Calls to restrict foreign property purchases in Bangkok

[snoop1130]

Calls to restrict foreign property purchases in Bangkok

By The Thaiger

 

 

Dr. Sopon Pornchockchai, the President of the Thailand Agency for Real Estate Affairs, is calling for controls to restrict foreign property buyers.

 

Thailandproperty.news is reporting than he is justifying his comments saying the growth in income of Thais is slower than the property price rises being pushed up by high foreign demand.

 

“Some measures should be adopted, such as higher stamp duty for foreigners,” he said.

 

Full Story: https://thethaiger.com/thai-life/property/calls-to-restrict-foreign-property-purchases-in-bangkok

 

-- © Copyright The Thaiger 2018-9-14

[PatOngo]

I wonder if Dr Sophon owns any foreign properties. If so, I hope he faces reciprocal restrictions!

[chrisandsu]

All Thais should be banned from owning property abroad .

[Darcula]

This sounds very much like a pushback against the Chinese. That submarine has already dived.

[HLover]

4 minutes ago, Darcula said:

This sounds very much like a pushback against the Chinese. That submarine has already dived.

True, perhaps they have visited Sianokvulle the past month and seen how the Chinese economic invasion really enhanced the local beach community?

[Thailand]

If foreigners were allowed the same rights of property/land purchase that they and Thais enjoy in many other countries then you would see real changes but not likely to happen here in the foreseeable future.

[lordblackader]

How do you recreate the property crash of 1997... hmmm... let me think...

[jippytum]

I Agree with him . The newly elected premier of Malaysia has recently cancelled permission for a development to house 700,000 yes 700,000 Chineese .Similar projects are currently overruning Cambodia.

[Tradewind777]

Property taxes and restrictions have been in place and increasing regularly actions continue. Australia and more recently (after the horse has bolted), NZ have introduced foreign owner restrictions. Singapore increased stamp duty for foreigners. The rest of the SE Asian countries each have varying levels of regulation. The more recent regulatory reactions have been to restrict largely Chinese ownership with the massive outbound money flows out of China that have been accelerating over the last 4-5 years. This announcement is unsurprising.

[robertson468]

I think the UK Government should also adopt additional charges for foreigners buying property in the UK, that way they might be able to afford the annual increase in Government Pensions.........oh forgot the UK MPs and Members of the House of Lords are worse off than we are!

[chrisandsu]

What the rich Thais (mainly Chinese anyway) are really scared of is other Chinese coming in and outcompeting them. The Thai/Chinese have gone soft after generations of dealing with docile farmers . The hardened mainlanders would eat the for breakfast . 

[Jonmarleesco]

Uh, huh. And for Thais buying in London, et al?

[BobBKK]

More hypocritical thai-rak-thai discrimination. 

[Naamblar2014]

This whole system of restrictions on foreign ownership needs to be rethought.  First they restrict foreigners from owning land.  This is ideally to protect the prices from growing out of control, so that Thais can afford to buy land one day. But in reality do you see many people able to afford to save and buy land when what they make is barely enough to get by.  No I think there is another reason.  I'll come back to that.  Secondly they allow foreign ownership of a condo,  but this is restricted to I think 49%. So what is the point of that.  Again I would agree in theory it is to stop prices getting out of the reach of Thai citizens.  Does it work though?  I think these restrictions are in place for one reason only.  To protect the developers.  Now who do you think has the kind of money to firstly buy up huge chunks of real estate in premium locations and then go ahead and construct whopping great condos.  Answer Rich well connected Thais. That's the people who benefit from these restrictions on foreign ownership not the general population. Either way these condos (once constructed) can be bought up by investors with no limits, foreign or Thai, as long as the percentage of ownership is not exceeded. Then they are rented to Thais who can't afford to buy. More and more investors pushes demand and prices skyrocket.  So that restriction does not seem to work. As for land ownership a sensible approach may be to allow foreign ownership with limits.  I don't know what,  but perhaps only one property not greater than 5 rai.  I don't think that would cause the market to go out of control. It may however get in the way of property developers who just can't get that pesky foreigner to sell that small piece of land right in the middle of their planned development.

 

[happy chappie]

How about loads of farang turning up on the shores with not one baht on them and a fist full of kids.then the government renting us the 50 million baht apartments and giving us 100,000b a month plus free healthcare.they must think we are mental what goes on in the uk.

[happy chappie]

5 minutes ago, Naamblar2014 said:

This whole system of restrictions on foreign ownership needs to be rethought.  First they restrict foreigners from owning land.  This is ideally to protect the prices from growing out of control, so that Thais can afford to buy land one day. But in reality do you see many people able to afford to save and buy land when what they make is barely enough to get by.  No I think there is another reason.  I'll come back to that.  Secondly they allow foreign ownership of a condo,  but this is restricted to I think 49%. So what is the point of that.  Again I would agree in theory it is to stop prices getting out of the reach of Thai citizens.  Does it work though?  I think these restrictions are in place for one reason only.  To protect the developers.  Now who do you think has the kind of money to firstly buy up huge chunks of real estate in premium locations and then go ahead and construct whopping great condos.  Answer Rich well connected Thais. That's the people who benefit from these restrictions on foreign ownership not the general population. Either way these condos (once constructed) can be bought up by investors with no limits, foreign or Thai, as long as the percentage of ownership is not exceeded. Then they are rented to Thais who can't afford to buy. More and more investors pushes demand and prices skyrocket.  So that restriction does not seem to work. As for land ownership a sensible approach may be to allow foreign ownership with limits.  I don't know what,  but perhaps only one property not greater than 5 rai.  I don't think that would cause the market to go out of control. It may however get in the way of property developers who just can't get that pesky foreigner to sell that small piece of land right in the middle of their planned development.

