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Buying a Thai Condominium

Transcript of the above video:

In this video, we're going to discuss in some detail some of the requirements associated with the purchase of a type of a condominium here in Thailand. As noted in previous videos on this channel, in the Kingdom of Thailand foreign nationals are allowed to own condos in freehold so they own their condos outright in their own name unlike other types of a real estate here which are restricted under Thai law to only being allowed ownership by Thai nationals.

Thai condos do not have those same restrictions pursuant to the Thai Condominium Act. That being stated, there are some different rules and regulations pertaining to the purchase of a condo here in Thailand for foreign national. Most notably, the money that's necessary to purchase a condo needs to come from outside of the country and that money and those funds need to go ahead and be certified as having come from outside of the country. Therefore we find it’s generally beneficial to have an attorney, a Thai attorney specifically to go ahead and liaise with the receiving bank here in Thailand to make sure that all of the formalities are met with respect to the paperwork certifying that the funds have come from abroad.

Notably this requirement that the funds be proven to have come from abroad does not pertain to those who are in Thailand with Thai permanent residence. It's not a requirement that the individual purchasing the condo who has permanent residence prove out that their funds originated from abroad. This is different than those who are in non-immigrant visa categories most notably the non-immigrant B, the non-immigrant O marriage visa, the B being the business visa, the O being the marriage visa, the OA retirement visa, the education visa or even the tourist visa, any of these visa categories. If the individual is in one of those categories or even a 30-day extension stamp and wishes to purchase a condo here in Thailand and place the title of that condo in their own name, they're going to go ahead and need to have the fund certified as having originated from abroad.

So this is something to keep in mind and understand that this is a requirement, it’s a pretty hard and fast requirement. So bear in mind that one is going to go ahead and have to do that and needs to be able, basically needs to make preparations for meeting the formalities prior to going ahead and setting things in motion for making the condo purchase. So that's something to keep in mind.

The other thing to take note of with respect to cycle minimum is pursuant to the Thai Condominium Act, a foreign national or foreign nationals can only own 49 percent of all of the units in a given condominium structure. So you should keep in mind that perhaps due diligence will be necessary, due diligence to be done by a Thai attorney inquiring into the status with the juristic person of the condominium to ascertain whether or not the condo itself or the overall building is 49 percent or less owned by four nationals because if that number is higher than that or at the 49 percent threshold not going to be higher than that, because it's illegal. But if it's up close to the 49th threshold, there could be a problem actually conveying that the condominium from the one individual to the other individual. This shouldn’t be a problem in those cases where its foreign national conveying property to a Thai company to another foreign national but where it’s a conveyance from a Thai national to a foreign national the issues associated with the percentage of foreign to Thai ownership of the overall condominium or the units therein this issue is going to come up and for that reason it's probably a good idea to have a legal professional go ahead and run a due diligence to make sure that one can actually obtain the title that they are speaking for the court of property in question.