Legal Information

Legal Info when purchasing Real Estate from Thailand

When You (as foreigner) want to buy a condo in Thailand, normally it is possible to do, But You cannot buy land or house from Thailand. When buying a condo:

• The partners have 100 % of that building.
• You can buy into Your own name 49 % directly.
• Thai human can buy it into his/her and company´s name with 51 %, but  You can be director in that company.

When transferring a condo between foreigners:

• Foreigner can transfer a condo directly via Land Office. Transfering cost depends on-property age-property size-property price. For further information,  Please ask the lawyer of company.

When transferring a condo between companies:

• Very easily just go Law Office.
• Cost of 10,000 Thb which you pay to lawyer then lawyer can change the name of owners (company´s director names).
• Also has to pay every year so called Tax Balance Sheet of about 12,000 THB, which the company´s director must do via lawyer.

If You don´t have a company, Lawyer can set it up. You just pay:

• 10,000 Thb fee for lawyer.
• 35,000 Thb set up fee.

The company, which the lawyer can take care, has:

• 6 shareholders as Thai partners, who have 49 % of share holdings.
• Director, who has 51 % of share holdings.

The Lawyer takes care of signatures of Thai share holders.
 

Purchasing Land and Real Estate
 

You can, as foreigner, buy house and land in Thailand. Although You cannot do it directly, You still have choices:

• You can buy as itself that company which is holding the property as its asset. This is exactly the easiest and fastest way to do this, because only cost which You have, is the fee for lawyer, about 5,000 – 7,000 THB for changing the company Managing Director name from the seller into Your name.
• You can pay for a lawyer to set up a Thai company, which has 6 shareholders and a trustworthy Managing Director. After establishing You buy the property and pay stamp duty and transferring fees in Land Registry Office. By this way, this Thai company has that property as its asset. After minimal 28 days, the lawyer will transfer the Managing Director title into Your name.
• You can have a trustworthy Thai, for example wife, lawyer, friend etc. They transfer the property into their name in the Land Registry Office. After completing the transferring, You register 30 + 30 years lease of the property into Your name. You do this in Main Provincial Branch of the Land Registry Department (Chonburi). After this, You have your name in a back of the original title deed.

Purchasing Real Estate and sending Money

When You want to purchase the Real Estate,

• For both sale and rent Real Estate, which You really want, You must pay a Holding Deposit, which secures this property. With this, the property is out of the market, so it is reserved only for You.

• As soon as possible, after Holding Deposit, You will pay

*10 % of the purchase price to providing, in case of buying a property.
*1st month rent and 2 months rent prior to moving in as a Security Deposit, in case of rent a property.

• If You don´t have the money with You, the best way to electronic transfer from bank to bank, is to open an own Bank Account here. For that process, You need a passport and 500Thb. We can help You to do this. For this process, You give these bank info to Thai bank:

*Account Name
*Account Number
*Bank Name
*SWIFT Code and/or IBAN Code Number, depending on Your Foreign Bank.
 

• Remember, when transferring, You need a Tor Tor Sam Document from the bank, which provides money from abroad, at least 1,000,000Thb, and avoids the Capital Gains Tax.

• At least after 3 working days days, the transfer has been done.

Changing the Owner of a Real Estate

When changing the owner of a property (condominium, house) from a company to company:

• Seller has an original chanote (title deed), visa and passport.
• Buyer has set up a capital money into new company at least 2,000,000 Thb beforehand.
• Seller has a portion of transfer fees ready in cash. If applicable, see below.
• Seller has a document “Company Minutes” prepared. With this document, layer can state that all company shareholders have agreed to allow the sale.
• Condo building manager has to provide two documents. The 1st showing percentage the foreign occupancy in the building, the 2nd showing that every building maintenance fees have been paid.
• Buyer has so called “Tor Tor Sam” bank document showing that the money being used was sent from overseas.
• Buyer has visa and passport.
• Buyer has a transfer fee portion ready in cash. If applicable, see below.
• Buyer and Seller must ensure from Ministry of Commerce at least 3 months before that the company has been updated.

When changing the owner of a property (condominium, house) from a company with existing company

• You have to call to lawyer who has taken care of that company for Seller. When you pay about 5,000 .. 7,000 Thb, the lawyer will change the respective shares and a Managing Director of that company into name of buyer.
• You must have passports, transfer money and documents.

Fees for transfer

• Ask for transfer fee estimations from land office. Remember that these calculations are only estimations, and be avare for the future changings.
• Normally, the fee can be 3.3 %. Still, it can vary from many reasons. For example, if the seller has owned the property less than 5 years, then the fee will include another 3.3 % as a Special Commerce Tax. So, you can pay maximally 6.6 %.

Actual cost or Declared value

• In Land Office, you can optimize declaring a Government estimated cost, for the lower price compared to Actual price. By doing this, you can lower the transfer costs. But you can also bring the money for example 10,000,000 Thb and still declare 8,000,000 Thb estimated cost because of 2,000,000 Thb expenses for example for furniture and so on.

Mortgages
 

As foreigner, you can have a mortgage in Thailand which is 70 % of a property bank value, still 60 % when buying a condominium. For eligibility, you

• Are under 60 years old
• have a work visa
• have a work in Thailand
• have worked at least 2 years
• have a solid income which you can prove with bank statement
• have paid taxes and documentation from tax paying

Of course, it is better if you also

• have something as collateral, for example title deeds in Thailand or overseas
• can prove some overseas income
• can prove some overseas property

As foreigner, you can have a mortgage in Thailand which is 50 % of a property bank value. This can be 5 years term and even up to 10 years term in Thai wife´s name. For eligibility, you

• Are under 60 years old
• Can prove your steady overseas income

Of course, it is better if you also

• Have some overseas assets or another property

Thai people can have a mortgage in Thailand which is 95 % of a property bank value, still 80 % when buying a re-sale house. For eligibility, they

• Have a firm job
• Reasonable credit
• Some assets and so on

We negotiate only with beforehand agreed bank. If you are looking for mortgage assistance from us, you have to buy that property from us. Our fee is 5,000 Thb for administration and arrangement when we first time go to the bank. You can have a mortgage for a condominium maximally for 7 years, and for house for 10 years. Still, with that 10 years, you have to be less than 60 years old and in Thai name. Thai people can also have a longer mortgage finance period.
 

Interest payment is 3,75 % as fixed in 1st year, and normally 7,5 %.
 

For a mortgage in Thailand, you need
 

* Passport or local Thai ID
* Household registration if Thai
* Marriage certificate or divorce certificate
* Work visa if you work here
* Letter of consent from spouse
* Copy of Chanote
* Completed application form
* Valuation report ans sales contract
* Letter of introduction from existing bank if you are self employed
* Shareholder list if you are self employed
* Audited accounts for business for last 3 years
* Employers letter if you are employed
* Bank statement for the last 6 months of business if you are self employed
* Bank statement of the individual for the last 6 months