Mortgages

[offshoreadvice]

Any idea if and how foreigners can get an International Mortgage on a Condo and other freehold property?

[hollister]

... marry a thai girl :-)

Seriously we bought a house, freehold, in my thai wife´s name (no flaming please ... I know, I know ...). Anyway while we do pay in cash, Kasikorn and Bangkok Bank were quick to suggest my wife should get a mortgage and invest some cash into some of their banking products like investment funds ... yeah right.

[squire]

HSBC Premier provide offshore foreign currency mortgages to foreigners for purchase of Thai properties. UOB also do, although I believe you need to be a Singapore resident to qualify. Bangkok Bank provided offshore mortgages some years back, but closed their program back in 2008.

[somtumtiger]

Marry a Thai girl is right - also Bangkok Bank offers mortgages for condos, but not for homes, I believe.

[Spitfire]

SCB bank offers mortgages to foreigners, 70% for those that work in Thailand and 50% for those that work outside.

However, you need to be married because of the land ownership issues, and best to have been so for a couple of years before you apply giving you and your Mrs time to meet their criteria (like bank statements etc) so that the land can be put in her name but the loan is yours (or hers if you want). Not ideal, I know, but probably the best the average guy can do without downing large sums, depends on your financial situation and these vary much for expats these days.

You pay the insurance on the bank loan, so if either party dies then the other gets the house. Get the yellow house book afterwards and you're OK in those situations as if the unthinkable happens, I think a foreigner can own up to 1 rai with a house on it in that situation, but you need the yellow book. Perhaps other land boffins can correct me if I'm wrong but that was mentioned to me when I bought.

However, the bank is quite nitpicky on whether a Thai meets the right level or not....she needs to be debt free (what the Thais call "bulo") with a decent job (25,000 or up) or you have to conjure up a believable scenario with the help of others to convince them it's OK and she has some income, and the later is not as easy as many might think because the banks get wise-guys trying to borrow off them everyday and they know all the tricks................although, as with most else in this country, if it convincingly looks like an orange then it is.

Sure you all know what I mean. Don't believe the nay-sayers, you can get a mortgage if you are married with some disposable income and know what you are doing and how the system works.



Edit : The woman at the SCB told me that what they do to calculate the amount of money a Thai can afford to pay is take their salary minus their monthly debt to cards/cars or whatever and then half it, which then equals what they can realistically afford each month. So, if your Mrs has a job that pays 25k baht a month with no debts then she can afford a 12.5k a month mortgage and lend accordingly to that premise.

[John612]

Hi, I have heard that private Mortgage Insurance companies write insurance protecting approximately the top 20% of the mortgage against default depending on the lender’s and investor’s requirements. Is it really so?

[tonymaroni]

Never heard of a private mortgage insurance company in Thailand.
Do you have a name of such?