Financing for Farangs to purchase property

[Nereus]

I have refrained from posting this since it was 25 years ago.

Firstly, as to be expected here, it is not what you know, but who you know!
My late wife was well connected through some of her family, and we were able to get a loan, although we did have to put up a deposit. The loan was in her name, and although she was Thai, her surname was not. The loan had to be guaranteed by her uncle, a Thai, who was also well known. I was also working offshore with a good income, which I had to prove.

All this went along as planned for several years, and then her uncle was killed in a car accident.
The bank may or may not have been informed, but I doubt it. After the loan had been running for 10 years my wife passed away suddenly, and then the real problems began, the end result of which, after another 10 years in the courts, was that I lost the lot!

Anyone contemplating getting a loan needs to make sure that there are wills in place, and binding contracts as to who gets what. My wife did leave a will, but as it had not been drawn up correctly, the courts would not allow it.

And the first thing to do is try and find a Thai lawyer that knows what he is doing and can be trusted. The second thing to do is forget about it!

[huahin4ever]

Why loan in Thailand? If you have income for instance from offshore work, my opinion is that these countries give much better loan deals compared to Thailand. Let's say you work offshore in the North Sea. You would like to loan some money for a house in Thailand together with your wife. I'm pretty sure that for instance banks both in Norway and UK or US have better interest rates than Thailand, and those countries will gladly give you a loan if you can show income.

[musungu]

Why loan in Thailand? If you have income for instance from offshore work, my opinion is that these countries give much better loan deals compared to Thailand. Let's say you work offshore in the North Sea. You would like to loan some money for a house in Thailand together with your wife. I'm pretty sure that for instance banks both in Norway and UK or US have better interest rates than Thailand, and those countries will gladly give you a loan if you can show income.

I do not think this would be as easy as you indicate ( although I do not know about Norway, but I would presume they follow the rest of Europe)
The purpose is to purchase a property in Thailand whilst having to inject the minimum from converting a foreign currency into Baht. The purpose being that the purchaser wishes to mitigate the Thai risk ( eg future property values) and hope the Thai baht weakens whilst the loan is being repaid.
The problem is what security the bank will require, as it will be very difficult to get good title of the property and they would not be prepared to take the risk anyway IMO. So you would need to give a foreign asset which frankly defeats the whole object?

[hhfarang]

very difficult to get good title of the property

In my situation mentioned previously I believe the title to the property(s) was held by the bank and not put in the buyers name. We were paid directly by the bank and not the buyer. The bank actually sent a representative to the land office to take the chanote and make the payments. I wasn't directly involved because the property was in my wife's name but I believe three bank checks were cut, one to us for the sales price of our home, one to another person for an adjacent piece of land that was included in the sale/loan, and one to the buyer for the excess.

[Name Taken]

I think getting a loan would not be too difficult, if you have a Thai wife.
Although, finding a property(condo or house) of decent build quality would probably be a lot of work.