The infamous blacklist
There are a lot of lists most of us dreamt to be on (fortune list, most influent people, most eligible bachelor and so on….) but there is one you definitively don’t want to be on, Thailand immigration blacklist.
Note: I would be unfair to Thailand if I did not state that Thailand is not the only country with an immigration blacklist. All countries have one.
Another big problem in Thailand for the professional who like us provide visa services is that foreign visas applicants are often confusing the names of the visas they are having and the benefits attached to say visas. This is why we will dedicate this post and the next post to give definitions of visas terms.
This post is a continuation of our series Thailand Visas: Setting the Record Straight. I wrote this series with a “back-to-basics” kind of approach because I don’t believe that it is possible to understand Thai immigration regulations without having first an understanding of basic terms such as visa, visa class, visa exemption, passport stamp, entry visa, departure visa, multi or single entry and so on…
What is the Visa Exemption?
Pursuant to Thai Immigration Law; any foreign citizen who wishes to enter the Kingdom of Thailand is in principle required to obtain a Visa from a Royal Thai Embassy or a Royal Thai Consulate-General prior to entering Thailand.
Is it difficult to enter and stay in Thailand?
How many times did I hear foreign clients complaining about Thai Immigration policies and how difficult it is to live or stay in Thailand? Believe me we are the lucky one because Thailand gives us VIP treatment in comparison to what Thai citizens have to go through to visit our countries.
May 24 2010
Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property
Thailand foreign land ownership policy is often criticized by foreign buyers and to make their point the critics often refer to other countries in Asia that allows foreign land ownership. The message being Thailand should change its policy and allows foreigners to own land because otherwise Thailand will be at risk to see buyers going to purchase in Asian countries that have more opens policies in this regard. I think that those critics are unfair to Thailand and I will explain why in this post
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Originally posted 2009-10-03 04:33:32.
May 24 2010
Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property
As previously explained, the Thai Civil and Commercial Code recognizes possessory rights and/or ownership rights and there are several kinds of documents to evidence various levels of rights to land, ranging from documents evidencing mere squatters or occupation rights to full ownership rights.
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Originally posted 2009-09-16 04:12:16.
May 24 2010
Categories: Thailand Property
I have generated for Readers convenience a TABLE OF CONTENT of all the post I published to date on how to buy a property in Thailand.I hope this table will help you to navigate more easily in my blog.
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Originally posted 2009-11-14 06:50:40.
May 24 2010
Categories: Condominium Ownership, Thailand Property
While I already dealt with this issue two days ago, I just read this morning a comparative study from the Global Property Guide. The Global Property Guide surveyed and compared the prices of 120 SQM good condition second hand high end apartments in 112 cities over the world. Among the cities surveyed was Bangkok which ranked fairly well in the study.
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Originally posted 2009-08-28 10:40:06.
May 24 2010
Categories: Condominium Ownership, Property General Issues, Thailand Property
It is always difficult for a new buyer freshly arrived on a market to make an informed decision on what and where to buy? I have been around for 12 years, believe that I have a good understanding of the market but still I learn new things every day. Should you trust your agent to recommend you the best product available. You may, of course but you could also try to find out for yourself what the situation is.
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Originally posted 2009-08-26 03:47:05.
May 24 2010
Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property
Is Real Estate truly the most secure investment?
When the time come to invest most people tend to consider real estate as the most secure long term investment.
This is true for many reasons, one of which being that while companies may go out of business real estate properties will exist forever. In addition, but for period of bump like the current crisis, the average price of properties will appreciate over the long term steadily.
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Originally posted 2009-07-27 05:57:28.
May 24 2010
Categories: Condominium Ownership, Thailand Property
This article was first published in the Property Report Magazine of May 2009 under the heading Beyond the Law
The 49% foreign ownership quota for condominium
One of the legal headaches limiting access of foreign buyers to the Thai real estate market is that Thai laws currently limit foreign buyer freehold purchases of condominium units to percent of the total area (reserved for private ownership) of a condominium building at any one time.
