What should expats consider before buying a house in Thailand?

@Erik *****************

yes as I said above u own the house but it comes under Ur 49%

Condos can be owned but not the condo touching Thai soil 2or 3 floors off the ground u can own for the same reason.

@Mark *******

I’ve spoken to lawyers and people who have gotten citizenship recently and are in the pipeline.

It’s not like it was 4+ years ago. Apparently they’re actually moving things along for the moment.

I know years ago you’d have people waiting 4-5 years just to get their paperwork advanced but for now at least, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

I didn’t assume anything. “You” can refer to people in general and not a specific person.

@Alan ******

Check out the requirements and it'll be pretty clear. Retirees won't be eligible as of course: there'll always be some other special criteria that would qualify them. I've never seen a report of someone who got one as a retiree who's not worked here, married etc.etc.

@Mark *******

I’ve seen the requirements and age is only one factor on the points system. Also “retiree” is a pretty broad age range.

Marrying a Thai more than makes up for being in your 50s or 60s. You might have to learn to speak Thai depending on your other qualifications but I wouldn’t call that impossible.

Thailand opened diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia for the first time in nearly 30 years just to get a handful more tourists in, that’s desperation.

I personally wouldn’t bet that a wider crackdown isn’t on the table unless the money I was spending wasn’t much compared to my net worth.

Even if it doesn’t come, it’s still possible to be singled out for some other reason and have the government check into why you’re owning this house for “business purposes” but it’s also registered as your living address.

Rare? Sure. Never going to happen? Wouldn’t bet on it.

If there was advanced notice you’d have a lot of homes suddenly going on the market so you’d probably have to sell at as worse a price if not worse than if you had to quickly sell.

And that’s assuming they gave something like a year’s notice or more.

Even if none of that was a factor you still have the other issues with home ownership in Thailand such as a less even distribution of asset appreciation (most homes aren’t in high demand tourist areas so are more difficult to sell) and rampant development going on just about everywhere (most people, especially Thais prefer to buy new vs an older home if both are available in the same area for around the same price).

Also, outside of those handful of hot market locations, your money is almost certainly better off return wise in some other asset class over say 10+ years and if you’re looking at around 5 years or fewer you plan to own, you’re still better off just renting as it’s likely you won’t see any economic benefit plus have the hassle of trying to sell it for at least what you paid plus any upgrades and furniture you added.

@Antonio **********

Agree talk to a reputanle lawyer who is focused on company structures. Too many ways your company can be deemed invalid if it doesnt have a real business generating income, employee questions, file audits tax returns etc. Also can be problems if you try to setup preferential voting rights to maintain comlany control even with 49% share ownership.

@Antonio **********

If you are confused best to get some real legal advice and not from FB. 🙂

@Garrett **********

, every compound charges annual fees for the project mantainances , elettricity in the componds etc.

@Giuseppe *********

I assume you're talking about a mooban, not everyone lives in a mooban.

@Antonio **********

, i meant to gain what you spent. The market its really down and who buy house wanna buy new properties, modern and much beautiful.

@Giuseppe *********

thanks, I see. I thought there are some legal limitations on selling old property.

I found a property index for Bangkok, it goes up 30% for last 10 years