Purchasing your House 100% Freehold

Background

Ownership of land in Thailand is governed by the Land Code BE 2497 (1954), the Civil and Commercial Code, Land Reform for Agriculture Act BE 2518 (1975) and the regulations set forth by the Ministry of the Interior.

Under the strict application of the existing law, it is officially prohibited for foreigners, including both individuals and juristic entities (e.g., companies or partnerships), to own land in Thailand . However, there are exceptions to the prohibition found in the law itself as well as other methods.

Sec. 19 of the amended Condominium Act of 1990 allows qualified foreigners to own individual condominium units as long as the total area of foreign-owned units within the entire condominium complex is less than 50 percent of the total area of all units. This restriction does not apply within Bangkok and other municipalities designated in ministerial regulations.

A foreigner or juristic entity can own a condominium in Thailand if the individual has permanent residence status in Thailand, the individual has been permitted to enter Thailand under BOI privileges, the juristic entity is registered in Thailand but classified as "foreign" under the Land Act, the juristic entity has been granted investment privileges by the BOI, or the individual or juristic entity has brought foreign currency into Thailand for the purpose of purchasing a condominium unit.

Manor Park, is one such condominium project where we have a Condominium license. There are a total of 111 apartments of which 49% can be owned legally under Thai Law in the name of a foreigner.

These are sold on a first cum first serve basis and the first 50 units can be owned by foreigners. After these are sold, additional units can be sold but will come under another law which is explained below.

Purchasing your House through a Long Term Lease

Under current Thai Law, foreigners are limited to buying only 49% of a condominium on a free hold in their names. Therefore, after the 49% of apartments are sold, the remaining units can be bought under a long term lease agreement.

This is a straight forward lease where the foreigner leases the apartment for 90 years. The 1 st 30 year period is registered in the land office with an attached contract that allows the lease to be extended for another 30 + 30 years and registered at the land office accordingly.

Since value of the apartment will depreciate over a period of time, we have a special clause in the contract to protect you from this depreciation. If you wish to sell this unit or pass it on to your kin, the lease contract is automatically renewed for 90 years thereby giving the new owner a fresh 90 year lease.

Lease your Dream Apartment through our Share Scheme

Here is how it works...........

You can buy and own a minimum of 8 weeks or more in an apartment for 90 years. Let’s take Apartment B501 as an example.

This 2 bedroom Apartment located on the 5 th floor with pool and valley views is 116 sq. meters and costs Baht. 4,524,000.00.

If you are interested to buy say 8 weeks in this apartment, we will find another 5 clients to buy another 8 weeks each making this a total of 6 Joint Owners each paying 1/6 th of the price of this apartment which works up to Baht. 754,000.00 ONLY per joint owner. The last 4 weeks are kept by us to ensure that we can maintain the apartments and make renovations and repairs to keep your apartment always in excellent condition.

Simpler still, you can get a group of friends or work colleagues together and purchase this apartment all together!!

If you think that 8 weeks is not enough for your yearly holidays, then you can purchase 16 weeks which will cost you Baht. 1,508,000.00 or 24 weeks for Baht. 2,262,000.00 and so on. The more weeks you buy, the more time you have to enjoy your holidays AND the more weeks you have left to rent your apartment out for the un-used weeks thereby recovering your investment and having your dream holiday for FREE.

You can sell your share at anytime to anyone you please. The management can also help sell your share or rent your weeks out for you.

Purchasing your House through a Thai Registered Company

Another method foreigners can employ to acquire property is by forming joint venture companies with majority Thai ownership. He may purchase the freehold of the land through his Thai majority limited company. The land will be owned by the Thai Company, not by the individual.

Purchasing property with a limited liability company used to be the most popular method for foreign investors as the Articles of Association can be varied to allow greater protection for foreign minority shareholders. The regulations vary throughout Thailand , but the Land Office generally requires that Thai nationals own a majority interest in a company if they wish to purchase land legally.

However, in recent months this has come under a lot of scrutiny and unless you have real Thai Shareholders who have invested and own 51% of the company or if you have a Thai wife you wish to buy the house along with, it is not the best way to buy your property.

Establishing a Thai Company is relatively straightforward, inexpensive to operate and can be handled by many reputable legal or accounting firms based in Hua Hin and Bangkok .