How much for a western style home?

[JustADude]

Wondering where you could get a good deal on a larger house in Thailand. For instance my house in US is 3100 Sq feet and was 230,000. Where can I get this same house in Thailand and would it be cheaper? I hear a lot of time of guys talk about how they got a very large house for very cheap in Thailand, is this true?

[udontony]

3,100 square feet looks like about 320 sq m`s and our house in Issan is just a bit smaller than that.  Built seven years ago it cost about £25,000 compared to approx £174,000 yours cost. ( hope my conversion figures are correct! )   The build quality is first class and we have had no problems living here for the last six years.  We have European standards for all the electrics and the house is mostly a western style. Prices vary all over Thailand but Issan could be the cheapest place to build.

[just hanging]

get it in jomtien or on the dark side, in Jomtien it will be at least double the price so first you gotta pic where you want to live.

[chris2004]

When guys say "they" got a house it means their company has got a house. You can't buy one here.

[KingMidas]

When guys say "they" got a house it means their company has got a house. You can't buy one here.

 

That's one of the most repeated wrong statements on Thai fora, that and 'it's the lowest low season ever.'

 

Anyone with the money can buy a house, car, motorcycle, etc., i.e., personal property

 

What you cannot buy as a non-Thai citizen is the land, often described as real estate.

 

There are other ways for securing your interests on a Thai home such as a Usufruct.

[just hanging]

When guys say "they" got a house it means their company has got a house. You can't buy one here.

 

you can own you own house, 100%

[udontony]

When guys say "they" got a house it means their company has got a house. You can't buy one here.

I own my own house here in Thailand but not the land that it stands on but do have security of tenure for that land as long as I live, well at least until I am 95!

[Tarl]

I own my own house here in Thailand but not the land that it stands on but do have security of tenure for that land as long as I live, well at least until I am 95!

Interested in how that would work if you needed to enforce that.

[Pheat]

I own my own house here in Thailand but not the land that it stands on but do have security of tenure for that land as long as I live, well at least until I am 95!

Yep

But if the Thai wife wanted you out no ifs or butts

The tenure would count for jack shit .

Just had a mate booted from his house up in Nong Knai

He thought he owned his house.

It got very heated very quickly.

If he had not left quietly

He would have quicky had a nasty accident .

Interested in how that would work if you needed to enforce that.

It would be over your dead body 555

[just hanging]

Interested in how that would work if you needed to enforce that.

 

I have read about farangs owning houses with the land in their Thai wife's name many times.   A couple of them involved using a tractor to demolish the house and another to burn it to the ground....

[Edge]

That's one of the most repeated wrong statements on Thai fora, that and 'it's the lowest low season ever.'

 

Anyone with the money can buy a house, car, motorcycle, etc., i.e., personal property

 

What you cannot buy as a non-Thai citizen is the land, often described as real estate.

 

There are other ways for securing your interests on a Thai home such as a Usufruct.

 

You're right........................as usual.  

 

However, I think the OP is talking about buying one and even building your own it isn't very easy to establish ownership of the building plus security on the land.

 

There are loads of large houses on offer at knock down fire sale prices (look round Lake Mabprachan for starters) but filtering those down to how many are available with foreign ownership of the building would, I imagine, knock most of them out.

 

For a house and land already conventionally owned as one unit, by a Thai or in Thai Company name, how would you go about separating the building into foreign name?

My (limited) understanding is that it starts with whoever applied for Planning Permission (where I went wrong) but maybe there's a way to do it after the build?

 

Re' the land, yes I know about 30 Year Leases and Usufructs.

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[just hanging]

one thing that is great about owning it in a company, when you sell it is very simple, fast and cheap to do.  You are not selling the property but your position in the company.  Easy peasy and fast

[Edge]

one thing that is great about owning it in a company, when you sell it is very simple, fast and cheap to do.  You are not selling the property but your position in the company.  Easy peasy and fast

 

Very true, done it 3 times, it's a breeze and it's cheap.

