Buying Property In Burma

[phazey]

There is one development in Yangon where foreigners CAN buy land / condo's (on a leasehold). The Pun Hlaing Golf Estate. Land prices are very reasonable and the infrastructure is exceptional. For a medium term investment, if you can afford to tie up the money for a few years, is excellent. I would have done so myself - but my business got nationalised !

Apart from that you would have to buy in a Myanmar nationals name. The idea of setting up a company to buy land is also not possible - as at present it is extremely difficult to get a foreign company registered, and wouldn't be possible for the purposes of buying land. Also, a local company is defined as a company owned 100% by locals so no different to having the property registered in a nationals name.

If you want more info send me a mail, I've got about 10 years experience of 'trying' to do business here!

Cheers

on the table, NO. Absolutely not.

The Pun Hlaing reference is limited - you can buy sure, but think of it as "rent" (albeit on a fantastic golf course).Yes the infrastructure is great - internally, turn out of the estate and it's back to "sometimes maintained roads" - and more importantly - a little way from anything that can be considered "entertainment"

As with Partner/Company arrangements - who knows what can happen around the corner...

[technocracy]

I know this is off-topic, but to show the ridiculousness of Burmese authority's paranoia: a Burmese woman cannot legally marry a foreigner.

as for land, why not arrange to rent or lease?

I have a couple of friends living in Yangon and married to local women. I guess someone forgot to tell them

I think it's the same as in Laos, you need advance permission from the government.

As for land ownership, believe it's the same as in Thailand, ie, leases are available, or you can form a corporation or use a Burmese partner.

Actually, it is illegal for a Burmese woman to have sex with a foreigner. So... the marriage...

No advance permission needed here - all can be arranged.

Why is it people think Laos is strange wilderness? Sure it's communist here but communism doesn't compare to the Junta in Burma! You are going to be followed by police or restricted in you movements . . .

But yes it is illegal here to have sex with a Lao citizen outside of marriage.

[Wanderinawe]

I know this is off-topic, but to show the ridiculousness of Burmese authority's paranoia: a Burmese woman cannot legally marry a foreigner.

as for land, why not arrange to rent or lease?

I have a couple of friends living in Yangon and married to local women. I guess someone forgot to tell them

I think it's the same as in Laos, you need advance permission from the government.

As for land ownership, believe it's the same as in Thailand, ie, leases are available, or you can form a corporation or use a Burmese partner.

Actually, it is illegal for a Burmese woman to have sex with a foreigner. So... the marriage...

No advance permission needed here - all can be arranged.

Why is it people think Laos is strange wilderness? Sure it's communist here but communism doesn't compare to the Junta in Burma! You are going to be followed by police or restricted in you movements . . .

But yes it is illegal here to have sex with a Lao citizen outside of marriage.

Hmmm... thinking about that one some more...

So, by law mutuality it would also be illegal for a Laotian man to have sex with a Western (/foreign to Laos) woman.

I once loved a woman (western, from my country&city) very much... but she had a Laotian boyfriend... If only I knew then what I know now!

Well, it's all a bit childish anyway. Just amusing myself with the thought.

[richardb]

RichardB and the OP are obviously total idiots who don't realise what is happening in Burma at the moment... give me a sick bag

Why should I respond to your insults? Its your ignorance, nastiness and general stupidity I suppose.

I said in my reply ".................. My ex was burmese and I still visit her family and kid and they asked me not long ago if I could buy their house for them. In am sure I am not the only one on this board with a Burmese connection . Anyway if anyone has any info i would be interested."

I think I know Burmese people a bit better than you and they want and need our help and support. Thaink Thailand is poor? Burma is dirt poor. Think the Thai police have their hand out. Burmese worse. Need I go on .

OK OK off topic but <deleted> who just post mean and nasty insults should be confronted. My Ex's bones lie in Shan State and I take care of the family there. Got a problem with that then F you.

