Re: Farangs Barred From Buying Thai Land

[icedmercury]

stay they way your are with your censiorship on this site I really dont care this will be my last post. Oviousally this is all onl;ly a few freinds having some fun I relally thought you wanted to know about owninh land in Thailand happy posting icedcold

[overhaul38]

Seems to me that if I freely make a cash gift to my GF that money becomes her's to do with as she will. At best it may be taxable (under English law it is taxable if I die inside of 7 years from making the gift). If she then decides to buy a house and invites me to live in it with her, that is absolutely no concern of the government.

Your reasoning sounds logical. I'll be interested to learn if the gov. come to the same conclusion.

[dovedaly]

It appears that matter might have another reason too. If You married with a Thai girl, You bought the house on her name,
as a farang cannot own land, but if she dies before you, you might get all what she ownd including the house. As You
cannot own the land, you have to sell it, but how you can sell somthing, you don' t own? At least the Government need to
sell it and might fear, you' ll claim the price.
But if they conclude on the fact that house was bought with your money, you'll get nothig

Under present law, if you have reciprocal wills you can inherit house and land legally for one year, during that time you have to sell it to a Thai. As barring accidents she will outlive you the situation does not arise.

My wife owned land before Met her. She inherited some more and a house. I funded the completion of the Build. I also bought a Block no building yet, in a rural village not for me or an investment return but for her and my Thai Children. Would that be taken off her because I am a Farrang and what she already owned though she may not have had the funds to complete house or buy extra farmland from brother to expand his Business and Village Land from neighbors for Ducks and chickens play area and maybe future home and rural restaurant.

[barrywho]

Here's my two bits worth comment on this subject. Well, I was told that there are always a way around foreigners owning properties and one way is to simply enter a 60-year or 66-year (commercial entity) lease contract with option to extend another 30 or 33 years. My brother's colleague, a french foreign trade official "bought" his condo for such a 60-year lease. Basically, the cost of the property is drawn out to be a 30 x 12 monthly "rent" amount, or something along these lines. Figuring it out as a rent makes it darn cheap in the short run. Another point is that anyone in this position will surely not last another 90 years. By that time the property will be so run down, won't be worth anything, anyways. BUT there are real estate companies offering such deals for foreigners.

Just another alternative to think about rather than mucking around buying things!

On the lease subject, sometimes it's worth leasing things as cars, computers, etc, given that obsolesence occurs faster than one blinks it seems, nowadays! Then again, we are in an age of a throwaway society. Buy, use, throw away, no need to keep. Same goes for land, in a way! Or we get thrown away, like in 2012?????

Food for thought......

.

s

[golan]

The use of the word "farang" thruout this article, as if it were the proper term instead of a slang expression, is disturbing. While official definitions of the word describe it as neutral, they also state it is insulting in some contexts. When I've been called a "gringo" in Mexico, I've taken offense and rejected the explanation that it was a neutral word. We westerners would mostly see this word as racist, and as Thai tend to be a very polite people, it would be wise to be aware of that, keeping in mind your tourist industry.

I was in Thailand for two weeks recently, but as my ears are not attuned to the Thai Language, I'm not aware of whether or not this word was used in my presence.

[Sarada]

I keep telling my government that we should not allow foreigners to buy land in Australia. Now the only bidders for high end property are Asian buyers, because of overseas Chinese and Mainland Chinese many of whom are not resident there. They can sell a flat in Beijing and buy a house in Australia.The Malaysian buyers buy property on their kids names while they are at school or university planning to retire to Australia afterwards. No one says the kids who may be temporary residents bought that flat with their parents money (who are not residents!)By the time the parents die, the kids will inherit anyway.I am totally opposed to non resident foreigners buying land property in Australia for speculation and capital gains and rents have skyrocketed as a result. But foreigners who are resident in Thailand, who have married a Thai spouse, paid for the house themselves and have kids, I mean what is the problem?

[Asian Hand]

Foreigners cannot legally owned land in Thailand - that is a fact. That includes foreigners who marry Thai's and buy a house in their spouses name. While such a transaction may be below the radar screen, when a Thai spouse buys a home the funds must be shown coming from that person and not from a foreign source. So you need to be very creative in carrying out this transaction. If you are discovered, both she and the foreign husband will loose the property. Then other pundits say you can enter a lease but as an asset you own nothing. Then others say form a Thai company and buy - same problem. Thai company must be 51% Thai owned, which will most likley be under some nominee structure while under the radar screen is illegal under Thai Business Law. In addition you will be required to file annual corporate income tax returns for that company. And if that company has no source of income after a few years the Revenue Dept will come knocking on your door and ask why. The house of cards is then at risk of coming down. As a foreigner all you can buy is a condo.