Paopoom Rojanasakul, Secretary to the Finance Minister, was quoted by local media as speaking at the annual property seminaron May 6 that the proposed improvements to the land and building tax aimto enhance both efficiency of collection and levy an appropriate rate, helping reducehardships for people when economic conditions remain fragile.
He called on the Bank of Thailand to ease loan-to-value(LTV) regulations to stimulate the real estate sector, which would help topropel the economy.
In addition, he urged financial institutions to relax theircredit conditions, allowing people greater access to credit. Financialinstitutions need to embrace increased risk, finding a balance between risk andstability, said Paopoom.
He said the Finance Ministry acknowledges the importance ofthe real estate market, implementing stimulus measures for the sector this yearincluding both tax and financial policies.
The tax measures include a deduction in personal income taxfor income paid on interest for loans used to purchase, lease or buildresidential properties, with a maximum deduction of 100,000 THB (2.700 USD).
In addition, a 90% reduction of the land and building taxburden is offered to owners of land or buildings under development for up tothree years, aiming to ease the tax burden during construction.
The government also extended the land and building taxcollection period this year for an additional two months and reduced thetransfer fee from 2% to 1%, while lowering the mortgage fee from 1% to 0.01% tobolster the housing market.
Another state financial measure is the "One MillionHomes Project", aiming to help homebuyers find affordable homes. TheGovernment Housing Bank offers flexible loans with a budget of 20 billion THB (550million USD), providing mortgages of up to 1.5 million THB per borrower for amaximum repayment term of 40 years, with a fixed annual interest rate of 3% forthe first five years.
The "Happy Life Credit Project" supports Thais buying their own homeswith loans starting from 2.5 million THB per borrower. The maximum loan termis 40 years, with an average interest rate of 2.98% per year for the firstthree years and a minimum interest rate of 1.95% per year in the first year./.