Foreigners can no longer buy houses in Thailand via company.

[Burger]

There are a few guys like Mr. Burger and 1-2 others, which are trying to convince people to go ahead with a "no-problem-mentality", although they should know it better more

Hogus please, I have not been trying to convince people to 'go ahead, there's no problem' at all.
I have been saying (several times) let's all wait and see what transpires from the government/land offices in due course.

Cheers mate,
Burger

[JimmyGreaves]

I agree, let's wait and see. It would also be nice if the 'I told you so' brigade would back off and encourage rather than disparage.

[samlorsam]

The link below has good information

"http://www.bangkokpost.com/120606_Yourm ... oney06.php"


Looks like it is not as serious as first thought.

[caller]

I can't get the link to work!

[JimmyGreaves]

works fine:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/120606_Yourm ... oney06.php

[caller]

This report says nothing that hasn't already been said time after time! And its yet another lawyer with a vested interest - 25 years worth - thats being quoted!!!

Lets hear officials!

No news is no news!

[essbee]

Well that has made interesting reading over the last half an hour. In the Red corner we have TukTukmike and in the Blue corner we have Berger. Quite frankly Burger is way ahead on points whilst Mike just keeps telling us all how cleaver he is. Mike if you are proved wrong on this there are an awful lot of posts that you will be reminded about. There is no doubt in my mind that over time anyone with money will be allowed to buy anything anywhere. That is the way of the world now. I can understand why the Thais would wish to control it but clumsy politics will ultimately fail.

I think that Mike you are adding to the angst of those who are already very worried and they don’t need this to be reinforced, some empathy would be greatly received by those. I do think it is something that will resolve itself. There are many parties in Thailand that are benefiting from the property boom and those parties have money. Money as they say……Talks !!

[tuktukmike]

Essbee

Nice post but of course with no substance.

Of course i could recive a lot of stick if wrong but maybe you should have read the warnings i gave last year, but then of course i was just scaremongering.

So maybe you would like me to cut and paste the replies to my warnings on what people said were fantastic investments and of course how safe your investment was here.

Empathy does not save peoples life savings, fact does.

You clearly know nothing about thailand and the current laws.

Enough said.

Mike.

[essbee]

Mike

Not such a good reply from you I think too much ego and self congratulation.

Your premise that I am affected is a flawed as is your general argument, you seem to wish to bask more in you own glory than wish to let the matter unfold and become clear. My situation is that my wife owns the house in Thailand, I considered the company route but chose otherwise. That is not to say that it is not a perfectly reasonable option and from my sources it appears to remains so.

I am advised by someone with contacts in the Land office and close to the business that given that the shareholders are of some standing, pay tax and can demonstrate an income then the land transfer will be approved. Time will tell on that one.

It would appear that there are several reasons why there has been an attempt to cool the property situation and the way it has unfolded does appear to be somewhat clumsy. 1st for good reason there is fear that there are too many foreigners buying land in Thailand and that has an impact on the Thai people, clearly this is not acceptable, secondly there is real concern as to where the money being invested comes from and this is a significant matter. Is it being used to clean “dirty moneyâ€

[Beguine]

I don't want to enter into the tussle but I emphathise with something that Essbee said. I have owned a property in Thailand (not in Hua Hin) through a corporate structure for several years and the market value (not dependent on farang buyers in this case) of the land alone is now about double what I paid. It is doubtful that I could afford it today. In addition the cost of materials and construction work has increased substantially. I am not happy about the current situation but I am not panicking or selling up either. The company is active and files properly audited accounts and pays its tax. As a result of the changes in enforcement I am looking for ways to put more business through the company and maybe transfer shares to Thais shareholders who have jobs with decent salaries. In the very worst case I will have to lease the property for 30 years and change ownership either to a Thai individual or make the company 100% Thai owned. I am still glad I bought when I did but I have always viewed my properties in Thailand (including a condo in Hua Hin) as risky investments and have not put all my eggs in one basket. There is always a concern about the corporate structure and the ability to resell condos. Many Thais have urged me to buy more land in Hua Hin and other parts of Thailand. All of it has gone up but I decided just to take what I thought needed and not be greedy due to the ownership problems.

I am lucky that I live here and can keep an active company and have real Thai friends. I sympathise with those who will face more difficulties with their companies. While there is rental oversupply in Hua Hin at the moment, many of the new properties may never get finished now or may fall to rack and ruin through lack of maintenance. In the longer term rentals for inhabitable properties will go up too, making it harder for long term expats without their own property.

