Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the risks associated with “Off Plan” purchases of property in Thailand. For those who are unaware, when we are talking Off Plan, we are basically talking about something that not necessarily has been built yet or is in the process of being built when you buy it. It is like a condo development project, it may be already underway or they may have yet to break ground on it but basically this person, this hypothetical individual would be buying into something that isn't yet completed; you are not able to walk into a finished condo. 

There are real benefits to doing this. I have done videos on this before and people seem to think that I may be being a little bit overly cynical about this. That is not really my intention although being a lawyer and dealing with matters pertaining to some of this stuff one can get a little jaded at times but long story short there are major benefits associated with Off Plan purchases. Most notably it can be a real bargain because you are buying it and you are taking that risk, that inherent risk and that is reflected in the lower price of the actual unit being purchased. 

A recent article from the Phuket News, that is thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: Real Estate Market in Phuket: Pros & Cons. This is a really good article as with all of the articles that we cite on here. I strongly urge folks to go check that out for themselves; again Real Estate Market in Phuket: Pros & Cons, that is the Phuket News and there is a lot of information in this. This is a really long article, we are just going to talk about one little excerpt here. Quoting directly: "One more risk worth noting when buying Off Plan is that the final project is not what the brochures and marketing material portray. Despite increasing protection of buyers by the legislature, many developers still disregard the rules and make it hard for buyers to know what the final product will look like and the quality they can expect. In such cases there was almost nothing the investor can do even though the developer is clearly legally in the wrong." 

So again they bring up a good point here. I would say not all developers should be tarred with this brush. There are very ethical developers out there and then unfortunately there are people that don't have so much integrity I guess I should say. It brings up a good point; as noted in here you need to do your due diligence and probably contacting a Legal professional; having somebody who has dealt with a number of property conveyances in Thailand; doing one’s due diligence to find out the history of that particular developer, that can shed a lot of insight or if that developer has never developed anything before for example. All of this can provide a lot of insight for those who are looking to buy "Off Plan". Again, nothing is going to happen risk free in the world at all and when buying Off Plan there is a certain amount of inherent risk but there may be methodologies, for example having somebody who has some expertise in dealing with these kind of conveyances who has some knowledge of the market for example, this may all be very beneficial to someone who is looking to buy an Off Plan unit under development here in the Kingdom of Thailand.