Thread: Getting a Thai Mortgage for my Thai Wife?

Hey guys,

I’m looking for advice on how to go about getting a Thai mortgage for my wife. We’ve been married and living in Thailand for a few years.

She’s soon to give birth and we both feel it’s best for her to be a stay at home mom and house wife. (She was working until becoming pregnant).

Unfortunately I don’t earn great money, but we both feel it’s enough for how we live, and is better than other options (so not comments on that please. )

I’d like my wife to get a mortgage for a cheap house somewhere outside of Bangkok. Phetburi-Kanchanaburi-Chiang Mai even, for us to live in.

I use her bank account as an everyday account and around half my money is going in there every month (37k out of 60k income).

So she can show 37k being transferred into her account every month, but cannot show proof of job or anything like that.

Type of mortgage we’d look for would be something like a 2 million baht, 20 year mortgage, which would presumably buy a 1.5 mill house with the rest for interest. I’d like the option to pay it off sooner though.


So question time.

How to get a 20 yr mortgage for a Thai who doesn’t have a job or legal income??

I heard something about they can set up a small legal business (in writing only) like a DFC, or DCB or something, which legally creates a small legal business for a self-employed Thai and costs about 3000thb a year in tax regardless of income (37000thb p/m in her case)? This would presumably make her income legal and be able to use it to finance a mortgage.


How much income must a Thai have to get a 20 year, 2 mill baht mortgage? (With a bit of bank account wriggling I can increase the payments made to her account to show around 60k p/m).


Thank you very much and I hope I get informative answers and not comments about other things in my posts.

Thanks.

Simon.

We looked into doing something similar with the Midget showing 60k a month income. All 3 banks we spoke to only offered 50% on a 2m Baht house in a private village.

We didn't buy.

^ thanks.

A bit surprising.

And not good news for our idea.

I would have presumed a Thai showing 60k p/m would have houses thrown at them, especially when only wanting one for only 1.5 mill.

It isn't a lot of money. Makes you wonder where do entire families living on less than that (say two parents earning 20k each) get mortgages to buy houses.

If anyone else can offer other advice or experiences I'd be grateful to hear them.

Originally Posted by Thai Simon

Makes you wonder where do entire families living on less than that (say two parents earning 20k each) get mortgages to buy houses.

The holy grail is to get a government job. You will get loans (sometime interest free) and mortgages very easily.

Unsurprisingly, teachers, policemen, nurses et al, are just as likely to default on a loan as your common-or-garden variety of Thai.

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Originally Posted by Thai Simon

Makes you wonder where do entire families living on less than that (say two parents earning 20k each) get mortgages to buy houses.

The holy grail is to get a government job. You will get loans (sometime interest free) and mortgages very easily.

Unsurprisingly, teachers, policemen, nurses et al, are just as likely to default on a loan as your common-or-garden variety of Thai.

Would getting someone with a government job to act as a guarantor (for a fee) work for the OP???

Originally Posted by Simon43

Another approach is to find a new housing development which works with just one of the banks who will fund mortgages for the project's customers. The housing project wants to sell you the house and they may be able to bend the rules or thing of 'creative' ways to get the mortgage.

That's we we had hoped for.

Originally Posted by buriramboy

Would getting someone with a government job to act as a guarantor (for a fee) work for the OP???

Nope. They were pretty frank with us. Thai Planet. No proper job no loan. They fucked us around for 2 months anyway and refused to hand back house plans (I think they guy did actually lose them). Farmers credit union through the MIL was the way to go. But like I said before now she has a registered business and can show regular profit/ income we'll be sweet in future.

Originally Posted by Simon43

She can register a self-employed business for just a few hundred baht, (eg stall, cleaning laundry etc) and you can drop money into her account every 'pay day'.

Yep that's the best course for the OP IMO. Wait out the six months after registering self-employed / business and you should be right.

Thanks.

I'll look into two things.

One:

I just called her and her mother owns the family house and land in the middle of nowhere. I suppose this could be transferred into my wife's name (on the Chanote). I think this costs money as some gov. official has to come out to check the land and extort you.

This would at least give her a chanote. I can't imagine it's worth much though. Probably 1 or 2 hundred k.

Can anyone spell out the process of transferring the name on a Chanote?

Thanks.

Two:

Setting up a legal self employed business so she can show legal income.

Simon (or anyone else)

She can register a self-employed business for just a few hundred baht, (eg stall, cleaning laundry etc) and you can drop money into her account every 'pay day'.

Do you know what the name of this is, and what government office she will have to go to. She hates dealing with Thai government offices almost as much as me.

It would be great to get the name of the form we need, what office we can get it at, and what office we submit it to... and what we are looking to get, a legal certificate? A Tax card with number on it?

Thanks again.

Save up a deposit like everyone else has to.

^ Deposit wouldn't be too much of a problem if it's 25%-30%.

If it's 50% than it would be an inconvenient wait to get that saved.

Have you got expierence of it that you can pass on, as opposed to a smart comment?

Originally Posted by Thai Simon

I just called her and her mother owns the family house and land in the middle of nowhere. I suppose this could be transferred into my wife's name (on the Chanote). I think this costs money as some gov. official has to come out to check the land and extort you.

This would at least give her a chanote. I can't imagine it's worth much though. Probably 1 or 2 hundred k.

Can anyone spell out the process of transferring the name on a Chanote?

Probably just easier sticking it in the MIL's name if you can trust her.

Originally Posted by Thai Simon

Do you know what the name of this is, and what government office she will have to go to.

Not sure about self-employment, but we set up an Ordinary Partnership business which was pretty painless and didn't cost much; less than 5K bt. Mrs owns 51%, we can both show profits as income but I'm not permitted to work. We got it structured with the mrs taking a management wage and bonuses so it doesn't show as profit. Not too sure about tax obligations and understand it's about how creative you are with your accounting.