To buy or not to buy - now.

[Guest]

I read many posts in regard to Thai women who run into difficulty to purchase land or other properties (house, condo etc...) in Thailand after she married to a farang.

 

 

 

My fiancee and I will marry next year and we planned to return and live in Thailand for our retirement. We would love to own a piece of land and built a house there or at least own a nice condo for our retirement. Just for curiousity, would it be wise to ask her to buy and own a piece of land or condo now and have it in her name before we get marry, so that we could avoid future difficulty in obtaining a piece of property for retirement, or do nothing and wait until the current laws to change to farang's favor (which very unlikely)? Thank you for your advice. csm

[liberator]

Your fiancee can buy land or property now, and following a recent change in the law she can still buy land and property when you are married. Either way, the land will always be HER land, and if you buy after you marry, you will have to sign a form to agree that the money used to buy the land was HER money, and does not form part of the marriage assets. In other words, if you later divorce, you cannot claim that the land, or 50% of it, is yours.

 

 

 

There are other threads on this board that give more advice about things like setting up a 2 X 30 year lease on the land (a foreigner can lease land) and registering it at the land office - try a search. There are also several ways you can set up a company that you control, and have the company buy the house, but in my opinion that route is a potential minefield.

 

 

 

A foreigner can own a condominum provided less than 40% of the condos in the block are owned by foreigners, so you should have no problem finding one to buy.

 

 

 

So the real answer is that it is up to you when you buy. Prices can go up and down - same as everywhere!

 

 

 

Chock dee!