Richard

[shochu]

they do not like to be called burmese of burma.

they would rather you called them myanma people of myanmar.

[phazey]

Good on you richardb, good on you.

[sabaijai]

I know this is off-topic, but to show the ridiculousness of Burmese authority's paranoia: a Burmese woman cannot legally marry a foreigner.

as for land, why not arrange to rent or lease?

I have a couple of friends living in Yangon and married to local women. I guess someone forgot to tell them

I think it's the same as in Laos, you need advance permission from the government.

As for land ownership, believe it's the same as in Thailand, ie, leases are available, or you can form a corporation or use a Burmese partner.

Actually, it is illegal for a Burmese woman to have sex with a foreigner. So... the marriage...

Not if married. Same in Laos, possibly other countries in the region.

At any rate please stay on topic. There is a sizeable expat community in Myanmar.

[Nampeung]

Hey Richard etc I didn't mean any harm it is just because I am very involved in Burma and I feel that discussing buying property there while the country is in such a terrible state is inappropriate, certainly no bad feelings meant and so sorry if I have offended anyone. I am very passionate about the Burma situation

Nampeung

[Kruang]

A Burmese friend of mine, a well-established businessman living in Rangoon, bought some beachfront property in Ngapali Beach some years ago with the idea of building a hotel there. The land was subsequently confiscated ("appropriated") by the junta. So I wouldn't say it's safe for Burmese to buy property there. There's no protection under the law at all.

[DagonKhan]

There's no protection under the law at all.

Spot on! Even if you're a Myanmar citizen there are no guarantees. If the military want it, they will take it. Ask any Myanmar who had property along Shwedagon Pagoda Road or up at 8 mile, even now they've moved up to Naypyidaw they still can't get it back.

If you trust Serge Pun and are prepared to buy at Pun Hlaing then fair enough, I wouldn't personally. There are no guarantees on your 60 year lease there.....

[pampal]

I have cousins in the US who are 1/2 Burmese (Burmese father) and all of the their family's lands and money were confiscated a few decades ago. They tried to get it back as recently as the late 1990's but no luck.

[whatsoever]

Land and property prices are expected to shoot up once the rail link from Kanchanaburi is completed. I know they had a bit rouble with the bridge some time ago

[Patong Bob]

Was the problem with the bridge in Kan about 1944 ?

[kat]

I read an article somewhere that the city is really changing in Myanmar, because the Chinese have moved into the city and are buying up the central areas. Chinese businesses everywhere. Prices have shot up, locals have sold for profit and moved toward the city outer areas. Certainly someone could make some serious money there. I think being Chinese can help.

Not just the chinese.

Other nationals have also bought and are doing business there.

It is a well-documented fact that the junta is involved in land confiscation, forced relocations of ethnic populations in ethnic states, money laundering, and forced labor, among a few points that make it one of the most serious human rights violators in the world. As I've said, this has been widely published and documented, substantiated, and is readily accessible for anyone who is interested.

It is also a lesser know fact that the Chinese in cooperation with the junta has assisted and profited from land confiscation and the drug/money laundering economy by the same. Amongst other things, they have set up housing and "real estate" businesses to dispatch of confiscated land with fake titles thanks to the junta and local SPDC offices, while simultaneously laundering their ill-begotten assets through their housing and real estate "business". It is a similar issue with the available tracts of land for the agribusiness deals in the East.

Wow, what a coincidence - millions of ethnic peasants displaced from their land and murdered, raped, and starving in the hills - and available land for sale with great deals in Eastern Burma.

If you want to do business with Nazis in the end when there is a reckoning you will be treated like one.

[geriatrickid]

If you want to do business with Nazis in the end when there is a reckoning you will be treated like one.

I appreciate that the junta is not nice, but that's a bit of unnecessary hyperbole. I don't think the junta is invading and annexing other countries. Nor has it built death camps where people are killed and incinerated. I don't see any mention of racial purity laws nor forced sterilization or state sponsored murder of citizens deemed to be genetically defective. I can't recall any of the general citizens frothing at the mouth demanding death to anyone else. If you want to label groups as "nazi" then keep it within the practices and politics of that group.

