dreamer Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 Ownership of Thai land and property came up again on UK television today. A number of dream homes were shown to a young couple on Koh Samui ranging in price from GB£ 150k to 250k. As you?d expect they were lovely places and look to be attractive investments based on their potential rental income alone. The program included a brief discussion on ownership and mentioned the 30 year lease with option to renew and corporate ownership of property. There were warnings about the need to appoint good lawyers but the overriding impression was that ownership of a dream home in Thailand was easily achievable. Great publicity for the country and exactly the sort of folk Toxin desires to visit, the intended audience was very mainstream middle class (likely with successful UK property investments already), if people do start buying those Thai lawyers had better be confident in their methods. A year ago I?d be queuing up to buy but as time goes by I?m less and less convinced in spite of the increasing publicity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 I was there 3-4 months ago. The residential building going on there is unbelievable. New houses going up at every turn of the road. Even my Thai girl commented on it. All the 'For Sale' signs were in English, so seemed to be geared toward the Farang market. And almost every new project, or individual new house seemed to have a 'for sale' sign on it. I assumed all were lease deals. You buy a lease to rent the land and house for a given period of time. After your lease runs out, the house and land revert back to the Thai owners, unless can renegotiate a new lease. If that is the case, then you at no point have ownership of the property. You are simply renting it, or having the option to sub-let it out to tourists. HT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 I was just thinking though. Most seemed to be quite large 2-story structures. Maybe they are the Thai equivalent to the common duplex house. Only instead of having 2 units side-by-side, they are making top-bottom duplexes, in which case you could purchase the upper portion, as it is not on the ground (like a condo can be purchased there). I really don't think that is what is happening there, because of your comment that a 30 year lease was involved. But it would be an interesting way to own 1/2 a house there. HT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lazyphil Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 F**k it!!!!!--I watch this show most days wondering when LOS will be highlighted and when they do I'm taking a dump or whatever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickfarang Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 Its very easy for foreigners to own a house in Thailand. All it takes is money - no need to put it in a wife's or girlfriend's name either! Oh, one detail...you can't own the land it sits on. The renewable lease on the land is a joke -as maximum allowed lease period approaches the re-sale value of the property _DECREASES_..This makes it unique among realestate investment opportunities. RickF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whosyourdaddy Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 Doubt u could do it this way since thai have to own over 50% of any condo building. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ckrisg Posted January 2, 2004 Report Share Posted January 2, 2004 The couple featured in this programme were Gail Porter :hubba: and her husband Dan Hip(something) from the rock group Toploader. Nice to have 250k Sterling to splash on a holiday home which they said would be used once a year. But putting the green eyed monster away for the moment, a couple of questions :onfire: 1. If you own a house in LOS can you legally rent it out, or would this be seen as working without a permit. 2. Do you need to be a reg company to rent it out. 3. Also on the programme one of the agents was a farang, can you get a working permit to be an estate agent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redwood13 Posted January 3, 2004 Report Share Posted January 3, 2004 A farang acquaintance tells me the law was changed fairly recently. If the condo is on 5 rai (I believe he said) of land or less the building can be 100% farang owned. He owns a dozen or so condos so I assume he's knowledgeable re this. -redwood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pe7e Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 I saw the same program, one point to make, where did they get their rental income figures from? on a £150,000 property they were quoting potential rental income of £980 PER WEEK ie (£140 per night x 7) acheivable for 40% of the year! sounds like an outrageous claim to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonychang Posted January 8, 2004 Report Share Posted January 8, 2004 probably the researchers got the info off that Del Boy of an estate agent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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