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Originally posted 2009-07-27 10:27:19.
May 24 2010
Categories: Condominium Ownership, Thailand Property
The most easier and secure way for a foreign investor to purchase real estate property in Thailand is to purchase a condominium unit freehold because the legal requirements are as we will see below minimal.
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Originally posted 2009-08-18 11:35:39.
May 24 2010
Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property
The Land tenure and access to land ownership issues
While surfing the internet I found a post on a Thai forum. I found the questions asked by this person under the username of “Samuisoul” interesting because they address two of the first issues that a careful investor should consider prior to purchase real estate into a foreign country.
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Originally posted 2009-07-26 00:44:12.
May 24 2010
Categories: Condominium Ownership, Property General Issues, Thailand Property
I was not satisfied with the content of Friday’s post and I redrafted it
To help you to better understand the difference between a condominium and an apartment building I need first to clarify the definition of the term of “condominium”. For example, most people in Thailand commonly associate the term “condominium” with the concept of an “individual unit” into a “multiple unit building” generally a high rise that may only be sold freehold but condominium ownership is actually far more than this.
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Originally posted 2009-09-27 07:36:30.
May 24 2010
Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property
In our previous post we explained that in Thailand (i) there are no specific documents providing evidence of building ownership, and (2) that it was possible to dissociate land ownership from building ownership. Therefore the question is how then do we establish who the owner of a building is?
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Originally posted 2009-09-22 04:23:34.
May 24 2010
Categories: Condominium Ownership, Thailand Property
In this new rubric we will offer once a month a property for sale. We will only select properties which we believe have a real competitive advantage over their competitors.
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Originally posted 2010-06-16 05:18:02.
May 24 2010
Categories: Land Ownership, Thailand Property
If you are a regular reader of my posts you already know that I believe that the “foreign investors that have purchased land through a company with Thai Shareholders that may be deemed nominees” is a big messy situation that at one point will need to be resolved.
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Originally posted 2009-11-01 07:03:18.
May 24 2010
Categories: Land Ownership, Thailand Property
One of the reasons I’m calling the nominee scrutiny a “Witch Hunt” is because one of the declared target of said inquiry will be the “Thai wife”. Yes, the Thai wife, not the Thai Spouse. There is gender discrimination in this whole Thai wife business that i do not like at all.
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Originally posted 2009-10-29 02:14:36.
May 24 2010
Categories: Condominium Ownership, Thailand Property
In this post I will describe step by step the formalities that must be accomplished by the seller and the buyer in order to complete the sale and purchase of a condominium. In this example I make the following assumption. The buyer is a foreign investor. The condominium unit is completed and ready for transfer.
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Originally posted 2009-11-28 05:32:53.
May 24 2010
Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property
Should you purchase off plan?
From experience, we know that most problems occur when buyers purchase property “off plan”. Whether or not the transaction has a favorable outcome will depend solely upon one single factor: Did the buyer purchase from a reliable developer or not? Truth be told, purchasing off plan is no more dangerous when purchasing offshore than in your home country, as long as you are purchasing from a reliable developer who operates in the country where you are purchasing.
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Originally posted 2009-08-10 06:01:41.
May 24 2010
Categories: Leasehold Ownership, Thailand FAQ, Thailand Property
Is it worth purchasing a property in leasehold second hand?
Someone today’s asked whether it is worth purchasing second hand a property in leasehold?
Here again all depend what kind of property your purchase.
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Originally posted 2009-08-13 17:03:44.
May 24 2010
Categories: Condominium Ownership, Thailand Property
Colliers recently published its last property snapshot for 2009 and we would like to take this opportunity to review 2009 Thai condominium market. So, was 2009 a good or a bad year?
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Originally posted 2009-12-23 07:02:15.