[kat]

Yes, I can appreciate your comment that it is hyperbole and strong. It is not my intention to label anyone here on this thread as Nazis. However, genocide is not exclusive to "incinerating" or "death camps", or Nazi Germany. In fact, if that term is now trademarked, we can throw it out altogether because the facts in Burma stand alone.

Facts:

The SPDC military annexes the land of ethnic minorities and Burmese through force, produces fake land titles through the village councils of the SPDC, and sells them off to fake Chinese companies as a conduit to launder drug money and stolen property.

There are more than one million ethnic Burmese who have been displaced from their ancestral homes, property, animals, and rice paddy crops. It has been confiscated, because they have fled under terror, and then categorized as abandoning their land, which in fact is permissible under Burmese law to confiscate. In instances where ethnic minorities don't flee, they are rounded up away from their crops onto forced relocation sites. There is no food or ANYTHING at these sites, and they have to pay the junta to go back to their land and harvest crops to eat, or be shot. They very frequently are shot and worse.

The junta routinely rapes and uses forced labor.

The junta has used production quotas and taxation on subsistence farmers which have provoked food shortages, starvation, and land confiscation. They have killed and locked up dissidents indefinitely, blocked efforts for relief after the cyclone, and have actively pursued a program of soldier rape of ethnic women to ethnically "dilute" minorities.

Yeah, I guess the first thing that comes to my mind is where can I buy some land.

Quote:

"According to the World Bank’s estimate, the total income loss of farmers due to implicit taxation and export ban by the government was over 14 billion for traditional paddy output with loss due to export ban accounting for over 70 percent of the total income loss of farmers in 1995”.

This policy reduced rice production and increased the incidence of malnutrition, famine and land abandonment. Inflation and commodity shortages are the norm. Farmers in some states have to sell their paddy to government depots (Myanmar Agricultural Produce Trading – MAPT) at rates 90% lower than the market price. Farmers who cannot meet quota must buy rice at market prices to sell to the government at state prices. Even in cases of flooding and severe environmental crop damage, farmers must meet the same fixed quotas. Civil servants and other state sponsored residents, however, are able to buy their rice at government subsidized rates."

[sabaijai]

Agree, comparing the Myanmar junta to Germany's Nazi regime is unnecessary hyperbole that isn't likely to persuade anyone on the fence to see things your way

As Kat is fond of saying, it's not black and white, there's lots of grey and international or regional comparisons are telling. If someone of Aung San Suu Kyi's stature were to appear on the scene in Laos or Vietnam, for example, she wouldn't be put under house arrest but would rather disappear without a trace. Political dissidents who are arrested in Myanmar typically receive specific prison terms (six months to three years on average, with a few longer terms but only rarely beyong five years), while political prisoners in Laos and Vietnam are rarely if ever released. Ditto for China, which according to AI and other sources has a gulag system of prison labor camps beside which Myanmar's prison system pales.

The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) is permitted unsupervised visits with prisoners (both civil and criminal detainees) in Myanmar, not so in most other one-party states in Asia. The ICRC has been successful in arranging limited family visits for prisoners as well. By contrast the ICRC has been unable to arrange such privileges in Afghanistan, China, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka or Vietnam, for example, the last I checked (I know one of the regional directors). In some years, ICRC's terms with the SPDC have been suspended temporarily, but so far the regime has always allowed a resumption of prison visits.

I have a Burman friend in Mandalay who has been imprisoned three times over the last 15 years for political dissidence -- 1st time 6 months, 2nd time 5 years, 3rd time only 1 month (during the recent nationwide protests) -- and I was able to exchange mail with him each time via family visits arranged by the ICRC, even when he was sent to a relatively remote hard-labor prison in Kachin. A second friend in Yangon spent three years in prison for working for ASSK in the early 90s; she was also allowed family visits. And in a more tragic case, another friend died while serving a one-year sentence in Yangon - still not clear whether his death resulted from mistreatment (likely) or other causes.

