Thailand to target wealthy foreign retirees, make it easier to purchase property

[trainman34014]

Well i never; next thing you know they will be lowering tax on wine !

[hansnl]

Betting on rich foreigners.

Guess they know enough and will go somewhere else.

[billd766]

2 hours ago, mogandave said:

Pretty typical. 

 

Endless moaning about not being able to own property if you’re not married to a Thai, then when they announce a plan to ease this restriction it sparks endless moaning....

Owning the property is a fair idea, BUT nothing was mentioned about owning the land where the house sits. Without that, the plan is of little use.

[Janner1]

9 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Can't say I'm bothered, my heirs are Thai.

Long  term vISa or extension would be  nice though (5 years+)

Which is all very well but if your heirs or any Thai for that matter cam to the U.K. and stayed for 5 to 7 years they would become a CITIZEN, and during the interim they can buy property and own it 100% outright, no stupid lease and no giving away 51% to some person who has done nothing for it.

 

One assumes that any day now you will be graciously given Thai citizenship and be able to come and go as you please, just don’t hold your breath whilst waiting.

[mac1970]

They must have a lot of fun in that kindergarten. Everyday, finding new stats and create nice numbers out from a calculator, and someone is even paying about the job, which teenagers could do...most likely would consider it to be boring, but everything goes in this office of nonsense. 

[Gracas]

So what does this tell us ?

Answer: Thailand and bar girls are same same, both want wealthy foreign retirees.

[skorp13]

Something about gold diggers comes to mind

[Albert Zweistein]

Did Scandinavia move away fromEurope ?

[djayz]

Spend 200-300k / month on what? T-Shirts? Fake bags/watches? Somdam? Massages with a hundred happy endings? 

[mlmcleod]

11 hours ago, webfact said:

If just one million people from that group move to Thailand, each spending 100,000 baht per month or 1.2million baht per year, that would generate 1.2 trillion baht per year for the economy.

 

And if there are 1 million gullible retirees in the world I will be very surprised!

[cncltd1973]

6 hours ago, IamNoone88 said:

 

1 million extra foreigners living in Thailand and probably top heavy with Chinese (they avoided mentioning China) .... I do not think the local Thai's would take too kindly to the proposal at all.  

I noticed China was conspicuously absent from the list, also. Maybe because this list is about extracting as much money as possible, and Thailand can't be seen as bilking money from their smarter, wealthier ally!

[Cadan]

Endless baloney of <deleted> ???????????? - a quarterly novel brilliant idea 

[rabas]

We should tell them that the million new retirees will only come after hearing how nicely we existing retires are treated. 

 

-- Here mister is your prepaid limousine fair to next voluntary 190 day reporting. Ka. 

-- Mister, you need extra year before extending visa? Enough?

-- Yes! Temple visit now free for farang, Ka!

-- My sister can take mister!  She also take you to temple, Ka!

 

[apophyss]

Every days thai news look like a first april,

but it not a joke !

 

 

Oh sorry, today is realy a first april, sorry...

[BTB1977]

Didn't they target wealthy Chinese and Indians 2 years ago? 

[impulse]

I get a kick out of all the guys who think these programs are (or even should be) aimed at rich western retirees.

 

And the guys who think they could afford land if Thailand let their northern neighbors start snapping it up, bidding up the prices.

 

And the ones who think there would be any room left in Thailand if they made it real easy for their northern neighbors to get a Thai passport.

 

Be careful what you wish for...

 

Edited April 1, 2021 by impulse

[whaleboneman]

8 hours ago, Kerryd said:

Lol.
People seem to forget how many of "you" claim to be getting 65k a month into your Thai account already, or have 800k in the bank (which originally was what Immigration expected most foreigners would need to live on for 1 year - it was never meant to stay in the bank all year or even part of the year but you can thank the scammers for that now).

Of course, we know everyone actually is getting that much every month and spending it (jing jing) or is living on (approx) 800k a year from their savings, so expecting "wealthy" foreigners to spend 100k a month (or 1.2 mil a year) isn't that much more than what a lot of "you" claim to already be living on.

Unless of course it's not true (how much you're actually getting and/or living on). 

I seriously doubt though that they'd even get 50,000 "wealthy seniors" unless 49,500 of them are from China. Keep in mind, China is their #1 preferred tourist target, not old, fat "white" guys from the EU/Australia or North America. A lot of Chinese are making a lot of money these days and a lot of them like to park as much of that as they can outside of China and property is (usually) always a good investment.
Just have to look at places like Vancouver where most Canadians can't afford to live anymore. When you have Chinese coming in, buying $300,000 homes and having them demolished so they can construct $600,000 homes in their place, the real estate market is going to go crazy.

Besides, the Chinese know it's just a matter of time until they are in full control here and by then they'll probably own half the country (one way or another). This announcement may be the start of that (as you can be sure it wasn't directed at the expat community here).

You may have been away for awhile. The average home price in Vancouver is now over $1 million. Canadian dollars though so you get a discount.

[Rocking Robert]

My retirement is 7000 US a month with pension and Social Security that comes 210000. And I expect to be broke at the end of the month and then start all over again the first of the month

[sirineou]

I read a few of the replies to this OP and frankly I don't get the indignation. What is wrong with wanting to attract wealthier people by making it easier for them to buy property? 

Personally I think it is great. and perhaps some of these reforms might filter down to us less wealthy expats. 

They don't say that you  have to spend 200, 000 bht per month, only that you have the ability. 

Is having the ability to spend $6,000 a month even wealthy?  Really?

