Foreigners 'own 90% Of Phuket Beach Land'

[churchill]

About 90% of beach land in Phuket is controlled by foreigners through Thai nominees, a leading research body has found.

A similar situation exists in other prime tourism destinations in provinces such as Chiang Mai and Rayong.

Local officials and legal experts have helped clear the way for foreign investors to take control of the country's rice farms and property in resort provinces, according to research on foreign land ownership by the Thailand Research Fund.

TRF called a seminar on the research findings yesterday attended by economics and legal scholars. continued ...About 90% of beach land in Phuket is controlled by foreigners through Thai nominees, a leading research body has found.

continued ...http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/22577/foreigners-own-90-of-phuket-beach-land

-- Bangkok Post 24/08/09

[Pdaz]

More rabble rousing nationalistic poop... Nobdy mentions that Thais were more than happy to sell their 'worthless' beach front land to 'stupid' foreigners back in the day. Back then the Thais couldn't believe their luck.. After all who would want sandy beachfront land ? Can't grow anything and too hot in the sun anyhow..

Of course once they saw hotels, resorts and other tourist business's they realised the potential..

Now because a Thai woman marries a foreigner and together they buy land that's not fair.. Or a foreigner develops the land, employs Thais, creates jobs and invests in the locals that's no good either..

About time that foreign Govt's pushed a bit harder for equality ... No more investment until foeigners can own land (with provisions) or at least have some rights to leases etc..

[sungod]

Would that be the same land that rich Thais, no doubt to include the members of the political elite 'acquired' after the tsunami due to the grey area of of ownership in many cases. The same land that they sold to foreigners at huge profits?

[Soutpeel]

Wasnt there a similar claim a little while ago relating to farm land and after investigation it was proved there was absolutely no foundation to the claim.

More nationalist, Xenophobic rabble rousing ???...or is it a case of some goverment body looking for some more "research" money ??

[Scott]

There is a rather strong anti-foreign atmosphere around the country right now. The gov't will likely need to 'reclaim' some of this lost land to keep the xenophobic-nationalist agenda on track. This is one of the reasons I have never contemplating buying anything in the country. It ain't mine and it never will be.

[endure]

About 90% of beach land in Phuket is controlled by foreigners through Thai nominees, a leading research body has found.

A similar situation exists in other prime tourism destinations in provinces such as Chiang Mai and Rayong.

I didn't realise that there was any beach land in Chiang Mai.

[Wolfie]

That is cos its all be bought up (and hidden) by those pesky Farang!

[Thewayup]

I was under the impression nobody (Thai or foreigner) could own beach land as it belongs to the King of Thailand.

As for the land which is adjacent to the beach, I'm sure we farang own less than 1% of it. The Chinese are huge landowners, but not sure what proportion of them are also Thai citizens.

[Felt 35]

About 90% of beach land in Phuket is controlled by foreigners through Thai nominees, a leading research body has found.

A similar situation exists in other prime tourism destinations in provinces such as Chiang Mai and Rayong.

Local officials and legal experts have helped clear the way for foreign investors to take control of the country's rice farms and property in resort provinces, according to research on foreign land ownership by the Thailand Research Fund.

TRF called a seminar on the research findings yesterday attended by economics and legal scholars. continued ...About 90% of beach land in Phuket is controlled by foreigners through Thai nominees, a leading research body has found.

Som nam na

[steelepulse]

>>a leading research body has found

They are a leading research body according to whom, themselves, and their PR statements?

[sibeymai]

If foreigners own 90% of Phuket the Thais that sold it to them didn't want it.

Edited August 24, 2009 by sibeymai

[ray23]

Well they start grabbing that land back they are going to ahve trouble gettign investors in all these woderful; projects. They may be forcing themslelves into a corner, If any laws were broken it was Thai's who paved the way. Dont here much about them in this witch hunt.

My wife owns a house in Udon as long as make the payments I get to live in it. Less then rent and I assure you I ever get devoirced won't be anymore payments being made. But we were together for three years before this happened.

[Briggsy]

What we need is some Thai version of Mugabe inspired Zim-style land occupations in Phuket. That'd show these invading FALANG

[reallyok]

OMG!!! I hope those rotten greedy foreigners don't take all that beachfront land home with them, cause there'll be nowhere to swim.

[markg]

I was under the impression nobody (Thai or foreigner) could own beach land as it belongs to the King of Thailand.

