According to the Thailand Condominium Act 1992, non-resident of Thailand has the right to own 49% of any property in that country. Accordingly, the remaining 51% of the authorized capital must be owned by Thai citizens or a legal entity. Upon purchase, a foreigner will be issued a corresponding document - "chanot". This document will contain the name of the owner of the apartment, as well as indicate which part of the apartment building (condominium) belongs to this or that individual or legal entity.
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Freehold or leasehold
When buying real estate in Thailand, it is important to first decide what format of ownership it is supposed to be: you can issue it in full ownership (freehold), or in a long-term lease for 90 years (leasehold). The second option is most suitable for investors who do not want law enforcement to know about this property. If a request comes, then Thailand will not be able to confirm the ownership of the investor, since officially this is a long-term lease and cannot become an object of collection.
The very procedure for buying real estate in Thailand for foreigners looks very simple. It is enough to choose an object, present a passport, sign a reservation agreement and then pay according to the schedule, register a transaction. Due to the latest sentiments in the EU countries (issuing a "golden visa") with a view to aggravating the verification of the origin of funds that a foreigner invests in the country, many can find an alternative in Thailand - here the relevant structures are not interested in this issue.
Land issue
If the object of purchase is not an apartment, but a house or a villa, then it is always registered in the ownership, and the land - in long-term lease. A long-term lease agreement is registered with the land department, which guarantees the protection of a foreigner and the inviolability of his property for 90 years. In addition, a long-term lease is not a property, so foreigners who do not want to have property abroad according to documents buy it in the leasehold format.
Foreign owners of local real estate can obtain a one-year visa on the basis of a package of documents and have the right to renew it every year, however, buying real estate in Thailand does not give special visa privileges, so Russians often practice living on a tourist visa for 3 or 6 months. Someone even needs 30 days - this is how much time Russians can stay in Thailand without a visa.
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If foreigners buy apartments in new buildings (it is very profitable to invest in real estate in Thailand at the stage of construction, since by the end of construction prices increase by 30-50%), then the developer fully assumes all responsibilities for paperwork for the buyer at the time of completion and preparation of the facility for operation. If an apartment is bought on the secondary market, then they usually resort to the help of lawyers who fully accompany the transaction without risks for the buyer and seller.
Thailand is one of the main investment centers of Southeast Asia
Global Property Guide, the world's largest real estate portal, noted in its report that residential property prices in Thailand rose 5% in 2018. This result is logical: as you know, most of the countries of Southeast Asia are now focusing not only on the development of tourism, but also on improving the microclimate for the purchase of housing by foreign investors. But if, for example, in Vietnam the real estate market for non-residents of the country was opened only a few years ago, in Thailand this area has been working productively for a long time.
As a result, over the past 20 years, the price of land in Phuket, the most popular island of Thailand among foreigners, has increased in price by 400%, and experts suggest that this figure will continue to grow. They are going to build a second international airport in Phuket, and IT industry developers and large companies are actively coming here - the Russian aggregator Aviasales and the German service Trivago work here, since the tax incentives for such companies are very impressive. To date, more than 50,000 Russians have already become property owners in Thailand.
Deleted deals
The popularity of remote transactions has played a large role in the fact that real estate in Thailand is now experiencing a period of maximum prosperity. Increasingly, foreign buyers of real estate in Thailand do not want to spend time and money on travel, preferring to carry out the buying process remotely from anywhere in the world. At the same time, it is possible to buy an apartment remotely in the primary and secondary markets. In addition, this rule applies to the purchase of any land.
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The transaction is made without the presence of the client on the island, however, the buyer is advised to come to the delivery of documents for ownership. But regardless of how the apartment is made out - in leasehold or freehold, the owner is not required to be present when the apartment is rented out. Thus, foreigners here have a good opportunity not only to buy an apartment, manage their property and then bequeath it, but also there is no obligation to visit the country.
Thank you for your help in preparing the material:
Oksana Wiseschart , General Manager, The Best Holidays and Property
Yuri Leonov, sales manager of VillaCarte
Svetlana Kasatkina, Managing Partner of Exotic Property