Then they say, " If just one million people from that group move to Thailand, each spending 100,000 baht per month....." that's about  $3,000 per month  , how is that a lot of money? 

Edited April 1, 2021 by sirineou

[kiwikeith]

15 hours ago, simon43 said:

[quote]

...about making it easier for foreigners to buy houses in Thailand.

[/quote]

 

Sorry, but I simply don't believe this.  'Buying a house' in my interpretation means owning (not leasing) the property (with its land/garden) in my name only.  Any other scheme is just deception.

Well there is plenty for a sale, I have heard rumours back here that some properties are going very cheap now. Still the wealthy land bankers will be holding out. 

 

Buyers will be weary nowadays of buying anything, one phenomenon that has happened is that property prices in most countries have shot through the roof, a phenomenon that I don't think will happen in Thailand, especially now Myanmar is in a state. Thailand also has its own problem with political uncertainty and turmoil. 

A market that states, Buyers Beware. 

[daveAustin]

There will be clauses/extras/smallprint along the lines of 'farang can 'own' a brick but not the land it sits on. Thais - and I love them to bits, and do not blame them - will not give up one inch of land.

[MasterBaker]

every time i read something like this, i go on the balcony and look at that Tulip building at Bali Hai...

[kiwikeith]

3 hours ago, impulse said:

I get a kick out of all the guys who think these programs are (or even should be) aimed at rich western retirees.

 

And the guys who think they could afford land if Thailand let their northern neighbors start snapping it up, bidding up the prices.

 

And the ones who think there would be any room left in Thailand if they made it real easy for their northern neighbors to get a Thai passport.

 

Be careful what you wish for...

 

If they sold all the empty condos owned by the Chinese drug Lords, then you might see a rise in Myanmar Labour and a building boom

[inThailand]

Every day here is April 1st.

[geisha]

Thai people , government ,TAT, don’t seem to travel far . If they did have a look around St Tropez, Cap D Antibes, Geneva, California, Barbados, Marbella, Virgin Islands , ( not counting cities like London New York, Tokyo etc ) and then compare it to Thailand .................

[DBath]

One thing the article fails to consider is that most wealthy people do not become wealthy by spending their money foolishly. 

[Edwin Cameron]

Thailand changes laws like putting out the washing, then change them again in mid-stream like they have done in the past, Farangs aren't stupid..! they seem to think that everyone wants to live in Thailand,news flash they don't.

[Youlike]

I have a house in Thailand but i can't go there because of all the scams and regulations.

[mberbae]

So let's see, come and buy Property, spend $8,000 monthly

and THEN we MIGHT consider thinking about changing the

90 day nonsense.

In the meantime, our Buddhist neighbors in Myanmar are being murdered

but we don't want the families who are escaping the bloodbath to

come here.

[Kerryd]

4 hours ago, whaleboneman said:

You may have been away for awhile. The average home price in Vancouver is now over $1 million. Canadian dollars though so you get a discount.

Yeah, I left Vancouver in 2003 when I went to Afghanistan. I was a Sgt in the army and I couldn't afford a studio condo (unless I had half the price in cash and was willing to pay half my salary for a mortgage for the next 20 years).
Back then, people were already buying places in Hope and commuting to Vancouver everyday for work ! (That's 150 kms one way and no mass transit until you are basically in the city.) A lot of RCMP officers were turning down postings to the area because of the housing costs and they make more after 4 years as a cop than I was making after 20 years in the military !

Couple years ago I was reading that Vancouver (or the province ?) was looking at extra taxes on properties bought by foreign owners ? They were trying to do something to curb the skyrocketing housing prices, which were mostly (still) the result of Asian buyers (mostly Chinese) of which most weren't even living in Canada.

Yeah, Canada lets virtually anyone enter the country and buy LAND, even if they have no intention of living there (or at least not until the hammer comes down wherever they are living and they need to get away in a hurry, like a lot of wealthy Hong Kong Chinese).

I think Thailand got the idea of not allowing foreign ownership back in the Colonial days. They managed to avoid being colonized even though everything East of them was French and everything West was British. (One theory suggests the Brits and French agreed to leave Thailand "uncolonized" as a buffer zone between them.)

It is possible that the rulers at the time saw what was happening in neighbouring countries and decided that foreigners wouldn't be allowed to own land in Thailand as as a means of preventing them from ever having any say in Thailand's affairs.

That idea has been carried over for centuries now. Probably a good thing. Imagine where they'd be now if foreign ownership of land had of been a thing 40/50 years ago.
Most Thais (and expats) wouldn't have been able to live in/near the big cities as foreign companies would scooped everything worth having and jacked up the prices.

Not long ago there was an article lauding a multi-billion baht investment being made by the Chinese in a Condo project to be built in Jomtien. (Near Immigration - maybe the old Ocean Tower property ?)
You'd think they'd have to follow the same "51%" rules of ownership as anyone else but you can be sure that the "51%" are "Chinese-Thai" so no worries about getting scammed by their business partners or losing control of their investment.

Without those rules though, it would be open season on land here. A few years ago there was a lot of concern as "foreign controlled" companies were buying up large hunks of farmland in Isaan. They were offering cash to farmers who happily took it (and immediately spent it all of course) and  the land effectively came under control of "foreigners" - even though the companies actually buying the land were "51% owned" by Thais.

(That lead to a supposed crack down on "nominal" companies created just to buy land but the crackdown was short lived and the story faded away a few days later.)

I am curious to see what they are proposing when they say "making it easier to buy a home". Pretty sure they are actually referring to "buying a high end condo" (so long as the 51% rule is followed) and not actually buying "land".