So here are the options for getting on the Thai property ladder:
1. Form a company to buy land and house.
Possibly illegal, depending on who you talk to. When the anti-farang despot takes over on a populist ticket the law will be enforced to the letter and you will lose everything and may need to be heli-vac'd to the roof of your Embassy at short notice. Make sure you are 'on the list' by registering with your embassy if you buy a house using this method.
2. Buy the house, lease the land.
This way you build a nice house with all mod cons that the Thai freeholder's family will eventually move in to. Your children will be left penniless as you will have pissed all your money up against a wall. You will die broke and alone, unable to return to your country of origin. Korp khun mak khrup - now get out of MY house you stupid farang.
3. Buy a condo in your own name.
Own a slice of the sky for as long as the building stays up. This could be forever or it could be next week, depending on whether the building is actually structurally sound and whether the owner can foresee another, more profitable use for the land. Watch out for those night time bulldozers - TIT. There is also the risk that a sharp witted local entrepreneur will buy the top three floors and establish a zoo as a tourist attraction for the Bangkok weekenders.
4. Put the house in your Thai wife's name.
Don't trust those Thai girls, they are evil and will take everything from you. If you don't believe it, did you hear the story of old Pierre, the Belgian dentist? Well, he came to Hua Hin, bought a house in his wife's name and one day he came home to find that the house had been dismantled, carted away on the back of a pick up and rebuilt in Buriram. When he tracked down the wife and confronted her he was beaten to death by her brothers and secret Thai boyfriend and skinned to form seat covers for the new Isuzu 4WD that Pierre had given his wife's father to replace the dead buffalo.
5. Rent a house: As in all countries, money down the drain but serves a purpose for those not minded to implement plan 1, 2, 3 or 4. Your rent will increase at extortionate rates and you will probably decorate the house and cultivate the garden to a nice standard but still end up losing your damage bond to your sour faced Sino-Thai landlord on some fabricated account.
That just about sums up the options and, take it from someone in the know, it's all true I tell you.
Happy house hunting!