As for the land which is adjacent to the beach, I'm sure we farang own less than 1% of it. The Chinese are huge landowners, but not sure what proportion of them are also Thai citizens.

The headline really should read 'beach front land'

you're right. And wrong!

H.M. the King does indeed own the land up to the high water mark. If the land is Chanote, there will be a Chanote post driven into the ground at the high water mark. Anything behind that mark can be bought and sold. Anything between the mark and the sea belongs to the King and can't be developed, bought or sold.

You also mentioned you were 'sure' that Farang (who ever they are? Chinese? Laos? Burmese? Indians? surely not just white people??) owned less than 1% of the land.

Care to cite a source for that? Or is it just that you are 'sure' of it?

[pagallim]

Ownership can only be attributable to whom (individual or company) the land is registered to. Land cannot be registered in a foreigner's name, nor can a foreigner own more than 49% of a company. So where's the issue? Sure, the funds for purchase may come from non-Thai sources, but actual ownership remains Thai in all cases.

All of the beach front land is primarily within existing resort towns (Patong, Kamala etc etc), or in national park land. Prime beach front land has already been bought by mainly joint venture companies (with the Thai entity providing legitimacy, and the foreign company providing funding). Note the use of the word 'foreigner' not 'farang'. Farang is always associated with Western foreigners, though most of the hotel and resort developments are funded by Asian (Chinese/Japanese/Singapore) investors, with also cash rich Arabian Gulf states sprinkled here and there.

Think this is something of a media driven backlash because of the current state of the Thai economy, and attributing blame to farang for the stagnation in the tourist and property markets. So many farang rented businesses are closing, and farang occupied rented private housing are leaving, the Thai owners must think the farang are doing deals to buy properties instead.

[ray23]

If you followed the beginnig of all this it started with foriegners owing farm land and evolved to this. It's great distraction to keep the Thai's busy and not block the highways because they can't sell ther products at a high enouhg price. Where it goes from there who knows.

Doesn;t address any of the real problem of the farmers, with to little land to make a living. We are a nice target we can't block the roads.

[ozymandious]

"Village heads also had acted as land brokers to arrange sales of state land given to local people so they could make a living, the panellists said." from BKK Post article

How is this a bad thing? If the Thai land owner was so concerned over his land staying in Thai hands, he would not have sold.

Furthermore I find this article to be lacking any cited evidence or investigative journalism.

It is a meer sensationalist article meant to drive paper sales. Unfortunately it has a seriously adverse affect to investor and business confidence in Thailand.

as a parallel you could have a headlining article stating "Rats spreading plague in BKK" I would still have the same selling papers/shaking confidence reactions and be just about as pertinent.

Edited August 24, 2009 by ozymandious

[chiangmaibruce]

>>a leading research body has found

They are a leading research body according to whom, themselves, and their PR statements?

Here is their web site: http://www.trf.or.th/en/keydefault.asp

It doesn't contain (or link to) a single report or academic paper. The organisation chart provides no names for directors or staff. Highly professional I'm sure. Who are these people?

PS: Check out the original article in the Post. As of this moment there are 90 readers comments attached and counting. Growing numbers of farang unhappy about this ongoing campaign of bias and misinformation.

Edited August 24, 2009 by chiangmaibruce

[ray23]

There is no solid information because this is no more then a diversion and it is working well. They may have painted themsleves in a corner cause people will want to see results. They will nail a few foriegners sitting on small parcels of land. Does anyone think they really want to nail the Arab groups buying large tracks of land?

[LivinginKata]

Monday, August 24, 2009

OPINION: Do foreigners really own 90% of Phuket's beach front?

PHUKET: The front page story in today’s Bangkok Post which quotes a leading research body as saying foreigners own 90% of Phuket's beach front land has certainly struck a sour note against foreign ownership of land in Thailand.

The study, which was put together by the Thailand Research Fund, quotes a professor from Sukhothai Thammathirat University who says these holdings are lodged with Thai nominees.

Much of the current controversy stems from the recent reports of foreign parties looking to enter the rice and farming business in the country, with Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva telling the media that the Foreign Business Act explicitly forbids this, and that any violations would result in revoked land titles.

It’s disappointing to see such a one-sided story hit page one of the Bangkok Post as it's clearly sensationalist. It appears that no facts or supporting documents have been presented; that there have been no hands-on investigations by Post journalists; and that no effort was made to obtain comments from foreigners with an interest in the Thai property industry. The story takes us back about two years, to the days when the Foreign Business Act plunged the nation's property business into a serious flattening of demand.

