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Costs of Buying Property

Costs of Buying Property in Thailand

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1.1.1  Sale and Purchas of a Condo in Thailand

  1. After finalization of the price, settlement date must be appointed.
  2. On the settlement date, apart of the Agreement to Sale and Purchase that need to be signed, the paper work for transfer should also be finalized. Paper work needed for the transfer are as follow:

Seller :

  1. Identification documents of the Seller.
  2. Thai Person — ID Card + Household Registration (Thabian Ban)
  3. Foreigner—Passport + Current Visa
  4. Thai Company—Complete set of company formation paper, dated not longer than 3 months (I’d recommend 1month) + Director’s ID card or Passport + Minutes f meeting.
  5. Debt Free letter— a letter saying that the condo to be transferred is free from any debt , ie. Maintenance Fee, Water, Electricty, etc. Seller have to get it from the Condo Management.
  6. Power of Attorney + Grantee’s Identification Document (If any)

 

Buyer :

  1. Identification documents of the Buyer.
  2. Thor. Tor. 3(Sarm) — a Foreign Transaction Form getting from the Bank. This is to certify that the foreigner who buy the condo has transferred the money for buying from overseas, any transaction of over 20,000 USD can apply for Thor. Tor. 3ter from bank or even buy Thor. Tor. 3 from the third party.
  3. Some foreigners just don’t have this Thor. Tor. 3 since he may transferred less than 20,000 USD timely, this case we can asked for confirmation let***Thor. Tor. 3 is needed only for foreign buyer.
  4. Power of Attorney + Grantee’s Identification Document (If any)

The transfer of property can be done in one day.

 

 

1.1.2  Sale and Purchas of a Land and House in Thailand

 

There are 2 ways to transfer land and house:

 

  1. Transfer of ownership of the property at the land office — this only requires identification of seller and buyer and POA.
  2. Transfer of managing directorship and shares of the company at the business department — this require specific form signed y both party. More complicated but the fee is a lot cheaper.

 

Costs

The transfer cost is always a huge argument between buyer, sellers and agents. As I’ve informed you, the transfer cost will be calculated based on the “declared price” (valuation). To make it easy for you to understand there are 4 kinds of prices we will talk about

  1. Purchase price
  2. Declared price
  3. Valuation
  4. Sales price

The sales price is totally about the market and you, so it’s not much to talk about. Most new condominium projects will declare the (real) purchase price which mostly is equal to the valuation as the valuation for condo is very high.
The transfer cost is the combination of:

  • Transfer Fee at 2% of declared price or valuation (they will calculate based on the highest one) — this, by law, shall be equally paid by both parties
  • Personal Income Tax at 1% of declared price or valuation (personal income tax will be less, relevant to the period of owning. Every year it will be reduced with approximately 10%)
  • Specific Business Tax at 3.3% of the declared price or valuation, again, the highest one
Transfer fee of declared price 2%
Personal Income Tax 1%
Specific Business Tax 3.3%

If the condo is owned by a person for longer than 5 years, the specific business tax is no longer applicable. The way they calculate years is not usual, not the date to the same date of next year, but just the year. For example: you bought the unit in 2006, if you sell your condo within 2010, you have to pay for specific business tax, but from the 1 of January 2011 onwards there will be no more specific business tax, but only a “duty stamp” of 0.5% of the price.

 

The valuation MIGHT increase or decrease at the end of each year.

If after five years the transfer costs are 3.5%, the buyer is only obligated to pay 1% of the transfer fee (2.5% seller/1%buyer), but in reality, most developer/sellers will ask the buyer to pay all the costs. (this is up to you)

Tags: property, price, business, condo, transfer, specific, valuation, buyer, declared, identification

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