Thai govt considers allowing foreigners to more easily buy/own property

[Fromas]

You've been round the block. So you know what I mean and I know you know what I mean!

[holy cow cm]

1 hour ago, Peterw42 said:

they just make it unworkable buy putting a stupid 10m Baht minimum price on it. 99% of house in Moo Baans, all over Thailand, are 1-3m baht.

Yeah, put it at 1-3 million and I certainly would go out ASAP and by me and the family a second house. I am actually on the paperwork title regarding the house portion but not the dirt.

 

1 hour ago, Peterw42 said:

I know 6-8 guys that would come back tomorrow for their yearly 3-6 month stay, if they removed CoE, insurance and quarantine.

Yep, met too! Faster than you can say whiplash. 

[ThailandRyan]

1 hour ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

The stated goal of the changes is to attract retirees (who presumably don't anticipate living more than 50 years...not young people.

But most want to hand it down to their kids, not giving it back to the landowner.  

[Misterwhisper]

Great plan! I wonder if I'm still expected to help out the Thai economy by spending 300,000 baht every month if I invest 15-million baht in buying a standalone house in a housing estate where I am not granted any voting rights while waiting for this scheme to be revoked after 3 to 5 years, upon which I probably will be obliged to transfer the land ownership to my Thai wife, with whom I will then take out a lease for the next 40 years so I don't lose the roof over my head.

[Pattaya Spotter]

1 hour ago, ThailandRyan said:

But most want to hand it down to their kids, not giving it back to the landowner.  

Then such folks need to retire elsewhere, as that's not possible in Thailand (unless they're single and shack-up with a native and die with issue). The plan seems to be aimed at wealthy retirees, who presumably have a lot of other assets they could pass on besides a house in some foreign country.

Edited April 13, 2021 by Pattaya Spotter

[Kiujunn]

11 hours ago, tjo o tjim said:

How many farang would want to live in a Thai housing estate?  I mean it as an honest question— it would not be attractive to me, and I can’t quite figure out who the target market would bel\.

The target market was just dscribed in three post before yours: Chinese

[daveAustin]

11 hours ago, tjo o tjim said:

How many farang would want to live in a Thai housing estate?  I mean it as an honest question— it would not be attractive to me, and I can’t quite figure out who the target market would bel\.

Me for one. Had mostly positive experience from such a set up, albeit nice moobaan with professional/business folk. Certainly prefer that to be surrounded by my boring, whiny own lol. 

[shdmn]

28 minutes ago, daveAustin said:

Me for one. Had mostly positive experience from such a set up, albeit nice moobaan with professional/business folk. Certainly prefer that to be surrounded by my boring, whiny own lol. 

I know someone who rents in one of these places and I would certainly consider it.  If they did this it would probably only be for very expensive/overpriced real estate that most Thai's (and many farangs) could not afford anyways.

 

Same deal with 80% condos.  They would probably only allow that in really expensive condos that they could never get to 50% Thais buying anyways.  So I would not expect a places like ViewTalay condos to be allowed to do this.

Edited April 13, 2021 by shdmn

[scorecard]

15 minutes ago, daveAustin said:

Me for one. Had mostly positive experience from such a set up, albeit nice moobaan with professional/business folk. Certainly prefer that to be surrounded by my boring, whiny own lol. 

 

I live in a very friendly 5 years old moo baan, good resident committee who ensure it remains maintained and remains a family residential community. Commercial vehicles not allowed to be parked inside the village.

 

Village policy (well published) is maximum of 2 small/mid sized dogs. very loud all day and night dogs. One incident when a new owner arrived with 6 big dogs all aggressive all bark 24 hrs a day, neighbors frightened and kept their kids locked inside. Committee gave owner 5 days to remove the dogs or dogs would be physically remover by outside security company which did happen.  Owner sold and moved out. 

 

About 450 houses, about 10 houses with foreigners.

 

Thai residents all friendly, supportive and helpful. Some professional folks mostly upper middle class income folks. 

 

Great place to live and bring up kids. 

 

 

[scorecard]

I've lived/worked in Thailand 30+ years, had a lot of professional and social contact with many Thai folks from all walks of life. Much of my interaction with folks is in Thai language. 

 

I seriously doubt that any of the current Thai laws prohibiting foreigners from owning land will ever change. 

 

Many times I've encountered comments from Thais saying they are shocked/surprised that other countries allow foreign ownership. I've mentioned that anybody can buy land/property in Australia, it's uncontrolled. I've had many responses from Thai folks politely saying 'are you sure, that can't be true'.

 

Australians have been strongly & negatively vocal for decades about the Australian laws allowing uncontrolled foreign ownership of land and houses. And the end result is that today there is massive foreign ownership of land and property.  

 

Edited April 13, 2021 by scorecard

[RichardColeman]

I currently only rent.

 

Unless they can address me owning the house and land right out, and address me not being able to have some sort of permanent residence visa for being married (even if qualification is 5 years), then I ain't buying any property. To be at the whim of whose currently in government is not appealing to me

[Jeffr2]

16 hours ago, tjo o tjim said:

How many farang would want to live in a Thai housing estate?  I mean it as an honest question— it would not be attractive to me, and I can’t quite figure out who the target market would bel\.

Our estate is mostly Thai/Farang.  Several Thai couples.  And now, starting to get quite a few Chinese.  So far, they've caused few problems.  The biggest problems are the Thai owners who try to convert their homes into weekend party houses.  Luckily, we're pretty strict on that.

