Some friends of mine asked why didn’t we buy a house in Bangkok now since we have long term plan there. Actually, it’s not easy for any foreigner to own a property in Bangkok, especially landed property. I know that it’s an area called the foreigner zone which is meant for foreigners to buy houses there, but it’s quite limited and the price is rather high. Most of the foreigners are allowed to buy condominiums provided that not more than 49 per cent of the units are owned by foreigners.

Here’s the news about how expats can get loans from Bangkok Bank if they are interested to get a condo there:

Expats who want to own condominiums in Thailand can now ask for mortgages through Bangkok Bank’s Singapore branch, but the initial process can be done at branches in Thailand. Bangkok Bank (BBL) is the only bank offering such a facility to foreigners.

Under the current law, foreigners are not allowed to own land but they can own a condominium if not more than 49 per cent of the units are foreign owned. For example, if there are 100 units in a condominium project, only 49 units can be sold to foreigners.

However, the Bank of Thailand (BOT) does not allow banks in Thailand to lend directly to foreigners. Expatriates wanting to own a condominium have had to transfer their money from overseas, or save in order to buy, which may take a long time and waste money on rental costs before they can get their new homes.

BBL requires borrowers to buy homes priced at least US$300,000 (Bt9.64 million) or equivalent, while offering a credit line of around 70 per cent of the price but not lower than or equivalent.

Loans will be given in three currencies, US dollars, Singapore dollars, and euros.

The mortgage rates depend on the currency. They are: US dollars - prime lending rate (5.0 per cent) plus 1.5 per cent per annum, or 6.5 per cent; Singapore dollars - prime lending rate (6 per cent) plus 1.5 per cent, or 7.5 per cent; and euros - prime lending rate (6.5 per cent) plus 1.5 per cent, or 8 per cent. These rates are as of last Monday.

The maximum term of a loan is 20 years but the term plus the borrower’s age shall not be over 65 years.

My FIL owns a condo there, but I’m not sure how did he get it. So, it’s like a mission impossible for us to own any property in Thailand, and even if we would like to buy a condo, we might have to pay it in cash to save up repaying a loan of USD200,000. That’s a lot of money!

Actually, the most expensive expenses we have so far is paying for our kids education. The school fees at international schools are very expensive, and the same goes to some Thai Bilingual schools. So, it’s not easy to be an expat in Bangkok unless your company is paying most of the expenses. Hubby is running his own business, so we can forget about getting any financial support except our own money. Gosh….That goes my mood for shopping.