Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing condos specifically buying a Thai Condo with a "built in tenant". I will get to an article citation here in a moment but first it is notable that foreign nationals can own condos outright in Thailand notwithstanding the restrictions on foreigners from owning land here in Thailand or other real estate, an immovable property for that matter. One must understand than in order to buy and gain freehold title, that is Chanote title to a condominium here in Thailand, one must basically comply with the Thai Condominium Act. I should say the juristic person, the entity, the condo facility itself must be in compliance and there are also certain steps that must be taken in order to be in compliance for the buyer in order to have freehold title conveyanced to them; so to have that freehold title transferred to them. A number of different things, we have made a number of videos on this; there are banking requirements etc., associated with that. 

The purpose of this video and I thought of making this after reading a recent article from the Thaiger, that is thethaiger.com, and hats off to those folks, we are certainly friendly with them over there. The title of this article: The pros and cons of buying a tenant occupied condo. Quoting directly: "For Real Estate Investors looking for immediate cash flow in Thailand, buying a condo with a tenant might seem ideal after all it saves you the time, money and stress of looking for a new tenant. However, buying a tenant occupied condo in Thailand has both advantages and disadvantages. If you are not careful, you could end up purchasing a costly problem from the seller. That is why it is essential to weigh the risks against the benefits and be sure you fully understand the implications." Quoting further: "If you need to evict a tenant, the process can be complicated and costly." 

Yeah, it is something to really think about when you are purchasing anything in Thailand. If you have already got tenants there, eviction can be a bit of a cumbersome process. Now there are some circumstances, I see this rather frequently, where the situation or even in assumption of a lease, of a master lease I see this happen from time to time but in a condo context as well. ‘Look, there is already something in there but there is three months left on the lease, and I am just starting this process. By the time we are done with the conveyancing and I can get to Thailand and get in the condo that person's lease will already be over.’ That is great but understand part of the due diligence associated with the conveyancing of a condo here in Thailand should be searching for these things so as to forestall, I actually had a situation years ago where somebody bought a condo and did not realize that there was essentially somebody squatting in it. It was essentially sort of the former significant other of the person that this person bought it from and it took some doing to finally get that person to leave even though they didn't have any legal right to be there. Still the practicality of doing that can be relatively difficult to overcome. So the thing to take away from this video is yeah, there are pros and cons. I urge folks who are watching this video check out that article from the Thaiger, a lot of information in there. There are pros and cons to buying a condo which already has a tenant in it.