Caution urged for relaxing laws on foreigners owning land in Thailand

[fvw53]

It makes me think of the uproar in the USA when Japanese bought the Rockefeller Center  they could not pack it and send it home ....it is still there 

 

[Scouse123]

1 hour ago, Rookiescot said:

He has a point though.

The issue will not be westerners buying one rai out in the sticks somewhere and building a house for him and his familly.

The issue will be Chinese companies buying up huge tracts of land and developing them as a home from home for use by a select few of their fellow countrymen.

Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos are already experiencing this. 

Sell to all except the Chinese! ????????

[Surasak]

5 hours ago, RotBenz8888 said:

So he hasnt been invited to the "buffet" ? 

Obviously no alcohol allowed, so he turned down the invite.

[KKr]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand wants to kickstart the economy and attract a million wealthy foreigners including retirees and digital nomads to spend a trillion baht over the next five years. 

 

As I understand, local websites are mostly worried about a flux of money coming in, pushing pricing up and making housing unaffordable for many people, especially starters. Moreover, the good pieces of land would be snapped up, and the local population would have second choice.
A "good" salary, say 25.000 per month, will not pay for a property over say 1.500.000 THB.

Let's look in more detail into the proposal:

In the U.S., one trillion is written as the number "1" followed by 12 zeros (1,000,000,000,000) according to the NASA website.
divide by one million "wealthy" people: 1.000.000 THB
divide by five years: = 200.000 THB

To support a Marriage Extension 400.000 and to support a Retirement Extension 800.000 are required.
So, does this mean that current retirees and spouses of Thai are more wealthy than the people that are being chased?
Not even taking the 200.000 serious, but let's assume they mean 1.000.000 THB per year,
that is some 2.500 USD worth per month, to be considered eligible for all sorts of Bells and Whistles.
Add your current Car(s) and motor bike(s) amortisation, insurance, fuel, house amortisation, insurance, utilities, money spend on meals, gardening, car wash, school fees, all generating local jobs, food at home, and other expenses, how much does that amount to ??

Interesting question :
would someone leaving now and coming back next year be eligible for the Benefits? 

Edited September 20, 2021 by KKr

[Destiny1990]

Weird way of seeing things for a Chairman of real estate affairs.????

[Surasak]

2 hours ago, BKKTRAVELER said:

I honestly think each country should preserve the ownership of their own land. But that's not the case in many countries nowadays. But then it should bilateral agreements. If a Thai can purchase a land in the US for example, they should allow US citizens to buy land in Thailand. Since Thailand forbids any foreigner to buy their land, they shouldn't be allowed to buy land abroad either. 

 

But I know that other countries see beneficial interests in selling their lands to whoever so it won't happen, Thailand is in a good spot right now. They keep their land and can expand their influence in other countries. Why would they change that?

Expand their influence! What influence would that be exactly?

[dlclark97]

I see no problem in foreigners being able to purchase land for their own use but only for construction of a personal residence to be used by themselves and that could be passed to their heirs.  If not restricted in such a manner in ten years we will all have to be fluent in Mandarin Chinese and will probably be spending our Yuan.   

[ukrules]

The existing policy is literally enshrined in the country name : Thai land.

 

I don't think this is a coincidence.

[Surasak]

1 hour ago, Rookiescot said:

He has a point though.

The issue will not be westerners buying one rai out in the sticks somewhere and building a house for him and his familly.

The issue will be Chinese companies buying up huge tracts of land and developing them as a home from home for use by a select few of their fellow countrymen.

Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos are already experiencing this. 

Knowing the control Thailand places on its own people and  foreigners, I can't see the Chinese, or other foreigners being allowed to buy up huge tracts of land. One, or possibly two rai at most, unless in special circumstances.

[Tarteso]

what a brow movement!!!!

 

[tingtongfarang]

4 minutes ago, Tarteso said:

what a brow movement!!!!

