Property law - Green Door Enterprises

Property law

The property ownership laws of Thailand are somewhat nationalistic and foreign individuals can only legitimately own property in certain ways. If you do not follow the correct legal procedures, you are putting yourself and your money at risk.

Foreigners can buy some types of property outright; others must be leased or bought in a legitimate manner. The most common methods of properly securing property are by being the largest shareholder, owning usually 49%, of a domestic company and have the company own the property; or sign a 30-year lease with an automatic option to renew twice for another 30 years each time. This is called the 3x30 ("three times 30") way. By far the easiest and most popular way is to buy a condominium, where there is a huge selection of styles, with diverse degrees of luxury and price ranges to suit every budget. Foreigners can purchase a condo outright in their own name as long as the condo is one of the foreign designations of allocated condos. This proportion of condominiums can total no more than 49 percent. Not all blocks of apartments are condominiums; the building has to be registered with the land department as a "condominium".

Funds must be transferred from overseas in a foreign currency to a Thai bank account or an escrow account held by the attorney handling the purchase. All of the major Thai banks have international services to accommodate easy transfers. There is no minimum amount but the transfer document must state that the funds will be used towards the purchase of a condominium.

The purchaser will then qualify for a Foreign Exchange Transaction form that verifies the funds were transferred from outside Thailand. It also confirms the purpose of the transaction and makes future transactions easier should repatriation of funds become necessary. These forms should be carefully saved as they will be required by the Land Department at the time of transfer of ownership.

Tourism in Thailand comes not just from Europe and America, but also from Australasia and other south-east Asian countries, and high-quality property in a popular location, like Pattaya, offers owners a very reasonable return on their investment and of course an extremely enviable lifestyle.