Posts Tagged ‘Build A House In Thailand’

Sun 2 May 2010. Kasikorn Bank, The Mall, Bang Kapi, Bangkok.

If You Want A Very Scary And Dangerous Time – And Risk All Your Savings – Do What I Did And Pay Cash For Your Retirement Land In Thailand

(As an aside, Bang Kapi is a massive overcrowded and gridlocked district of Bangkok, not far from the new Suvarnabhumi Airport and is not an area to visit unless uou have good reason to… not evan a restaurant in sight and you try getting a beer there…!)

This post follows on from the other post “Transferring Funds (Money) to Thailand” where I started to explain the visit to the Bank and transferring money to Thailand.

We (me and my wife) discussed the means to pay for the land we were about to pay for in Pak Chong, Thailand.

Firstly I didn’t fancy the prospect of carrying around and handing over huge amounts of cash. To my mind, there was a very real risk of somehow it wouldn’t be there when we needed it. (i.e. stolen) Also I didn’t like the idea of handing over large sums of cash in the Land Office.

My preference was to get a cashier’s check made out to the vendor’s name which we could simply hand over on completion of the sale. But there were a couple of problems with this:-

1. We didn’t know EXACTLY what name the land vendor might want on the Cashier’s Cheque until we had met here. So we couldn’t get the Cashier’s cheque straight away.

2. I asked if we could get the Cashier’s Cheque from the Bank in Pak Chong after we had met the vendor at the Land Office. The bank lady said yes, that could be done, but we would have then to pay a tax. If the cashier’s check was issued from this branch of the bank (Bang Kapi) then there would be no tax to pay. (I later asked my wife how much the tax would be and she didn’t know. Neither could she explain why we would have to pay tax in Pak Chong but not in Bangkok)

One Million Baht In Cash Is A Lot of Notes!

So my wife decided to draw the cash (one million Baht). I asked her if she knew what 1,000,000 Baht would physically look like – I mean the size of the bundle. I envisaged something the size of a housebrick and not something you want to be walking on the streets of Bangkok (or anywhere else for that matter) with. Of course I got no answer. She filled out the withdrawal form for 1,000,000 Baht and we waited about fifteen minutes while some kind of discussion behind the scenes went on.

The Formalities Of Transferring Funds To Thailand

After a while, a young, bright, bank offical came out and directed us to a table. There were certain formalities to go through before the money could be released. (Although according to my wife’s Pass Book, the money was already in her account!)

There were a couple of Forms to sign by both myself and my wife and I was asked for my passport which I didn’t have on me. My (U.K.) driving license was accepted and duly photocopied. I enquired if it was strictly necessary for me to be present to allow my wife access to her own money and was told that no, it was not necessary for me to be there. However since I was there, they wanted to ID me!

In answer to my question why all this was necessary and why the transfer had been blocked by the bank, they explained that it was a security measure. (Presumably to counter money laundering I imagine). The bank official also explained that the ‘block’ is only placed on transfers over the value of $20,000. Since I had transferred around $30,000 it applied in my case.

The Foreign Exchange Transfer Form

Then the sum of $20,000 triggered off a thought – I remembered reading in Philip Bryce’s excellent book “How To Buy Land And Build A House In Thailand” that if you want to repatriate money you need a Foreign Exchange Transfer Form that you get when you first transfer funds to Thailand. (Applies to amounts over $20,000 only).

So I asked for the Form. Or at least tried to. You have to remember that all these discussions were in the Thai languge – way above my level of knowledge of the language – and my wife being ‘under pressure’ with the task in hand was not in a mind to grace me with a transcript of the conversations.

Anyway the reply was that such a Form was ‘not necessary’ and that ‘you can easily transfer money back to the U.K. if you want to’. Mmmm. Philip Bryce didn’t dream up that piece of advice by himself! Anyway I didn’t get my Form. The Form my wife signed, though, clearly said at the top “Foreign Exchange Transfer Form” in the English language.

I checked the book “How To Buy Land And Build A House In Thailand“ later when I wrote this article and note much to my horror that I should have got a copy of the Foreign Exchange Transfer Form because even if I don’t need it to transfer money out of Thailand I may need it to get my retirement visa.

Extract From”How To Buy Land And Build A House In Thailand“:-

“If you are applying for a retirement visa or non immigrant visa in Thailand, you need to show proof that you have brought money to Thailand. So keep a record of the transfer and get a Foreign Exchange Transaction Form (formerly called a Thor Tor 3 form) at the bank in case you decide to transfer the money back out.”

The Physical Bulk Of One Million Baht Is… Big And It Attracts Robbers!

Soon, the formalities were complete and we were told we could go back to the counter and collect the cash, which we did. We watched as wedge after wedge of thousand Baht notes were counted in the counting machine, one hundred per bundle, ten bundles and stuffed into brown paper envelopes with the words Kasikorn Bank plastered all over the outside! Hey guys look I got a million Baht, come and rob me!

And all this in front of a bank heaving with cutomers – packed from wall to wall (even though it was Sunday) – watching the spectacle. Only then did the reality hit my wife and she physically started shaking and nearly started crying. Her face went pale and she nearly burst into tears. “How the hell do we get back home with this lot without being attacked and robbed” she was thinking – me too. If only she had thought about that when I asked her if she knew what a million baht looked like before she handed over the withdrawal form!

“We would lose the money and the land…”

All it needed was one of those people in the bank to make a call on his mobile to his mates to set up a gang of two or three people with knifes to attack us on the way home and that would be that. I simply didn’t have another million Baht to call on. We would lose the money and the land. Simple as that.

