Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the issue of purchasing property with a Thai spouse. This is something that there is a lot of misinformation out there on the internet. There's just tons of just inaccurate stuff I see all the time floating throughout the ether that is the internet. And one big thing to bear in mind, I hear a lot of people say well it's in my wife's name, but I put the money. In the context of Thai Family Law, again if you are concerned about the possibility of dissolution of a marital estate down the road, probably a good idea to contact a legal professional up front and ascertain what your rights are with regard to property here in Thailand. 

That said, long story short as we have discussed in many other videos, foreign nationals are explicitly prohibited from owning land in Thailand. So for this reason, there are a number of extra precautions that may be placed on a Thai spouse if they are buying land here in Thailand. Most notably, oftentimes Land Departments will require the foreign spouse to come to the Land Office in order to sign off on documentation disclaiming any ownership. As we have discussed in other videos, there are issues associated with inheritance in the event that a Thai spouse should pass away, and again, as we have discussed another videos, there are restrictions pertaining to foreign ownership of Thai real estate even in the event where it might be inherited from a Thai spouse. 

The other thing to keep in mind, we've done another video contemporaneously with this one where we get into the estate planning aspects of things but long story short, things to bear in mind when you're looking at purchasing property here in Thailand and you have a Thai spouse, a very big one to keep in mind is do not get "yessed" to death. We hear this all the time about situations where people are talking to real estate agents, brokers etc., who are telling them basically everything they want to hear and then; I'm not saying everybody, there are reputable real estate people out there, but it's not uncommon at all to hear "oh, well they told me I can do this, they told me I can do that." Well did you check with somebody who has a legal specialty in dealing with property matters? If not, you may want to go ahead and do that because you can run into some real problems, if you're not in the proper legal posture with respect to that real estate. That's a big one. So really at the end of the day, just affective due diligence when looking at property even if you have a Thai spouse, is probably a good idea. 

Real estate can be an extremely fraught endeavour if you will for a foreign national or foreign nationals here in Thailand. Those who are looking to purchase real estate be it a condo, be it some other type of real estate. There are all types of examples, some sort of structure as we have discussed in many of our videos on this channel, it is rather difficult for a foreign national to own land specifically in Thailand, but even then, depending on the situation or the facts of a given case, there may be some sort of legal structure that can get someone just as many rights or effectively give them the type of enjoyment or control over a piece of Thai property that they otherwise want. 

So the reason I'm making this quick little bumper here is to tell people, look at the end of the day you're probably going to need legal assistance in doing the due diligence. Probably not a terrible idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.