 

he spent days practicing that in the mirror

[tgw]

5 hours ago, Will B Good said:

There must be a defamation case coming his way.

again?

[chalawaan]

Well it didn't take long for some Salim in his yeller necktie to start xenophobic whining about the 'national interest'!

 

Fine, please give us back our filthy farang football clubs!

 

The biggest joke is this is not about ordinary middle class Thais and affordability, though there's no denying that this is the last chance to get in on this new market! The Chinese from all over Asia will be all over it like a two buck Cheongsam.

 

Once the amulet bedecked piggys figure out a way to get a nice cut, the genie will never go back in the bottle.

 

He can bitch all he wants, its this parochialism that's kept this place down, its at the point now where they can head toward a Singaporean style future, or a Myanmar disaster. And the only way out, is opening up. Nothing lasts forever old boy, your exclusive trough time is well and truly up.

 

 

Edited September 20, 2021 by chalawaan

[crazykopite]

I wonder if he is the owner of a holiday home somewhere abroad or does he live in a tin shed out In the sticks 

[Rocking Robert]

Stop paying taxes on that land and you will see who really owns it

[Bluespunk]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

He called for all sides to engage in debate about the issue and for the government not to just listen to the views of foreign investors who want the laws changed

but rather listen to him instead

[geisha]

Don’t think it’s a good idea either, except maybe for real expats, easy to prove, with a maximum size restriction. Look what’s happened in Cambodia, the Chinese invasion has ruined Siem Reap, Sihanouk ville and is well on the way in Phnom Penh. They’re like weeds.

[the green light]

let us revisit the statement

"Plans are afoot to allow 100% of condo developments to be owned by foreigners and even allow foreigners to own land and buy their own homes on that land in certain areas"

 

1. anybody who invest 100% in a development need to make sure to make profit. However are the rules applies to owner of each condo still applies 50%  needs to be Thais

still it is consider a business and  much paper work of getting work permit and employees 5:1 ratio Thai: foreigner. 

 

Some might take the idea as to laundered bad  money in Thailand.

 

2.land ownership in certain areas. Does  it means lands that no Thais want will be owned by Farangs.

 

i just don't know if this new law would attract the rich people to Thailand.

 

but are we all retiree rich or poor must for the 90 visa thing?

[brianthainess]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

likened relaxing rules about condo and land ownership for foreign investors to allow them to live in Thailand to treason.

Staging a coup is treason i thought, according to Mr. Google. 

[Liverpool Lou]

1 hour ago, Chang_paarp said:

5 hours ago, webfact said:

 

But Dr Sophon Pornchokchai, who is chairman of the Agency for Real Estate Affairs cautioned in an online rant that it was not necessarily a good idea. 

 

I wonder what the rest of the real estate industry thinks about this loss of potential commissions? Prices rise more commission.

They'd then get the commission from the Thais who 'd buy it instead, obviously.    Maybe you think  that foreigners are the only people wanting to buy land?  

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Plans are afoot to allow 100% of condo developments to be owned by foreigners and even allow foreigners to own land and buy their own homes on that land in certain areas, reported Sanook.

Who'd have thought, owning your own home and the land that it sits on.

They want you to buy property, but not have any real rights or protection to it.

Who the hell is going to buy/invest with those criteria?

[brianthainess]

31 minutes ago, Tarteso said:

what a brow movement!!!!

 

More like a Bowel movement.

[Deli]

Just important not to allow the Chinese and their proxis to buy any kind of real estate legally. I would go further: no businesses can have Chinese business partners. They anyhow do it already for ages through front and back door.

[chalawaan]

2 hours ago, Rookiescot said:

He has a point though.

The issue will not be westerners buying one rai out in the sticks somewhere and building a house for him and his familly.

The issue will be Chinese companies buying up huge tracts of land and developing them as a home from home for use by a select few of their fellow countrymen.

Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos are already experiencing this. 