May 24 2010
Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property
How are rights on land evidenced in Thailand? Now this is a tricky question because land documents such as NS-4 (Chanote), NS-3K (Nor. Sor. Sam Kor.) or NS-3 (Nor. Sor. Sam), which we discussed in the previous posts, only serve to evidence rights to land and contain no mention of the structures built on the land (if any).
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Originally posted 2009-09-21 04:06:25.
May 24 2010
Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property
You cannot have followed Thai news for the past 3 weeks and not have read about the problem faced by General Surayud (former Thai Prime Minister and Member of the Royal Privy Council) in relation to his Khao Yai land.
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Originally posted 2010-01-21 09:35:01.
May 24 2010
Categories: Land Ownership, Property General Issues, Thailand Property
There have been a lot of activities on the “nominees” front lately. It is an issue that resurfaces from time to time. Lately there has been the scandal of foreigners purchasing farm land through the cover of companies that have shareholders that may be deemed “Thai nominees”. This morning in the Bangkok post an article was published under the title “Nominees Ownership under watch”.
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Originally posted 2009-08-25 12:37:59.
May 24 2010
Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property
To buy or not to buy in Thailand?
This is one of the questions that many careful investors are asking now.
Of course due to what happen in Thailand in 1997 where many banks and developers went bankrupt and where hundreds of buildings where left unfinished a lot of buyers are wondering whether it is the right time to buy a property in Thailand?
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Originally posted 2009-07-25 23:54:08.
May 24 2010
Categories: Condominium Ownership, Thailand Property
If you are married, you have two options when buying a condominium freehold in Thailand. You may either wish to buy the condominium in co-ownership with your foreign or Thai spouse or you may purchase it solely under your name by fulfilling some simple requirements. What you cannot do is to lie about your marital status in order to purchase a condominium in sole ownership while married
Originally posted 2009-08-20 05:25:22.
May 24 2010
Categories: Condominium Ownership, Thailand Property
If you are an individual and are selling a real estate property in Thailand you will be liable to pay personal income tax on the gain you will realized on the transaction at the time of the transfer at the Land Department. Now how does the Land Department Officer actually calculate the withholding tax payable by individual Sellers? Read more…
Originally posted 2009-12-09 09:26:58.
May 24 2010
Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property
[There was a formating problem in our Sunday post. I reposted it again]. People purchasing real estate in Thailand are often fulfilling the goal of a lifetime. In the pursuit of their life dream they will often toss caution to the wind, lose all common sense and ignore some simple precautions.Truth is that the actual formalities to transfer a real estate property are fairly straight, simple and may be completed in a few hours which leads many buyers to believe that purchasing a property in Thailand will be a simple transaction when it is not always the case. [ this post was published earlier as a page. We updated it and republished it as a post].
Originally posted 2009-10-19 03:05:09.
May 24 2010
Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property
In yesterday post we discussed Bangkok condominium market. Now what is Bangkok new homes market situation?
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Originally posted 2009-08-27 10:40:41.
May 24 2010
Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property
In Thailand claims on land may be divided in two categories: The major and the minor claims. In this post we will introduce the highest claims on land that are the Nor Sor Sam or Certificate of Use (NS-3), the Nor Sor Sam Gor or Confirmed Certificate of Use (NS-3K) and the Chanote (NS-4) claims.
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Originally posted 2009-09-14 02:59:08.
May 19 2010
Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property
In the following section, we’ll review the differences between the three higher claims from the lowest to the highest.
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Originally posted 2009-09-15 02:23:39.
May 19 2010
Categories: Condominium Ownership, Thailand Property
Should you buy your condominium unit in person or should you register an offshore company to purchase it on your behalf? Both options are available with their advantages and drawbacks.
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Originally posted 2009-08-24 11:43:20.
May 19 2010
Categories: Condominium Ownership, Thailand Property
In this post we will show how the government fees and taxes payable at the Land Department are calculated in the case of the resale of a condominium. Note that in the two examples below we envisaged a transaction before end of March 2010 and after March 2010 because government fees are discounted until the end of March 2010.
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Originally posted 2009-12-09 06:47:13.
