They say moving house is one of the most stressful things you can do. Try moving house in a different country where you don’t speak the language and the stress level moves up a few notches.

Most people rent when they first arrive in Pattaya, but the lure of having your own place can tempt many into buying.

Getting hold of a home in Pattaya requires a little thought. Do you want a condo or a house, do you want privacy or an estate, do you mind the neighbours harmonising on their karaoke machine until 3am?

At pattaya24seven we’ve put together a property guide to explain what you need to look for when choosing a home. We’d love to hear of your experiences too, so get in touch if you have an opinion or story.

If you have a house to sell, get in touch via our classified pages and place a free ad.

Property Guide

Know what you’re allowed to do and not allowed to do.

The easy part is buying a condo. Foreigners can own condos freehold, providing that the majority of the other apartments are owned by Thais.

Foreigners can’t own land in Thailand. They can own the house the land sits on, which is why things can get pretty complicated pretty quickly.

If you want to buy a home, there are a few options:

1)Leasehold. This gives you rights to stay in the home for a set period. The lease can usually be extended without too many problems. On the downside, selling a home with a relatively short lease can be tricky.

2)Give it to a Thai. The simplest solution is to just hand over ownership of the land and home to a Thai partner. Remember that if things do turn sour, you’ll have to walk away from the property, as you have no rights over it.

3)Give a Thai a mortgage. One rarely-used method is to arrange a mortgage for a Thai citizen. The mortgage is never discharged, so you effectively have control (but not ownership) over the house. The Thai resident doesn’t technically own it, and they can’t sell it without your permission. Obviously a lawyer is needed if you go down this route.

4)Nominee companies. You may wonder, given that a foreigner can’t own land here, how come so many expats have bought their own homes. The answer is that most have put their house in the name of a company. This is a relatively easy, but highly contentious, way of getting a home. Most of these companies are on paper only; they don’t turn a profit or employ staff. Accountants will be happy to provide paperwork to show that these are ‘proper’ working businesses, which they need to be if a house is involved.

Ask ten foreigners if this is a good idea and you’ll get ten different answers. The obvious risk is that technically you wouldn’t have a legitimate company so, theoretically at least, your property shouldn’t be in the company’s name. The counter-argument goes that if this law was ever enforced Pattaya would be empty. Strength in numbers doesn’t give you any extra legal clout, but then in Thailand rules and reality don’t always go together.

Renting

When renting there are a few things to remember. Here are our top five things to check:

Most people use a standard contract that’s been downloaded and just change the addresses and names, but make sure there’s an English version available or a trusted Thai friend can translate.

Ask if you pay any service fees every month.

Ask if they add on their own little extra per unit of electricity – we’ve known cases where a 1,000 baht bill has turned into 6,000 baht as the meter kept whizzing round even when no electric was being used.

Check to see where you’re nearest laundry/ironing shop is.

Make sure the landlord can’t just turn up when they feel like it. Explain they need to give you some notice. Also, ask about a deposit: do you need to give one, after what period are you entitled to get it all back?

ARTICLE: Moving House >>