By contrast a Lao friend of mine who was involved in minor environmental activism (but no outright dissidence) in northern Laos was picked up by a Lao military squad about a year ago, and no one has seen or heard from him since.

China publicly executes up to 2000 people a year, and it is thought that thousands more (estimates up to 10,000 per annum) receive extrajudicial execution. Yes it allegedly happens in Myanmar as well but not in such proportion.

Myanmar's ethnic border states represent another scenario altogether, one of constant war or near-war with concomitant heightened abuses. Similarly in Laos, the Hmong, until recently, were subject to a level of civil rights abuses not seen elsewhere in the country. Laos' 'Hmong problem' seems to have reached a solution, fortunately. Myanmar's Burman rulers are still a long way from reconciling with the Karen, Mon, Shan, etc. The legacy of the British colonial map is a longstanding violence that won't be going away anytime soon, regardless of who's in charge in Yangon.

In The Guardian's country rankings of human rights abuse, Myanmar doesn't make the top 10. But its record is bad enough to be of real concern, no argument there.

Would I buy property in Myanmar? No. But it's a hypothetical question since foreigners can't buy land there. However I do know a handful of foreigners who live in Yangon, Mandalay and Myeik. A few are married to Burmese nationals and they have purchased property through their spouses. To date none have had any problems with title, confiscation, etc. Still if you're thinking of settling in Myanmar and leasing long-term, you're probably going to have a higher level of risk tolerance than most people. If one were intertested in property, business or residence in Myanmar, the Burman-majority divisions would presumably carry lower risk than the border states.

[luisparis]

Well, a lot of pro boycott posters in this thread Anyway while I don't know the legal details for foreigners to buy land in Myanmar, I can second the impression that the market has been booming in Yangon. Some contacts there have been doing good with their real estate investments. As of the price, it's not everywhere dirt cheap, most half nice villas in The Golden Valley in Yangon cost above 1million USD and a friend just got offered 5K a month from Total to rent his main residence there, and he's actually contemplating moving to another house he's building nearby. Interesting place, but definetely not the easiest country where to do business.

[kat]

Agree, comparing the Myanmar junta to Germany's Nazi regime is unnecessary hyperbole that isn't likely to persuade anyone on the fence to see things your way

As Kat is fond of saying, it's not black and white, there's lots of grey and international or regional comparisons are telling. If someone of Aung San Suu Kyi's stature were to appear on the scene in Laos or Vietnam, for example, she wouldn't be put under house arrest but would rather disappear without a trace. Political dissidents who are arrested in Myanmar typically receive specific prison terms (six months to three years on average, with a few longer terms but only rarely beyong five years), while political prisoners in Laos and Vietnam are rarely if ever released. Ditto for China, which according to AI and other sources has a gulag system of prison labor camps beside which Myanmar's prison system pales.

The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) is permitted unsupervised visits with prisoners (both civil and criminal detainees) in Myanmar, not so in most other one-party states in Asia. The ICRC has been successful in arranging limited family visits for prisoners as well. By contrast the ICRC has been unable to arrange such privileges in Afghanistan, China, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka or Vietnam, for example, the last I checked (I know one of the regional directors). In some years, ICRC's terms with the SPDC have been suspended temporarily, but so far the regime has always allowed a resumption of prison visits.

I have a Burman friend in Mandalay who has been imprisoned three times over the last 15 years for political dissidence -- 1st time 6 months, 2nd time 5 years, 3rd time only 1 month (during the recent nationwide protests) -- and I was able to exchange mail with him each time via family visits arranged by the ICRC, even when he was sent to a relatively remote hard-labor prison in Kachin. A second friend in Yangon spent three years in prison for working for ASSK in the early 90s; she was also allowed family visits. And in a more tragic case, another friend died while serving a one-year sentence in Yangon - still not clear whether his death resulted from mistreatment (likely) or other causes.

