Legal Advice

Current Thai law forbids the sale of freehold property to foreigners. Prior to May 2006, a popular workaround to this was to set up a limited company with the foreign investor being the primary shareholder and 6 Thai nominee shareholders to fulfil legal requirements.

The property (or land) was then purchased by the limited company. On 25th May 2006, the Thai government issued a directive to all provincial Land Offices to investigate any sales of land or property to limited companies to ascertain whether or not the transaction was conducted purely to enable a foreigner to own land.

This is not a new law, rather the government enforcing existing laws that previously were not. This has effectively stopped this type of land/property purchase method. Please read “The Civil and Commercial Code “ .Books 1 to 6

So,how as a foreigner can you own you own house in Thailand ? If you put the house in the name of your wife or girlfriend you run the risk of losing the property, but Siam-Land has the solution to this problem.

As thai law does allow for long term leasing, Siam-Land will create an initial leaase for ech plot.

Siam-Land offer its clients the opportunity to lease the land for a period of three time thirty 30 x 30 x 30 years,lease being recorded and registered in the clients name, plus a letter of intent for a further 30 x 30 x 30 years. This "rolling lease" will effectively mean that the land belongs to the client although it will be held in trust by Siam-Land. A peppercorn rent will be levied for each period to satisfy Thai law regarding leasing.

Siam-Land will then construct the property,(from our existing plans) for the client, thus the house belongs to client. It is much the same as buying an apartment or condominium in a block-you own the property but have no title to the land.

If the law changes enabling foreigners to own land in Thailand outright, the freehold title ("the Chanote") will be transferred to the property owner.

If the law nationals or foreigners with Thai national partners wish to purchase a property on our development, we will of course grant full freehold title from the beginning. Visa Options As a visitor to Thailand, you will normally be granted a 30 day tourist visa on arrival into the Kingdom. For many “residents” here, this visa is sufficient although it does mean that every 30 days a border must be crossed to gain a new entry entitlement of 30 days. The nearest border to Chiang Mai is that of Myanmar (formerly Burma) and is about 4 hours away making a visa renewal a day’s outing.

Visa Options

As a visitor to Thailand, you will normally be granted a 30 day tourist visa on arrival into the Kingdom. For many “residents” here, this visa is sufficient although it does mean that every 30 days a border must be crossed to gain a new entry entitlement of 30 days. The nearest border to Chiang Mai is that of Myanmar (formerly Burma) and is about 4 hours away making a visa renewal a day’s outing.

A better option is to obtain a “non-immigrant” visa which will allow the holder to stay in Thailand for between 3 months and one year with the option of renewing the visa continuously. Applications for non-immigrant visas cannot be done in Thailand. It is possible to travel to a neighbouring country but consulates/embassies tend to be quite strict on the paperwork. The better option is to apply to the Thai consulate/embassy in your home country. There are several types of non-immigrant visa, the most popular being the “OA” for retirees or spouses of Thai nationals and the “B” class visa for those wishing to conduct business whilst living here in Thailand.
For each visa, processing takes approximately 1 week and a fee is payable. For a list of Thai Embassies/consulates click here(http://www.traveller2000.com/thailand/embassies_worldwide.htm). The most important criteria for the retirement visa (“OA”) is that you must be over 50 years old and that you can show a sum of 800,000 baht (click here for currency calculator http://www.x-rates.com/calculator.html) in order to support yourself here for 12 months. Alternatively you can show proof of a monthly income of 65,000 baht or a combination of both. If you are married to a Thai national, you can apply for the same “OA” visa and must meet the same financial criteria.
If you are applying for a “B” class visa, you will need a letter from your prospective employer stating that he/she is willing to employ you and the capacity of that employment. The authorities may also wish to see a copy of the company’s registration certificate and tax number.
Once you have obtained your non-immigrant visa, you can enter Thailand and stay a maximum of 3 months (90 days) after which you must cross a border to gain another 90 days. This can be done for the duration of your visa, after which a new application must be made from outside Thailand for a new visa. However, if you have obtained an “OA” visa for retirement, this can be renewed for 1 year at the Chiang Mai Immigration Office which is situated close to the International Airport, about 10 minutes out of town. This then negates the obligation to renew every 90 days.

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