Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing cost - benefit analysis of owning a condo here in Thailand. For those who are unaware, notwithstanding the restrictions on foreign nationals being able to own Thai real estate outright here in the Kingdom, there are exceptions and one of the big exceptions is what is called the Thai Condominium Act which does allow and under the provisions it allows foreign nationals to take what is called Freehold title to a Thai condo or what we would call in the American Common Law vernacular, Fee Simple Absolute Title to a Thai condo so it is possible to own a condo here in the Kingdom of Thailand outright. So the thing to understand is first off, yes you can own a condo.

Now next question is what are the pros and cons? Well the big pro is you own your home and presumably if it's paid off, that that issue is pretty much just done for you. Now some people ask about property tax. As a practical matter, virtually just sort of a single unit residence, no matter how big small, if it is just one residence you are not really going to have to worry about property tax here in Thailand. I have done a number of videos on that in the past so that ‘Con’ really doesn't exist when comparing it to other jurisdictions. Now this is a market in which renting can be rather cheap and there are those who prefer to rent, so obviously a major drawback of buying a condo is needing to put in more funds up front, so that is understandable. But again, there are many, myself included, who prefer to know that they own their home and that they have an ownership interest in it; it's not merely something that with proper notice they can be asked to leave. So, to my mind at the end of the day, the big con being well you may pay more even in the long run by just simply owning your condo than it might cost to simply rent here in Thailand. Again, there are those that may find that the cost so-called of not renting, is outweighed by the benefit of actually owning their own home. 

So, at the end of the day, one needs to go ahead and weigh out and sort of balance the cost - benefit for themselves because I think different people are going to have different thoughts on what is a cost and what is a benefit in the context of Thai Condo ownership.