As is well known, foreigners cannot directly own land in Thailand. There were rumblings that very rich foreigners (not me) may be able to at some stage but I heard no more about it. So the purchase of land for our house had to be made by my wife. The search for a suitable plot took us to Phayao.
My wife already had some land in Phayao which she had inherited. However, it was not even half a rai in size and was right next to a road that was being upgraded to a highway. Not at all suitable. So the search was on again.
We found one plot in Phayao which was in a great location, the right price, but had a drawback. The land was being used to grow rice. To cover it with enough soil to be at the same level of the adjacent road would have been in excess of 200,000 Baht. So we moved on.
The next plot we looked at was also in a good location, the right price, but was too narrow. So that was that and we moved on.
The third plot we looked at was the one. It is shown in the image above, encircled in red. My thanks to Google Earth.
Red Chanote - Nor Sor 4
This plot was just under 1 rai in size, was being used to grow cassava, was 13km from Phayao city, located 400m from a main road into town, had water and electricity close by, and after some negotiation, was at the right price. It also had a red Chanote (Nor Sor 4 - title deed), which is very important if a house is going to be built on the land. We didn't hesitate and Kwang told the then owner that we would buy it. As an added bonus the land is located near a station that will be built on the new train line being built connecting to Bangkok.
Phayao Provincial Land Office - Transfer Ownership of Land
The next step was to get the Chanote transferred into Kwang's name. This was a bit of a pain to do but had to be done. It entailed going to the Government Land Office with the current owner, paying the owner the agreed cost, paying a transfer tax to the office and completing and copying the 10 or so documents involved. The transfer tax (2% of the selling price) was split 50/50 with the current owner.
The worst bit was the fact that it took 2 days! Most of which was taken up with just sitting and waiting between steps in the process. As we lived in Chiang Rai two nights in a hotel were needed.
Anyway, in the end the Chanote showed Kwang as the owner.
The old owner took out the cassava he was growing which helped us a lot and all we needed to do was make the land suitable to build on.
Next we had to choose the developer, who would design and build the house.