By contrast a Lao friend of mine who was involved in minor environmental activism (but no outright dissidence) in northern Laos was picked up by a Lao military squad about a year ago, and no one has seen or heard from him since.

China publicly executes up to 2000 people a year, and it is thought that thousands more (estimates up to 10,000 per annum) receive extrajudicial execution. Yes it allegedly happens in Myanmar as well but not in such proportion.

Myanmar's ethnic border states represent another scenario altogether, one of constant war or near-war with concomitant heightened abuses. Similarly in Laos, the Hmong, until recently, were subject to a level of civil rights abuses not seen elsewhere in the country. Laos' 'Hmong problem' seems to have reached a solution, fortunately. Myanmar's Burman rulers are still a long way from reconciling with the Karen, Mon, Shan, etc. The legacy of the British colonial map is a longstanding violence that won't be going away anytime soon, regardless of who's in charge in Yangon.

In The Guardian's country rankings of human rights abuse, Myanmar doesn't make the top 10. But its record is bad enough to be of real concern, no argument there.

Would I buy property in Myanmar? No. But it's a hypothetical question since foreigners can't buy land there. However I do know a handful of foreigners who live in Yangon, Mandalay and Myeik. A few are married to Burmese nationals and they have purchased property through their spouses. To date none have had any problems with title, confiscation, etc. Still if you're thinking of settling in Myanmar and leasing long-term, you're probably going to have a higher level of risk tolerance than most people. If one were intertested in property, business or residence in Myanmar, the Burman-majority divisions would presumably carry lower risk than the border states.

Hi SJ.

First of all, your "Human Rights Worst Offenders List" is about 10 years old (1998/9), is compiled according to the self-admitted agenda of the Observer/Guardian Newspaper, and co-factors the weakly correlated HDI into what should be succinct and clear parameters of human rights violations. The list was a bit of a propaganda stunt in 1999 and is completely meaningless and more of a joke in 2008! For someone who has a tendency to deride opposition to investments with the junta as liberal ranters, you sure picked one of the biggest ranters in the business. At any rate, the list is outdated, manipulated for effect, and problematic under the best of times. I'm not going to spend any more time on it, but if you want to go chasing scarecrows, I've included a couple of links to the explanation and dating of the list, and scholarly sources by economists and academics who discuss the merits and limitations of the HDI; knock yourselves out.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/oct/24/humanrights2 (explanation of the tables)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/rightsindex

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Tables/4_col_tab...,258330,00.html (The tables are identified as "Our Roll of Dishonour" by the Guardian.)

http://ideas.repec.org/p/got/iaidps/155.html (Human Development Index by Income Groups)

You are right about the abuses in Laos and China. Whether they are more serious violators than Burma according to scope and scale is another discussion best left for the experts, who can systematically compare the millions of displaced refugees, migrants, and exiles including confiscated property and murdered family members with the others. That day will come, hopefully in our lifetimes. However, until then, this is a thread about buying property in Burma, as you know. I'm not sure why the efforts at deflection, but the FACTS remain that Burma is one of the most serious human rights violators in the world TODAY, whether the Guardian - or you - weights it as a priority or not.

To put your list into context, the entire world knows about the hundreds of protesters killed in the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989, but almost no one is aware of the Burmese Red Bridge Incident in 1988 and the thousands of students and monks who died there and in the 8888 uprisings that year. And by the way, China is the biggest supporter and profiteer of Burma.

