Required for Foreign Freehold ownership transfer.
Under the Thailand Condominium Act 1991, non-resident foreigners who purchase a condominium unit must bring in the funds from overseas. That means that the entire payment must be transferred into the country as “foreign currency”. The beneficiary bank will issue a “Foreign Exchange Transaction” certificate which should be presented to the Land Department when registering the ownership of the condominium.
For each transfer, banks will only provide a “Foreign Exchange Transaction” certificate for amounts of over US$ 50,000. For amounts of less than this, the bank will issue a credit advice, which may be presented, with the confirmation letter from the bank, to the Land Office in order to register the condominium under freehold ownership. The bank will also have to issue the reference letter; this letter has to be in Thai language only and stipulating the name of the buyer and the details of the condominium being purchased (Condominium name, address, unit number, size of the unit).
In case that you do not have a bank account in Thailand, you will remit the funds directly to the Developer account.
In such case, the developer, as the beneficiary, will obtain the Foreign Exchange Transaction certificate and reference letter from the bank on behalf of the purchaser. The developer will keep all the certificates and/or credit notes with the letter from the bank until the date on which the ownership of the condominium unit is transferred. In the event that the purchaser wishes to keep those documents, a request can be submitted to the developer.
If you have a bank account in Thailand the procedures will be the same but you will be the beneficiary and you will have to obtain the Foreign Exchange Transaction certificate and the reference letter from the bank by yourself.
The money has to be transferred as foreign currency. Do not convert in Thai Baht before making a transfer. The conversion into Thai baht will be done by the beneficiary bank.
Please indicate in the transfer instructions that the purpose of transfer is:
“To purchase a condominium Unit No. xxxx, Project Name, Buyer name”
Please use the exact wording above in order to avoid any misinterpretation by the Land Department. For example, the word “apartment”, a term which is frequently used in other countries, has a different meaning than “condominium”.