Examining the claims made in the report, it has to be noted that there is, in fact, little beach front land available in Phuket as a large portion of the island's coasts are rimmed by roads, such as in Patong and Karon. At Bangtao, Laguna Phuket has legal title to its large-scale land holdings through the Thai Government’s Board of Investment scheme. In Mai Khao, Anantara and Marriott are owned by the Thai-listed Minor Group.

Locally-owned hotels such as the Kata Thani, Thavorn, Sri Panwa and Sala occupy considerable areas. Even more noteworthy is the expansive Sirinath National Park which covers much of the west coast, pre-empting land ownership by anyone – Thais and foreigners alike.

The type of tabloid sensationalism in today's Post will only further hamper efforts to encourage foreign investment during the current recession and property downturn. If there is substance in the theme of the report, the Post should publish evidence to support the 90% foreign ownership claim and give a bit of background on the foreigners and their nominees. Surely, that would be far better than inflaming an issue which only damages the country's reputation amongst the investment community.

Click here to read the story. – thephuketinsider.com

-- Phuket Gazette 2009-08-24

[mca]

Maybe I'm being a bit dumb and simplistic here but isn't the land still in Thai hands? It's not as if the foreigners own the land is it?

[geriatrickid]

Good golly, did aliens come and abduct key members of Bangkok's wealthy families and substitute foreigners in their place in the past year? If I look at Patong, my understanding is that key swathes of land are controlled by the same wealthy families that usually have their hands in everything and investment funds that lead back to a certain gentleman I cannot mention. For example, doesn't a former finance minister control the large Andaman resort all the way down to the shops currently leased to the arab restaurants? Don't the owners of the Thai owned Patong Resort owners control all the land from Rat U all the way down to the beach? And on and on it goes.

Too bad these folks do not identify the foreigners. TV readers seem to always think that when they say foreigners, they mean westerners. That isn't the case. I believe that most of the foreign big hitters are from Hong Kong and Singapore. Thailand wouldn't dare harass these people.

OH well, perhaps we can have one of the famous "crackdowns". They can throw some elderly swedes from their homes, maybe kick a few English grannies or perhaps run down some disabled Australian grandfather. That would certainly teach those farangs a lesson.

What's going on here? Is Thailand trying to boost foreign investment in Vietnam?

[Ping]

There is a rather strong anti-foreign atmosphere around the country right now. The gov't will likely need to 'reclaim' some of this lost land to keep the xenophobic-nationalist agenda on track. This is one of the reasons I have never contemplating buying anything in the country. It ain't mine and it never will be.

Correct. And for all those people who purchased land through shady company set-ups, let the buyer beware.

[stevehaigh]

About 90% of beach land in Phuket is controlled by foreigners through Thai nominees, a leading research body has found.

A similar situation exists in other prime tourism destinations in provinces such as Chiang Mai and Rayong.

I didn't realise that there was any beach land in Chiang Mai.

but there will be when the sea level rises! and since when is Rayong a prime tourist destination?

Edited August 25, 2009 by stevehaigh

[PatinBKk]

What is wrong with foreign investment???.....if it wasnt for that foreign investment most people in this country would still be walking everywhere rather than travelling in their Vigos etc......the Thais hate foreigners full stop.

[KarenBravo]

the Thais hate foreigners full stop.

Not the Thais, but, the people who own and run this country.......the Chinese.

[churchill]

BREAKING NEWS COPY OF THAILAND RESEARCH FUND REPORT

thephuketinsider.com has obtained a copy of the Thailand Research Fund Report on alleged foreign ownership of 90% of Phuket Beach Land and have been given permission to reprint. The report is in draft copy and according to TRF will be finalized over the next few months. While the report is in Thai we have used Google Translate to offer an English language version though a few words did not translate. So here is the report which has caused the controversy:

http://www.thephuketinsider.com/real_estat...fund-report.php

[KarenBravo]

Unfortunately, the translation is so bad that the document makes little sense.

[mca]

the Thais hate foreigners full stop.

Not the Thais,

Isn't that the truth. Every Thai I've ever talked to about this matter is all for foreign investment to help develop Thailand. I personally haven't come across one who's said "We're selling off our country to the foreigners!"