At any rate, I'm happy for you and all of your friends. I have friends who have been imprisoned in both Burma and Thailand, and have walked away from it after long ordeals. Some have not. I also have many friends who have had property confiscated in Burma, some right in the peripheries of Rangoon. I also have met hundreds of people who have fled ethnic minority areas after being unequivocally terrorized, beaten, raped, and robbed by the Burmese Junta, who have lost everything, including ancestral land, which is now being sold off with fake land titles to the highest bidders. I guess we should all applaud the latest session of their fraudulent Democracy Convention, held while all of their opponents were either exiled, locked up or starving to death after the cyclone.

The information of land confiscation, murder, forced labor, rape as a weapon, ethnic cleansing and forced relocation is extensive and out there, and I have substantiated recognized and widely-cited reports on the longer-running Burma thread. As for the property speculators and Burma apologists, your conscience and the rationalizations made for it are up to you.

[kat]

Well, a lot of pro boycott posters in this thread Anyway while I don't know the legal details for foreigners to buy land in Myanmar, I can second the impression that the market has been booming in Yangon. Some contacts there have been doing good with their real estate investments. As of the price, it's not everywhere dirt cheap, most half nice villas in The Golden Valley in Yangon cost above 1million USD and a friend just got offered 5K a month from Total to rent his main residence there, and he's actually contemplating moving to another house he's building nearby. Interesting place, but definetely not the easiest country where to do business.

Lovely. Total is directly responsible for profiting from forced labor, and was involved in a suit in which their compensatory damages were then confiscated by the Junta for themselves. Your friend is directly profiting from the forced labor, murder, and property confiscation of helpless peasants in a Least Developed Country. Must be nice to live large in a villa.

*added: http://www.earthrights.org/burmareports/to...t_in_burma.html

Edited July 13, 2008 by kat

[geriatrickid]

Lovely. Total is directly responsible for profiting from forced labor, and was involved in a suit in which their compensatory damages were then confiscated by the Junta for themselves. Your friend is directly profiting from the forced labor, murder, and property confiscation of helpless peasants in a Least Developed Country. Must be nice to live large in a villa.

That is an unfair and extremely biased statement. Of all the petro companies operating in Myanmar, Total is one of the few that exercises corporate social responsibility. I like to bash big oil like anyone else, but when a company tries to operate ethically and in compliance with international law they deserve to be recognized for that. Total is governed by French law and according to Transparency International there are only 2 countries that have made a real effort to crack down on bribery and corruption: France and the USA. Yes, the 2 favourite whipping boys for everyone's anger have actually taken the lead in trying to be honest. These are the only 2 countries that signed the OECD protocols on corruption and that have actually regularly brought charges against nationals that broke those laws.

Would you rather the Chinese, Indians and Russians with no concern for the environment or corporate social responsibility, or the French that make an effort, even if imperfect?

Please read this http://www.total.com/en/corporate-social-r...ery-corruption/ Look at the environmental policies and the statement of financial transparency. That's for real.

When's the last time you saw a Russian, Indian or Chinese company make an effort and hold itself out for scrutiny? At least with Total if they do something wrong, there is a way to respond. Can the same be said for the other 3?

It is spurious and an egregious slur to accuse Total and its employees of a concerted effort to "directly profit from the forced labor, murder, and property confiscation of helpless peasants in a Least Developed Country". If you have the evidence, file a complaint with the French authorities. They will investigate and bring charges as they have done with other companies.

There will be oil and gas development in Myanmar whether we agree with it or not. I'd rather it was done by a company with a corporate environmental protection policy, open to public scrutiny, and a bonafide ethics policy than one without those characteristics. Would you rather they walk away and allow the Russians and Chinese, the backers of Mugabe the despot of Zimbabwe, to do as they please? Because, that's what will happen if every decent western company does that.

[kat]

It's not spurious, there has been a whole lawsuit and people have been documenting evidence for years, which I've seen. I've provided a link and plenty of information for you to follow and find out for yourself. I can understand your arguments about big oil, but in fact Total and Unocal have profited from forced labor and confiscated property, there was a lawsuit by EarthRights International and others, and much of the initial compensatory damages were distributed (read pocketed) by the Junta before international intervention. If you have such a problem hearing facts, then I suggest you spend years of tracking them down and talking to people who have done so, before YOU lodge judgments and temper tantrums of what is believable or not.