Chinese interests in those places amount to commercial interests. It's actually a lifeline, because they'd be swamps otherwise.

Now I'm not a CCP apologist, but the Chinese authored art of war says know thy enemy. The Chinese are business focussed, they are not bent on occupation, because it makes little economic sense. The Roman empire was financially ruined by its Imperial costs. And America is heading the same way with a virtual empire of trillion dollar bases, and carrier groups.

 

China is learning from Afghanistan and Vietnam. They make deals, not war. They let the Taliban get on with it, so long as they don't get in the way of China getting its way. 

 

Thailand, as you must know if you live in the major cities, is ridiculously overbuilt. Chiang Mai is chock full of empty middle class villages and tower blocks. Even if they were built as drug money laundries, my guess, its unsustainable having them sit abandoned. 

 

The positives of price rises and associated commerce and human activity is exactly what Thailand desperately needs, not just to get back on its feet, but to deal with the impending baby shortage and middle income trap.

 

And the middle class here are significantly ethnic Chinese in similar ratios that White Australia is ethnically British. 

 

Having said that, theres considerable tension in Singapore, where local Chinese resent Mainlanders driving up prices, but omelettes, and eggs and all that. 

 

Thailand cannot go on being this corrupt yappy little dog thinking its a global great dane unless it behaves more like the other big dogs in the neighbourhood.

 

Thailand has vast potential, as does the Philippines, its the criminal political dynasties in both states that are the problem, not the organised, cashed up regulation loving Chinese from China and elsewhere in the region.

 

 

 

Edited September 20, 2021 by chalawaan

[ttrd]

3 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

I do not see an issue with foreigners holding land if certain agreements were put into law.

 

1. Your property passes into the hands of your Thai partner or children after your death. Or one generation on non-thai children living in Thailand, thereby giving them a chance to sell it.

2. if you die and  you still own a property, your direct family have 5 years to sell it before it is returned to the state.

 

This way the property always returns to the Thai people and only owned by foreigners until death, and let's face it most of us when we are dead will not give a hoot about owning land. 

 

 

 

In the exact moment we die we may not care, but when returning it would be a great help to stil own a peace of land to not have to start all over again ... 

[Nanaplaza666]

Maybe they should urge the wealthy Thai that bought property in europe or other places when the baht was very strong to sell those and bring their money back to Thailand and buy land houses and condos . I think this way billions will be brought back as well . But i geuss they are so money horny that they will sell out their own land to foreigners while they can fix the problem themself but will just cost them to much in their mind . 

[DPKANKAN]

6 hours ago, mahtin said:

But it's all part of the master plan...

By the Master'debators'!!! 5555????????????????????????????????

[Sydebolle]

Dr Sophon Pornchokchai, chairman of the Agency for Real Estate Affairs, is a narrow-minded,  complete idiot protecting the eliterian oligarch selected few. 

How many Thais own property (land, houses and entire condominium towers) all over the world, Dr Thaksin and the Red Bull clan in the United Kingdom, a popular singer in the 90s - Thongchai McIntyre - sat on nice property in Switzerland and other Thais own property in Germany. 

His online rant is proof again, that after the Chinese walked into Thailand after the Great March in 1949, they changed all these laws to keep the goodies to themselves and avoid others to follow their self-service attitude in Thailand. 

 

Unclear remains, who and what is treasonous. Retire the bloke and move Thailand into the 20th century (21st is still too far away though, me thinks). 

[kg1947]

6 hours ago, RotBenz8888 said:

So he hasnt been invited to the "buffet" ? 

He's afraid ..... of getting only the " left overs "  ....

 

[Mr Meeseeks]

24 minutes ago, geisha said:

Don’t think it’s a good idea either, except maybe for real expats, easy to prove, with a maximum size restriction. Look what’s happened in Cambodia, the Chinese invasion has ruined Siem Reap, Sihanouk ville and is well on the way in Phnom Penh. They’re like weeds.

Correct.