10 Jan

10 Jan - Don't miss out on this if you want land for a house or two on Koh Chang . . . If there's one thing rarer than finding a decent cup of coffee on Koh Chang then it must be an affordable, small plot of land in a quiet, undeveloped location but only 5 minutes walk from the beach.

I went to see the land yesterday morning. As the plot plans have only just been produced, marker posts aren't yet in the ground and access tracks aren't complete. However, I was surprised by how nice an area it was and also by the fact that some plots will have sea & sunset views. In my opinion, this land is probably the best deal that I've seen since I've been living on Koh Chang.

A local developer has done a deal with land officials to have small plots of government owned land with 'Chanote' title (meaning that you can get permission to legally build houses, resort, restaurants etc etc) available for long lease, up to 30 years.

All contracts will be signed and registered at the Government Land Office in Trat and are done through a Trat based lawyer. (Buyers wont just sign a piece of paper from a landlord.) As it's a lease a foreigner's name can be on the contract, no need to set up a Thai company or have a Thai name on he contract. The leased land, and/or property built on it, can be sub-let or sold as it's no problem to change the name on the lease agreement which is between the lessee and the government.

There are ten plots, prices are from 930,000 baht (620 sqm) - 2,880,000 baht (1920 sqm) In addition to the purchase price there's annual rent of 4,800 baht per year to pay the government for the land. As of today, two of the plots have already been taken.

The deal is that 50% is payable on initial contract signing and the remaining 50% when the official document from the Land Office is received - around a month later.