Thailand’s foreign homeowners remain fearful of eviction

The constant fear of eviction is a fact of life for foreigners who illegally buy houses in Thailand and senior government officials always enjoy playing on it.

Last month, the Land Department Director-General unleashed a predictable panic when he threatened to confiscate land registered by foreigners in the names of their Thai wives (or their Thai husbands, if we’re being pedantic).

If we find out that a Thai person has been using money from a foreigner to buy land anywhere in Thailand, we will revoke the title deeds.

What he neglected to point out, however, was that foreigners can legally purchase land for their Thai wives so long as they sign an official document designating it her sole personal property, as opposed to common matrimonial property.

Consequently, lovesick farangs who marry in haste often find themselves walking away from the divorce with little more than the clothes they stand up in. Furthermore, if the Thai wife should die first, the land can only pass to a Thai national. If he doesn’t get on with his in-laws, the bereaved foreign husband can end up wandering the streets with a suitcase.

Just last year, a similar panic was whipped up by Land Department when they threatened to crackdown on foreigners who illegally buy land through nominee companies – another widely-exploited loophole. Putting the risk into perspective, though, I can’t think of a single case where the Land Department has actually followed through on its threats.

The true consequences of illegal ownership only arise when a jealous “friend” or business rival decides to make trouble for you. Corrupt Land Department officials always welcome the opportunity to extort money from law-breaking foreigners and their Thai wives.

Westerners calling for the repeal of Thailand’s draconian anti-foreign-ownership laws are often quick to label them xenophobic but this rather misses the point. Liberalising the existing law would almost certainly see the proceeds from the sale of the kingdom’s ancestral heartlands ending up in the Singapore bank accounts of corrupt Thai politicians. Just look at Cambodia.

Fortunately, there are still a couple of perfectly legal ways for foreigners to buy property in Thailand. You can purchase a condominium in your own name or take out a 30-year lease on a house.

The lease can, quite legally, be extended by another 30 years – giving you 60 years in total. However, the widely-held belief that it can be further extended to 90 years is an urban myth.

Developers may sell only 49% of their condo units to foreigners so it’s vital that your unit comes from this reserved tranche. Using a dodgy nominee arrangement to buy a unit from the remaining 51% leaves you vulnerable to extortion – regardless of what the seller might say. The problems caused by delinquent managing agents are already bad enough to keep the average condo owner awake at night without taking on this additional worry.

Personally, I think renting is a much better option. In an unscientific survey comprising just half a dozen half-cut respondents at a recent Chamber of Commerce drinks party, I established that 100% of Thailand-based estate agents prefer to rent their homes rather than buy. Evidently, they don’t have much faith in their own product.

Obviously, there will always be people who decide to buy their own home in Thailand for sentimental reasons, money-laundering purposes or, perhaps, under pressure from an avaricious Thai partner. Fortunately for them, the potentially disastrous consequences can sometimes be mitigated by careful research and slavish adherence to the letter of the Thai law.

Tagged as: foreign ownership, Land Department, property

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