 

Owning only 49% of a (probably) illegal Thai Company can of course potentially have drawbacks.

 

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[Spellforce]

I own my own house here in Thailand but not the land that it stands on but do have security of tenure for that land as long as I live, well at least until I am 95!

For me that's not secure to purchase a land with a thaie wife's name in a village or in the North/Issan, if you split:

- your wife is 50% owner,

- no usurfruit, you have to leave the house and the government gives you 1 year to sell the house + land. OK you will find a buyer in a good location in Pattaya (not furher than 5km east Sukhumvit), but who will spend more than 3 millions bahts in a rural area ?

 

I saw so many farangs who decided to build in the village of their Thai wife, the big issue is if they split: who wants to live in a village where every thai people hate you ? Then it will be IMPOSSIBLE to sell your house, you can also be sure that the family and neighborhood will do everything to block the sale ! In the best cases I saw, the wife gave a compensation of a few thousands bahts ! :(

 

To the OP: the costs of building are realtively cheap in Thailand but N°1 choose wisely the location and NEVER follow you wife/gf in her village ! In Pattaya there are many second hands property to sell in good locations using thai companies (today you can no more create such companies), cost in 12000 bahts/year, that's the most secure option.

[udontony]

For me that's not secure to purchase a land with a thaie wife's name in a village or in the North/Issan, if you split:

- your wife is 50% owner,

- no usurfruit, you have to leave the house and the government gives you 1 year to sell the house + land. OK you will find a buyer in a good location in Pattaya (not furher than 5km east Sukhumvit), but who will spend more than 3 millions bahts in a rural area ?

 

I saw so many farangs who decided to build in the village of their Thai wife, the big issue is if they split: who wants to live in a village where every thai people hate you ? Then it will be IMPOSSIBLE to sell your house, you can also be sure that the family and neighborhood will do everything to block the sale ! In the best cases I saw, the wife gave a compensation of a few thousands bahts ! :(

 

To the OP: the costs of building are realtively cheap in Thailand but N°1 choose wisely the location and NEVER follow you wife/gf in her village ! In Pattaya there are many second hands property to sell in good locations using thai companies (today you can no more create such companies), cost in 12000 bahts/year, that's the most secure option.

I am very lucky in that I have a brilliant Thai family that I do get on with very well.  I know how Thai families stick together whatever happens and very well aware of the problems if I was to split from my wife.   The house that I paid for has already paid for itself in that I have lived here six years and the rent for a small house in the UK would have been enough after five years to cover the cost of the house.  We do not live in the village where my wifes family all live but about 13 k`s down the road which I believe gives us breathing space and not in and out of houses all the time.

 

We went to see a Thai lawyer when we first started to think about building a house, he asked me who was paying for the house, told him I was.  He said that if I paid for the house in full then the house in theory was mine and if we split it would still be mine.   If I was to divorce then in Thai law I could take out whatever I had put into the relationship, that would mean that I would still own 100% of house.  I would have to come to some agreement about the rent for the land that the house stands on.   After saying all that, would i want to stay in an Issan village on my own, maybe not, but I am lucky that things are OK and I have had the benefit of this house and land and I am still enjoying it now.   My wife owned the land that we built on long before I met her, I had no financial interest in that at all but we have since bought more land with joint money and that would be impossible for me to sell if we split as she has big money invested in that as well.

 

Basically there is Thai law and there is Thai interpretation of Thai law which often will be to the Thai side of things, if you never take a chance on anything then you will never do anything so I have taken a chance on Thai people and Thai law.   So far all is well but I won`t be coming on this forum crying if things do go wrong, I went into everything that I have done with my eyes open and after much research.    

[Edge]

.................................. if you never take a chance on anything then you will never do anything .........................

 

PA is certainly not short of clever folk who risk nothing by doing nothing.

 

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