When looking for land for sale in Thailand, you should first be clear about what type of property you are actually interested in. You may look at investing in a holiday home, villa, town home, commercial property etc depending on how you are planning to utilize the property. Thailand has lately become a hot real estate investment destination mainly because the real estate prices are still lot lower than any European or American destination. Secondly, Suvarnabhumi-Bangkok International Airport has made international air travel to Thailand more conducive than before. Thirdly, it has an impressive rental potential thanks to the huge tourist turnover every year.

For any foreigner who is looking for buying land in Thailand he may do so by either of the two options: leasehold or freehold. Foreigners are generally comfortable by investing in condominiums, i.e. out of the total condo units in any building where you are looking to invest, foreigners may own 49% and Thais own 51%. Condominiums come under the category of a freehold property and with proper assistance from a professional lawyer it is possible to own the land completely too.

While buying a condominium it is advisable to check the following as safety measures:
• Title check to ensure that you are buying legal land from a legal owner.
• Have your lawyer draw up a purchase contract.
• Negotiate the payment of the transfer fee and decide the amount that would be paid by you and the amount that would be paid by the seller at the time of sale.

For a leasehold property, a 30 year lease would be mandatory on the home you wish to lease and a renewal would be required after the aforesaid period. Alternatively, you may also hold a 30 year lease on a plot of land and construct a house on it and rent it out. In such cases the ownership of the house stays yours and the land continues to be leased. Later if you wish to sell the house you may do so too. If your buyer is a citizen of Thailand you get to sell the land along with the house. If not then the lease on the land continues and the house owner changes.

Buying building materials in Bangkok and shipping them to Phuket can be a real cost saver. You want to do your homework first on local prices and quality. Bangkok has a much bigger selection of tile than found on Phuket Island. There are huge areas that sell tiles in Bangkok and a much bigger and cheaper selection too. There are also huge outlets in Bangkok that sell Tile imports from China and Vietnam. Shopping at these outlets can save you big money over local outlets.

Wood Doors and frames can also be acquired in area of Bangkok around Bang Po. It’s great fun to shop these wood shops and look at the many different selections available. Wood comes in several grades so it’s important to actually see what you’re buying. Spending a day looking at the different wood items like wood trim and windows will also give you a few ideas also. There are also a few wood shops inside the infamous weekend market near Bang sue.

Power tools and things like sandpaper and drill bits, electrical wire, bulbs, and lights can be bought in an area called Klong Tom. This can be found in Bangkok’s China town area known as Yarrowat. If you ever been here this is the place where are the Chinese have their gold shops near the river in downtown. Sundays is used goods day so there are many extra vendors on the streets during the weekend. Collecting Business cards of the different vendors will come in handy later if you need to buy something they don’t sell at home pro when building your Phuket house.

You can purchase many landscaping items just outside Bangkok at a fraction of what you pay on island. The weekend market also has a large selection of plant, trees and other yard Items. Furniture can also be purchased at the weekend market as there are literally hundreds of furniture shops inside there.

Shipping to Phuket is a very easy thing to arrange with your vendors. If you have a lot of stock you can arrange for a 13 ton truck to bring down your truckload of goods. You can really save if you have something heavy to ship like granite, sandstone or tile. Medium size shipments you can use freight shipping companies which also use busses and some big lorry trucks to ship the goods overnight to Phuket. You can even pack the goods in the bus yourself and ride down with them you have time. Being creative In Thailand you too can save a lot of money if you have time and take the time to shop around and buy the items you handpicked to make your Phuket House a home.