Farang share of condos in building

[thaibook]

I understand the law says at least 51% of the condos in a building must be owned by Thais.

1   Can I buy a condo jointly with my Thai wife and if so, does this count as a half unit towards the farang total?

 

2   If my Thai wife acquires a building, such as a shop house, and we convert it to 8-10 studios, do we have to register as a condo building or simply report if se sell any units to farang?  

[ezzra]

Part one of your question can be answers by a juristic office of any condo, part two i think best to ask the land department, so get the gf to some asking...

[smutcakes]

Part 1-the answer is no, its either a foreign ownership or Thai ownership.

 

Part 2- In practical terms you would not be able to register it as a condo- the process is far to detailed, EIA,  there are far to many requirements which a converted shop house is unable to meet. In addition you would not be able to sell units to a farang as it would not be a condo.

[thaibook]

Thank you for the responses - they put paid to imaginative options.

 

[Mops59]

Can buy condo on company name. Share company 51 Thai, 49 Farang.

[Delight]

7 hours ago, thaibook said:

I understand the law says at least 51% of the condos in a building must be owned by Thais.1   Can I buy a condo jointly with my Thai wife and if so, does this count as a half unit towards the farang total?

  In relation to shared ownership of a  condo apartment.

The condo act allows that a foreign owned condo can be shared with  a Thai-thus increasing the Thai  ownership component. However a Thai owned apartment cannot be shared with a foreigner. If that were to be allowed then the foreign quota could and probably would exceed the 49%

Edited November 30, 2020 by Delight

[newnative]

     I don't have an answer to question 2.  In regard to Question 1, 51% of a condo project does not need to be owned by Thais.  A condo project theoretically could be owned 100% by foreigners--49% in foreign quota and the rest in Company name.  My Thai partner and I were able to buy a condo in Bangkok in foreign quota but have both of our names on the Chanote.  When we sold it, the foreign buyer was able to buy it in foreign quota so the foreign quota was preserved.  

[HampiK]

On 11/30/2020 at 4:34 PM, newnative said:

     I don't have an answer to question 2.  In regard to Question 1, 51% of a condo project does not need to be owned by Thais.  A condo project theoretically could be owned 100% by foreigners--49% in foreign quota and the rest in Company name.  My Thai partner and I were able to buy a condo in Bangkok in foreign quota but have both of our names on the Chanote.  When we sold it, the foreign buyer was able to buy it in foreign quota so the foreign quota was preserved.  

The Problem the 51% which would be owned by a company it's not foreign. As 51% of the company has to be in Thai hands again.
So from this point, the company would be a Thai company and therefore the 51% of the condominium would again be in Thai name!

[newnative]

1 hour ago, HampiK said:

The Problem the 51% which would be owned by a company it's not foreign. As 51% of the company has to be in Thai hands again.
So from this point, the company would be a Thai company and therefore the 51% of the condominium would again be in Thai name!

      Correct.  It's not foreign quota.  It's company name, which requires that 51% of the company shares be assigned to Thais.  But many buyers who use company name to buy condos and houses are foreigners, not Thai.  The company might be Thai but the actual condo buyer is a foreigner.   Using company name allows a foreigner to buy a condo when foreign quota is filled and to get around the 51% Thai rule.   I believe my answer to the OP still stands in that 51% of a condo project does not need to be owned by Thais.  

[smutcakes]

On 12/2/2020 at 9:08 AM, newnative said:

      Correct.  It's not foreign quota.  It's company name, which requires that 51% of the company shares be assigned to Thais.  But many buyers who use company name to buy condos and houses are foreigners, not Thai.  The company might be Thai but the actual condo buyer is a foreigner.   Using company name allows a foreigner to buy a condo when foreign quota is filled and to get around the 51% Thai rule.   I believe my answer to the OP still stands in that 51% of a condo project does not need to be owned by Thais.  

 

Well yes, maybe more foreigner are living there, but strictly speaking you are wrong as they are Thai companies with the majority shareholders being Thai. But i get what you are saying. I think quota's being full is only an issue in places like Pattaya and possibly Phuket.

[newnative]

1 hour ago, smutcakes said:

 

Well yes, maybe more foreigner are living there, but strictly speaking you are wrong as they are Thai companies with the majority shareholders being Thai. But i get what you are saying. I think quota's being full is only an issue in places like Pattaya and possibly Phuket.

   Yes, strictly speaking, they are Thai companies.  As I said, that is how they get around the 51% rule.  But the actual real buyers setting up these companies are foreigners.  The OP was under the impression that a condo project must find Thai buyers for 51% of the project. That is not the case.    

[Yellowtail]

Actually, I don't think they have to sell any of the 51% to sell the 49% to foreigners. 

[HampiK]

4 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

Actually, I don't think they have to sell any of the 51% to sell the 49% to foreigners. 

Yes, that's true. But this would give problems, as the income of the maintenance fees probably would not be enough and then have to be increased. I think that would be bad for the 49% foreigners who bought.

But in places like Pattaya they make 2 different prices to overcome that problem.. they make the condos cheaper for Thais, so they can sell them as well. That's sometimes the reason why some foreigner use the company way, because they can save a few baht on the purchase price.

[smutcakes]

10 hours ago, HampiK said:

Yes, that's true. But this would give problems, as the income of the maintenance fees probably would not be enough and then have to be increased. I think that would be bad for the 49% foreigners who bought.

But in places like Pattaya they make 2 different prices to overcome that problem.. they make the condos cheaper for Thais, so they can sell them as well. That's sometimes the reason why some foreigner use the company way, because they can save a few baht on the purchase price.

The unsold Thai 51% would still be owned by the developer who would still have to pay the common fees on the units. Which is why developers often wait until they are 30-40% sold before starting to construct.