Myanmar: Foreigners can buy condominium units

[Yohan]

http://signin.nationmultimedia.com/brea ... 77610.html

Similar to Thailand and Philippines, foreigners can now buy condominium units in Myanmar.

Myanmar January 24, 2016 4:29 pm

Yangon - Myanmar's Union Parliament approved Friday the draft Condominium Law to allow 40-per-cent foreign ownership.
Under the law, foreigners can buy up to 40 per cent of condominium units.

The law also specifies the character of a condominium building: it must have at least six floors on plots larger than 20,000 square feet.

The Ministry of Construction shall designate the number of floors, apartments, parking lots, the materials to be used and technical, security and safety measures of the buildings.

Khaing Muang Yi, a Lower House MP from Ahlone, said: "Condominium owners shall have the shared ownership of both the land and buildings. Those who buy the units will own a proportion of the land and apartment. The owners still have ownership of the land even when the building collapses and they can use the units as loan collateral."

[zboy1]

Yohan, this is great news! I would certainly be interested in investing in condos in Burma. The country reminds of Thailand, 30-40 years ago.

Anyone interested in buying in Burma? I would like to partner with someone for sure.

[Yohan]

The problem is that visa-regulations of Myanmar are not very transparent yet. You never know, they sell you a condominium unit, it's yours, but they don't let you stay for long-term.

In Thailand and Philippines, there are retirement visa options, there are spouse visa. However the situation still remains unclear in Myanmar. It is also said that Laos is not very much interested to really open up for foreigners to stay.

I don't trust both of them.

In Myanmar I expect such condominium units to be very expensive, as there are only few for sale and plenty of foreign real estate brokers are interested to make business out of them.

Still too early - if you ask me. There is even no land-route into Myanmar open to foreigners, only airplane etc. Currency exchange formalities and restrictions also unclear.

About myself, I came back 2 weeks ago from Thailand where we had a good vacation for 3 weeks in our own rooms. No problems at all, is there really a reason to continue from Bangkok to Myanmar or Laos? I don't think so...

[xtravel]

This post is based on the experiences of my gf is from Myanmar.

> In Myanmar I expect such condominium units to be very expensive,

Right.

Real estate prices in Myanmar, especially Yangon, are astonishingly high. Like what you would expect to pay in the San Francisco bay area in some cases. This is because there are few places for the retail investor to invest, so the people gravitate toward real estate. Densely populated country with a growing middle class translates to lots of land speculation.

The real estate prices make it especially hard for anyone, foreign or local, to start a retail business. You really need to know someone who owns a property suitable for retail who is willing to partner on a business, or be prepared to pay dearly to rent. And rent is paid a year in advance. Even if the lease is multi-year and has clauses limiting rent hikes, landlords are free to ignore the lease. And don't expect the landlord to be very helpful when things go wrong with the building.