her favourite gold shop and motorcycle shop (which are the

usual precursors to visiting the real estate agency.)

However, what happens a year or two down the road when you have a

major disagreement about something, or her Thai Œhusband¹ shows up

(they all seem to have them squirreled away somewhere)? You, like so

many before you, may find yourself standing on Jomtien Beach with only

your passport in one hand and a bag of clothes in the otherŠand your

life savings gone.



Getting a mortgage



In U.K., U.S.A. or Europe, getting a mortgage on a property is almost

taken for granted. Few people are in a position to buy a property for

cash on the table.



The relatively low price of property in Thailand means that many

expatriates who decide to settle here are tempted to buy a residential

property, or a shophouse for their girl-friend to run a travel agency,

beauty salon, snooker hall or beer bar on the ground floor, while they

love * I mean live * upstairs.



Some of the more naïve ones imagine that they can just march into a

local bank and get a mortgage on the strength of the property and

their Œpersonal¹ guarantee on behalf of their girlfriend.



Sorry, but that isn¹t going to happen.



Unlike in the West, where the title to the property guarantees the

bank in the event of default, and an endowment or insurance policy its

money in the event of the borrower¹s dying, laws in Thailand to help

banks recoup bad debts were only implemented last year, and the

efficiency of the court system is such that it could take up to 10

years to recoup defaulters¹ bad debts.



Banks are not interested in holding real estate on their books, since

this is a non-performing Œdead¹ asset; they want to recover the money

they lent, to lend it to someone else and earn interest on the loan.



Understandable, since they¹re in the money business, not the real

estate business.



Look at the numbers of non-performing loans (still around 43% of total

loans issued by local banks), and the high percentage of mortgage

defaulters, and that might give you some inkling why banks here have

virtually stopped offering new mortgages on real estate.



In Europe, banks can seize collateral property and sell it on fairly

quickly. Here, in a depressed property market, even auctions have

proven less than totally successful in moving those real estate

properties which banks have been able to repossess against defaulting

loans. More often than not the few meagre bids have not reached the

bank¹s reserve price, and the bank simply withdraws the property from

the auction.



Obtaining a mortgage anywhere will depend largely on the ability of

the borrower to repay the loan. This will be evaluated by the lending

institution on the basis of stability of employment income and past

credit record.



Nowadays, even local business people with good credit records are

having great difficulty obtaining mortgages. Typically, they have to

show they have at least the value of the mortgage on deposit in the

bank already, and are prepared to keep it there as collateral.



So if you¹re prepared to deposit the value of the property in the bank

* in her name, of course * she might be able to get a mortgage if she

has a good employment record and her regular salary is sufficient to

repay the loan. And of course the property then has to be in her

rather than your name.



But to imagine that an expatriate boyfriend (who could leave the

country any time) will be accepted by any bank as guarantor of a

mortgage being applied for by a local lass whose employment record

comprises working in a go-go bar for a year or two, and whose average

bank balance has been perhaps 400 baht a month, is naïve in the

extreme.

[rockstar!]

I met a guy last night who is building a house on top of the hill in Pattaya, I hope his new wife of 5 years doesn't take him for a ride.

[LivinLOS]

There are multiple ways to safeguard a property investment.. Too lazy to list out the options at this point of the morning but you should seek a quality legal professional and be careful at every stage..

You cant own land but you can own the building.. You can also have a lease on the land and or own the land in a company name..

[Nicke]

A common solution is to buy in wife's name but have a lease with her for 30+30+30 years.

Having a company also works fine, but then you need to pay rent to the company and make auditing every year + pay a fee to the Thai shareholders annually if you dont have your own shareholders. The company must show profit after 3 years and taxed accordingly.

Many possible ways to do things and always contact a professional if you are going to buy/lease something.

[Baz]

To Brokenheart

someone at my old works said that his mates girlfriend wanted him to buy a house together in thailand and he was near retiring age.
The house was 40 - 50,000 pounds.
he had not known her to long, so i just said why not rent a house.

you could rent a very nice house for approx 300 - 500 pounds a month.
the area was no where near phuket. a rural area in thailand.
so one year max 6,000 pounds.
i said unless he knows that he is going to live until he's 80 to 90 then why spend so much of his capital.
if you tell a thai girlfriend that you do not want to buy a house or land and just want to rent so you can move around easy. see how much they really love you and stay around if a house or land is not on the way for them.
once the house or land is in there name see how long the relationship lasts.
It happens the other way around also.
A thai guy some thai girls i know is married to a English woman and he has got her to buy land for him in thailand near his village.
He has told them he still prefers thai woman and when he goes back to thailand he will not come back to england again now that he has land.
the thing is all the thai girls knows he does not really love his wife but she is no the wiser.
i know a thai lady that has lived in england 20 years and some of the stories she tells me about thai girls and english blokes parting with there money, scary stories.
one funny story was a older man was all ready to bring a thai lady to England he thought. See phoned him and said she needed £ 3,000 for getting her brother out of prison on a murder rap. well he parted with his money and when he went to thailand to see her to bring her back. guess what never to see her again.
It's amazing how many stories i get told and im sure a lot of them it has happened to have been told similiar stories but they still fall for it.

baz