 

I don't think the 0.1% of foreigners buying  condos in bkk has much effect on the prices of property.its a blame thing as usual.its a Thai greed thing.if somchai nong has a million baht pad,somchai song will want 1.1 million for the same condo next door.the hotels have a lot to do with prices in big cities.

[anon789561]

3 hours ago, Naamblar2014 said:

This whole system of restrictions on foreign ownership needs to be rethought.  First they restrict foreigners from owning land.  This is ideally to protect the prices from growing out of control, so that Thais can afford to buy land one day. But in reality do you see many people able to afford to save and buy land when what they make is barely enough to get by.  No I think there is another reason.  I'll come back to that.  Secondly they allow foreign ownership of a condo,  but this is restricted to I think 49%. So what is the point of that.  Again I would agree in theory it is to stop prices getting out of the reach of Thai citizens.  Does it work though?  I think these restrictions are in place for one reason only.  To protect the developers.  Now who do you think has the kind of money to firstly buy up huge chunks of real estate in premium locations and then go ahead and construct whopping great condos.  Answer Rich well connected Thais. That's the people who benefit from these restrictions on foreign ownership not the general population. Either way these condos (once constructed) can be bought up by investors with no limits, foreign or Thai, as long as the percentage of ownership is not exceeded. Then they are rented to Thais who can't afford to buy. More and more investors pushes demand and prices skyrocket.  So that restriction does not seem to work. As for land ownership a sensible approach may be to allow foreign ownership with limits.  I don't know what,  but perhaps only one property not greater than 5 rai.  I don't think that would cause the market to go out of control. It may however get in the way of property developers who just can't get that pesky foreigner to sell that small piece of land right in the middle of their planned development.

 

You can own a condo outright 

[dinsdale]

[Naamblar2014]

18 minutes ago, Happy enough said:

You can own a condo outright 

Yep meant to say can only have 49% foreign ownership of the total number of units in the condo.

[luk AJ]

Yep meant to say can only have 49% foreign ownership of the total number of units in the condo.

I always wondered...suppose a condominium is fully occupied 49/51 can, in such case, a Thai owner sell his condo to a foreigner?


Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[the guest]

I agree with that, foreigners should be banned from owning property. Artificially drives up the price for nationals. 

[arithai12]

4 hours ago, luk AJ said:

I always wondered...suppose a condominium is fully occupied 49/51 can, in such case, a Thai owner sell his condo to a foreigner?


Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

No.

[Henrik Andersen]

On 9/14/2018 at 5:08 PM, snoop1130 said:

the growth in income of Thais is slower than the property price rises being pushed up by high foreign demand.

 

“Some measures should be adopted, such as higher stamp duty for foreigners,

or better salary for Thais so they could get better life style 

[holy cow cm]

16 hours ago, Darcula said:

This sounds very much like a pushback against the Chinese. That submarine has already dived.

Absolutely!

[ReneTH]

And if not selling it to foreigners? Then what? Nothing; thais are broke. Only reasons this country can achieve growth is because of foreigners in the first place.

Edited September 15, 2018 by ReneTH

[tifino]

it is nothing new really...

 

In Indonesia, the one's who decided themselves as the indigenous - kicked out all the Chinese stock...

Took everything from them, all property etc,

and the Chinese, seen as the 'foreigner' that threatened the future of the locals,

yet were the ones who financed the country's futures, via Investments and hard Yakka ...

fled.

 

In Fiji, the one's who decided themselves as the indigenous - kicked out all the Indian stock...

Took everythingfrom them, all property etc,

and the Indians, seen as the 'foreigner' that threatened the future of the locals,

yet were the ones who financed the country's futures, via investments and hard Yakka...

fled.

 

 

S E Asia has this repeating pattern, that is now popping up elsewhere?

 

 

[Stargeezr]

Last time I was in Hawaii at Oahu I  thought it was owned by Japan, I can understand

why Thailand and other countries keep restrictions on land ownership .     Geezer

[ReneTH]

11 hours ago, Henrik Andersen said:

or better salary for Thais so they could get better life style 

If they actually did their job properly and not needed 2-3 people for a 1 person job, it would have been decent already.

Would love to employ Thais more or do business in TH, but it is made really hard (both ownership of a business as well finding skilled people that have good work ethics, the few that are good are employed already or cost the same / more than a EU national).

Edited September 16, 2018 by ReneTH

[CLW]

And if not selling it to foreigners? Then what? Nothing; thais are broke. Only reasons this country can achieve growth is because of foreigners in the first place.

I think you can replace the word foreigners with Chinese in this particular case of real estate

[Berkshire]

11 minutes ago, CLW said:

On 9/15/2018 at 10:57 PM, ReneTH said:

And if not selling it to foreigners? Then what? Nothing; thais are broke. Only reasons this country can achieve growth is because of foreigners in the first place.

I think you can replace the word foreigners with Chinese in this particular case of real estate

Yes, the article pretty much spelled it out...

 

[Dr. Sopom says he believes that foreign buyers account for around 20 percent of all Bangkok property purchases.

He noted that Chinese purchases account for about 80 percent of foreign buyers.]

 

But as usual, farangs on TV will get their panties in a twist because they think they're being singled out.  When Thais mention "foreigners," it's not always about farangs.