In Thailand a foreigner cannot legally own land. But there are a few ways in which you can get around things.

1. Form a company. The company must have a majority of Thai shareholders, some say 51% otthers 61%. You will need 6 Thais and yourself in there. It is best to try to get 6 people who do not know each other so it is harder for them to plot against you. You can also have different classes of shares – them with shares that have no voting rights attached so that you can control the company at all times.

This is less than ideal as you have minority shareholdings and things could change and your may lose control. There are also complexities with set up and tax issues etc.

2. Get a Thai person to own the land, you can then construct a dwelling on it and retain ownership of the dwelling with proper paperwork etc. This only works with new stuff tho.

3. Get a thai person to own the house and land and you can then enter into a lease with them for 30 years (the max) with the option to renew twice, so a 90 year lease in effect. This can be registered on title and any prospective purchasers would be scared away.

But why would you want to buy in Thailand? it is very risky, much better and cheaper to rent in my opinion. Invest your money in Australia.

I would never buy in Thailand for a few reasons including:
– corruption is rife. Things can be changed for money – eg your lease may be removed from title, house may be mortgaged without your knowledge etc. you don't want to get involved with this sort of shit.

– It will be difficult to get a loan there unless you are workign there.
– If you want to rent it out you will be ripped off by everyone – repairs, management, water charges, electricity etc.
– Politically unstable. Thereis a coup every 9 years on average.
– King is getting old, when he dies there could be large disruptions, political conflct etc

Invest here and rent there.

Just tell the agent you will be taking the contract to your solicitor and then get hold of one, write in your clauses and give it back. If they refuse, insist or go straight to the vendor and tell them the agent refused this offer.

Good ideas Euro. Only problem is these days getting cashout of a loan is hard. So may have to set it up as you suggest but borrow 90%, don't pay cash. Then immediately pay down the loans to $0 or $1 and have the money available.

Sounds stupid, but banks don't want to give people access to large amounts of cash these days. $10k is often the limit.

Yes, i think you should be able to. The agent is your ágent' which means that they are acting as if you. so what they have is really yours.

Simple stuff really. There are not too many forumlas – not enough for a book anyway.

Yield is return divded by cost. so $5000 rent pa from a $100,000 property is 5%.
GST doesn't apply to residential property, only to new. 10% of sale price.
You may also be able claim inputs too.

If you rent out part of your home that part will no longer be CGT exempt. Saving a few hundred in tax could cost you thousands later on.

Some options/points
– By this time rents should have gone up considerably too.
– You can also extend the IO period if you wish
– Sell 1 property and pay down debt.
– and hopefully your wage will have doubled during this period too.

I liked peter spann's book on property. But generally the forums are the best place to read.

Have you been claiming anything on the investment? Like interest on the deposit monies etc? Actually, it probably doesn't matter even if you have. If you move in it can be your main residence during this period – and you cannot claim anything at this time, but can after when it is rented. You will also have no CGT during this period.

Not sure about the FHOG issues

This is basically a clause that the property you are mortgaging can be used for all debts owed to the bank. So not just the loan for the property but other loans or debts. This may include credit cards or even other housing loans with other people. You can attempt to negotiate this out of the contract, but it is a standard term and they will not delete it – unless maybe you are a huge client