[JW]

Esbee,

Good analysis of the situation. We are advsing all customers to seek advice from a reputable lawyer. I have heard the same comments from the land office as you, there is a post in a different thread with a similar answer from the guy at the land office. As many people have said over the years - it is not really wise to stack all your eggs in one basket - BUT some look on it this way - if you only have a small egg then what the hell if it breaks!

[hogus]

Could it be that here any nebulous bombs are thrown again?

One guy made his wife happy, because he gave a house in her name without future legal entitlements, and the other used his active company absolutely correctly to buy his residential or other property.
Where is the point Gentlemen?

Not many interested buyers of land & house in TH have the idea to make some girls happy by transferring the ownership, and others don't need to have an active Company to earn their livings, because they have enough money already.

About risen prices ...hmmm...I also knew a guy in my neighborhood, which bought his house by company-route about 1 year ago...then he painted it a little bit more nicely, and could sell it to another foreigner with nearly 100% of profit.
This lucky guy announced his self to be a "gambler", and he laughed his ass off, because of his quick success.
The new owner went the girlie-way, and made his gf happy.
That's absolutely ok, but I suppose it isn't a correctly way to tell people seriously about the great possibilities to earn money in this way, right?

By the way, may God bless every marriage and relationship with a Thai-girl, and never ever give her the idea to kick her generous companion away in future, or to do so if not more generous presents i.e. houses, cars, properties for the lovely family in law etc. can be expected!

If someone had invested his money in Thai-Gold, he could also made a 100% profit already, without problems of any ownership!
But that is just my view!

[essbee]

Hogus
If I got a divorce the least of my problems would be a house in Hua Hin mate !!!!!!!!!!

[hogus]

@ essbee


Yeah, mate, I understand absolutely what you mean...therefore I said,..."May God bless...!"

[Beguine]

To summarise the point as per your request Hogus.

Renting property and deferring property purchases are usually not a good long term propositions because capital values and rentals go up over time, although not always in tandem.

If you own land through a Thai company, make it as active as you can and try to get Thai nominee shareholders who can pass a sniff test based on salary times number of years earned. This is regardless as to whether you need to generate income from the company to live or not. One tip on how to do this for those who don't want to do trading business in Thailand would be to provide advisory services to Thai or foreign companies. Another tip would be to capitalise the company over and above the basic 2 million capital through a loan from a foreign company rather than a personal loan. This reduces the amount that Thai nominee shareholders have to prove they invested to their share of the 2 million baht and avoids a personal loan which actually proves the money came from the farang. To avoid foreign exchange gains and losses in the accounts the loan can be made at a fixed exchange rate i.e. if the money comes in at B1 = USD 38, it will be repaid at that rate, regardless of the rate when you want to repay it. The offshore loan also makes it easier to remit a portion of the capital abroad, if you sell.

Re your retrospective recommendation to buy Thai gold, I would suggest that this is actually not totally problem free. The export of 96.5% gold (the purity sold in Thai gold shops as jewellery and gold bars) is prohibited. The Thai 10 baht ingots are also not international standard size or purity and therefore you would have to have them smelted, if you smuggled them overseas. Therefore you must sell the gold in Thailand and find a way to remit the proceeds out of the country (I am assuming here that you are talking about large amounts equivalent to buying a property). In addition you can only buy gold in Thailand for cash meaning that you are subjecting to yourself to the risk of violent robbery by carrying large amounts of cash or gold around. I would recommend those who do wish to invest in gold to do it overseas through a reputable dealer and custodian overseas such as www.bulliongold.com (I have no connection with them) which offers very reasonable transaction and storage (in Zurich) costs for the physical metal and accepts relatively small orders via online trading. I have invested in gold and gold mining shares over the last few years and am happy with the results despite the recent reversal.

Finally, I suspect that there are several people here in addition to myself who do not appreciate your sneering references to Thai women. While there are many imperfect examples to be seen in Hua Hin, not all Thai women are illiterate farm girls from poor villages in the Northeast under pressure to hook a not very bright farang to support the children they produced as gymslip mothers. Some of us have Thai wives or girlfriends with university educations who work in decent jobs for good salaries. Marriage is a two way street and it is possible that some of the farang males that get dumped by their Thai wives would be dumped by sensible women of any nationality. A casual walk down Soi Bintabaht of an evening will reveal that there are also many imperfect examples of Caucasian males to be seen in Hua Hin.