[kat]

Here we go - again:

PLENTY of links, to supplement the MULTIPLE links I have already supplied in the past, on the other thread.

http://www.du.edu/gsis/hrhw/digest/slavery/myanmar.pdf

http://rinf.com/alt-news/business-news/us-...hts-lobby/3254/ (Unocal is now Chevron)

Edited July 13, 2008 by kat

[sabaijai]

This is an interesting debate. However, putting on my mod's hat for the moment, let's try to get back on topic and remember there is already a separate thread for discussing Burmese politics. I'm as guilty as everyone else in veering off into political debate, but the original topic is an enquiry about buying property in Myanmar, not the ethics of doing so. Some of us support economic engagement with Myanmar and some of us do not. End of story. If you want to debate that issue, go to the political thread, please.

One more reminder, using all-caps to emphasise one's emotional state is equivalent to shouting in netiquette, so please refrain from same.

[euroman007]

Has anyone found a good lawyer to help with buying land in Burma? I have several people interested in developing there.

[Patong Bob]

The first people to get into the west coast of Myanmar will make a fortune IF the junta ever falls, whether or not the Lady ever takes over.

It's like the west coast of Thailand 40 years ago.

Not worth the risk, though.

[rogerdee123]

This is beginning in Laos now also.

I read an article somewhere that the city is really changing in Myanmar, because the Chinese have moved into the city and are buying up the central areas. Chinese businesses everywhere. Prices have shot up, locals have sold for profit and moved toward the city outer areas. Certainly someone could make some serious money there. I think being Chinese can help.

[Huey]

Hey Richard etc I didn't mean any harm it is just because I am very involved in Burma and I feel that discussing buying property there while the country is in such a terrible state is inappropriate, certainly no bad feelings meant and so sorry if I have offended anyone. I am very passionate about the Burma situation

Nampeung

Oh give it a rest. It's just investment savvy, and nothing new or by any means limited to Asia. For example;

Baron Rothschild, an 18th century British nobleman and member of the Rothschild banking family, is credited with saying that "The time to buy is when there's blood in the streets."

He should know. Rothschild made a fortune buying in the panic that followed the Battle of Waterloo against Napoleon. But that's not the whole story. The original quote is believed to be "Buy when there's blood in the streets, even if the blood is your own."

[Penefattore]

The original quote is believed to be "Buy when there's blood in the streets, even if the blood is your own."

Please note those who bought Cuba bonds are still bleeding.

[laughingbuddha]

I have some knowledge of this subject.

Foreigners are absolutely prohibited to own any property, be it land or condo, in Burma.

The loophole of setting up a Company, and buying the poperty in that Company's name, is very problematic and could lead to more problems than it sets out to solve.

Foreigners that HAVE purchased property in Burma (and there are a few) use a Burmese law called 'General Power' which at least gives them control over the property in their lifetime, but possibly not after that. Most simply buy in their wife's name and hope for the best!

As a poster above has stated, there has been a real estate boom in Burma, particularly in Rangoon and Mandalay, the former fuelled by a more prosperous middle class (generally with some Government connections), the latter with Chinese money.

Real estate prices are very cheap even by Thai standards. A reasonable 'walk-up' apartment can be bought downtown for as little as $12,000, whilst even a new development comparable with those in Thailand will be around $80,000 for a 1600sqft condo with quite some luxury and in a prime area.

Apart from those with Burmese wives/girlfriends who need to buy for practical purposes, the real estate market is in many ways a gamble on a future democracry. If and it is a big IF there were to be some future political change whether in 5 or 20 years, the market will explode.

If you are serious about such a purchase I would suggest you get yourself a REPUTABLE local lawyer, failing which possibly I can find one for you.

Who would you recommend ?