After a few minutes I told her that I would stay here with the money and she should go to buy a bag to put it in. Off she went into The Mall to buy the bag and doubts started to creep into my mind as to whether we had made the right decision to withdraw the cash. An idea came to mind. Why not pay all the money back into the bank and get the cashier’s cheque from Pak Chong? Or at the very least enquire from the bank what the cost of the tax would be.

I put this to my wife on her return. “We already got the cash!” She retorted. (That means we can’t change our mind…. even though we could. If you know what I mean)

So it was back to Plan A and we shovelled the bank notes into the shopping bag she had bought and hot-legged it to the taxi rank. We were nervous all the way home and when we got there I had to hide the cash in the house.

Safely Home With The Cash – But What A Nightmare… And It’s Not Over Yet

(As you will read in a later post we did manage to get the money (cash) to the land lady at the Land Office without losing a single Baht, but it was not at all a comfortable experience and one not to repeat – tax or no tax.)

How To Build A House In Thailand

I have just started a new section of the website all abut building a house in Thailand.

You can visit the page on this website at Build A House In Thailand.

This section of the website will be regularly updated with all the information that I come across as I start to plan and build my own retirement house in Thailand.

As such, you will have access to all the latest and up-to-date information. I’ll be covering such topics as methods of building, materials, components, how and where to buy materials etc.

There is a whole section devoted to useful web links pointing to other websites relating to building a house in Thailand.

Follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/retirethailand

Land Purchase Update

I mentioned in a previous post “Problems Buying Land In Thailand” that we had hit a snag about buying the land upon which to build our retirement home because the land owner had knocked out the marker posts with the bulldozer when clearing the land.

These posts now have to be put back in the correctly surveyed position and verified by the Land office. The land owner has employed a private company to do this work and we are waiting for it to be completed before we can sign the Chanoht and take ownership of the land.

The situation is still the same. I am waiting for a call from Thailand to say it’s been completed and then I’ll jump on a plane and flight out there. All the above is written into a contract that my wife signed when she paid the deposit for the land.

The latest time in the contract for signing the Chanoht is 18th may 2010. i.e. 60 days after paying the deposit. So it’s a bit tense at the moment as we await the news.

Thailand House Prices

I have just created that new page I promised giving all the details of what it costs to build a house in Thailand.

Here is the link: The Budget Price Of Building A House In Thailand

On that page you will find:-

• Unit rates in Baht/m2 (Baht per m2) for building a house in Thailand
• A cost estimate for the house I am planning to build when I start retiring in Thailand
• A fee proposal from an Architect to make the house plans (drawings) that can be used to get a price to build a house in Thailand from a Thai builder and actually build the house.

This cost information is brand new and up to date.

Some of the house building cost information is as received by email from Kensington Company Limited – a design-and-build company based in Bangkok. I have posted the exact document they sent to me so that you can read exactly what they say about the cost of building a house in Thailand today – and not just what my opinions are.

The other building cost information is from research I have carried out on the Internet. Over half a dozen case examples are given all presenting the cost of building a house in Thailand in Baht per m2. One example even breaks down the unit cost into the separate elements of the building. For example the cost of roofing, flooring, windows, electrical etc are all given as a cost in Baht/m2.

This just has to be the the best resource for unit rates for building a house in Thailand on the Internet today. And it will be regularly updated as I receive more pricing information as a result either of my further research or of my own activity as I build my own retirement home in Thailand.

Keep Updated Of The Latest Thai House Price Information

Join the announcement list and receive an email whenever I post new information about the cost of building a house in Thailand.

Just pop your name and email address in the Keep Updated box at the top of this webs page to start receiving these valuable emails.

Where To Get The Cost Of Building A House In Thailand

This is the post where I tell you how to get an estimate of the cost of building your retirement home in Thailand and you don’t have to go to Thailand to find out.

If you have read the last post Building A Retirement House in Thailand you will know that I promised to give you this information – where to get Thailand house prices.

I have completed the update the drawings I had made of our planned retirement home we want to build in Thailand as mentioned in the previous post. The drawings have been updated now but I still have to upload them to the website.

More importantly, I have sent them to a couple of companies in Thailand to get quotations. One company produces plans (drawings) of Thai houses so I have asked for a quotation to have my outline house drawings fully developed.

Another is a design-and-build company in Thailand who will design and build your house for you. I have asked them for a quotation for producing the drawings and also a budget price for building the house.

You can find all this information including the website addresses of the companies I approached on the Thailand House Prices page.

Building A Retirement House in Thailand

We are more than just planning to build a retirement house in Thailand we are well on with the house plans. You can see some of those on this website at http://retiringinthailand.net/house-build-thailand-2/

Those plans I made myself on AutoCad but did I did start with a basic house design I downloaded from this Thai website:-

http://www.dpt.go.th/download/PW/house_model/framehome.html

The next stage is to obtain budget quotations for my house design before moving to the next stage. I’ll be doing this over the internet and will tell you exactly how when I have been through the process myself.

But before I seek the quotes, there are a few things I need to do to the house drawings to provide more information. (These may well be done when you read this – depends upon what time you came to this post).

Here’s what I’m going to do next to the drawings for of our Thai retirement home:-

• Add to the drawings:-
  • Sink and drain in the Workshop
  • Designate the WC and shower area walls as being made from brick
  • Add a finishes schedule showing what materials and finishes are to be used for walls, floors and ceilings
  • Add the folding windows to the Living room
• Make a cross section though the building
• Add some Thai language notes

So you can see I still have plenty to do before I start to get budget quotations from Thailand for our planned retirement house.

Keep in touch and I’ll update the web page holding the Thai house drawings as soon as I’m ready.