 

We're very happy in our estate.  But sure wish I could own it outright without dealing with this dodgy company ownership scheme.

[MasterBaker]

sorry to say but this covid is awake up call for Thai government

[shdmn]

17 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

So after owning for 3 to 5 years if allowed it all goes pear shaped and you loose it? Brilliant plan.

 

No of course not.  If you own the land you own the land.  There are a million other ways they will be able to screw you though.  One way I can see is that after 3-5 years when this expires, you will not be able sell/transfer ownership to other farangs.  If they allowed that it would be a a good investment but I doubt they will. 

Edited April 13, 2021 by shdmn

[miamiman123]

This will be a long long time coming…. You are dreaming! 

[Whale]

Well from just reading that (OP) its still all a little too Thai (complex) and not enough for me. Why can they not just do something that is "fair" instead of always stacking the cards in favour of "Thai", who are these mythical "Thai" people that will actually benefit from tying non-Thais in knots always?

[nobodysfriend]

17 hours ago, webfact said:

It would mean foreigners with at least 10 million baht could buy and own a house - and even the plot of land it sits on.

 

17 hours ago, webfact said:

However, any changes in the law are likely to be temporary for the next 3-5 years as a post Covid stimulus package.

However , once 3-5yrs passed , no foreigners allowed to own land any more ? And the ones who bought within that time frame con keep their property but cannot sell to foreigners any more ?

This is BS .

If make new laws or change existing ones , do it .

But not only temporarily .

17 hours ago, webfact said:

He said that new investment opportunities need to be created to encourage foreigners to buy second homes in Thailand and he also wanted to attract retirees.

To buy second homes in Thailand ?

Why not just copy the malaysian model ?

At least , this works .

[ChrisY1]

Classic Thai subdivision in the photo.....totally devoid of design.....houses almost touching the neighbour....all the same design and colour schemes.......just so attractive to a foreigner.....given that in reality, we cannot own anything here and the talk that we may soon be able to is BS of course.....they're just displaying their usual delusional mindset in desperation and pressure from developers!

 

Edited April 14, 2021 by ChrisY1

[baansgr]

18 hours ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

Interesting, would be good to own some land and houses here in my own name if allowed post-covid.

Any changes will likely be temporary 3-5 years. Same as befor when certain condos could raise Foreign Quito only for the law to change back to 49/51.....those that thought held Foreign Quito found when selling their condo came under Thai quota...buy land at your peril.....what would the tax be in selling, would you have to change to company set up..?

[Dukeleto]

"The plan now is to drop that threshold down to properties between 10 million and 15 million baht. 

This would only apply to property in housing estates and even then foreigners could only buy 49% of property in any one estate."

 

So everyone else outside of a housing estate, which I suspect is  the majority, are still left treading water. Man they just can't bring themselves to dip their toes into the  21st century. Their absolute fear of European foreigners is truly frightening but on the flip side it just highlights the fact that they cannot compete on a level playing field while shouting from a loudspeaker that Thais are he best at everything...sums up the conundrum that is Thailand in my mind, unfortunately.

[Natai Beach]

17 hours ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

So if it's absurd...why even mention it...to get a rise out of people?

Some people are just negative about anything Thailand does.
 

If the story was about NOT changing the law to allow foreigners to buy houses and land they would be harping on about that also. 

 

Thailand certainly isn’t good for some personality types. They can not cope.

 

It will be a good change, especially for couples who are both foreigners. It will also allow foreigners who have bought in a thai spouses name to sell and buy back in their own name and protect their ass-ets a lot better.

 

Nothing worse than foreigners who show up to a country uninvited and then complain about everything all the time. It makes you wonder what they are doing here?

[tonray]

17 hours ago, tjo o tjim said:

How many farang would want to live in a Thai housing estate?  I mean it as an honest question— it would not be attractive to me, and I can’t quite figure out who the target market would bel\.

It might become "Expatistan", you can have Little Russia, Little India, and so forth...oh wait...that would be just like America now

[Rocking Robert]

I own my home and land if I stop paying taxes on it the government shows me who really owns that land

[Dustdevil]

Oh, a foreigner could buy property in his/her own name? I always thought that if foreigners leave the country for good, they take the house and the land with them!

[Dustdevil]

14 minutes ago, tonray said:

It might become "Expatistan", you can have Little Russia, Little India, and so forth...oh wait...that would be just like America now

In my former neighborhood in Houston, all kinds of people lived there.

[Dustdevil]

18 hours ago, holy cow cm said:

I would gather there will be fill areas inundated with Chinese living there after the purchase. They should put limitations on who can buy what and where and not leave it wide open to be desecrated by o ne race. And I am not talking about the token low number of 100 people available per year able to get PR.

None of the Chinese I know want to live in Thailand. It's no longer an upgrade.

[milesinnz]

and would they ever "reverse" any changes in the future ??? how much trust would you have in a Thai government ?

[ChipButty]

Lots of you have lived here a long time, we all know whatever they decide to do at the end of the day it will benefit the Thai's

[Peterw42]

11 minutes ago, milesinnz said:

and would they ever "reverse" any changes in the future ??? how much trust would you have in a Thai government ?

The OP already says it would temporary for 3-5 years, whatever you buy during the 3-5 years remains lgal and yours, it just cant be sold to another foreigner when the scheme ends.

 

Edited April 14, 2021 by Peterw42

[ChipButty]

3 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

 temporary for 3-5 years,

 

Thats the bit that worries me