Crackdown On Land Owned By Foreign Residents

[Beng]

The whole article is a farce.

1. If farangs with 1 Mio Baht can own land, why would they need to go through a spouse or company ??

2. Therefore, land owned by a spouse or Thai company, is still thai owned.

3. The headline of this article is therefore an ad absurdum. (NONSENSE)

This general doesn't know what he's talking about.....and by doing so, he fits himself perfectly into TIT.

LOL

[Pulle]

Amazing Thai"land"!

[saanya]

What about all of the Chinese who own everything else and pretty much run the place? Or are they "foreigners" too?

[newjobs61]

So what they are saying is we have had your money for the land

How can we steal it back from you without making a fuss

[GentlemanJim]

As a rule, I try to keep out of politics in my host country of 20 years, but here is an issue that requires action.

I believe it is time for us Thaivisa readers/contributors to lobby political representatives in our various homelands for a cause about which many of us feel passionate.

The cause is reciprocal rights for property ownership. If a Thai may own property, to a reasonable extent, in our homeland, then we expect the same right in Thailand.

Write to your political representatives in your various homelands to address this huge injustice. Ambassadors, Bundestag delegates, MP's, etc, but really.... this is quite unacceptable.

I am not talking about the right to buy 1000 rai of prime farmland, but at least the right to own a personal residential property in one's own name, especially if a Thai family is involved

I am quite certain that this cause will gain traction if enough TV readers spend 20 minutes doing what NEEDS to be done.

Great idea and better than doing nothing. Maybe we cab get a standard well worded letter with spaces to fill in the gaps. TV members from various countries can translate and we all send it email and snail mail to our embassy and to the appropriate MP's back home. Any further ideas? This should be done simply to try and establish fair reciprocal agreemants. In London/UK, anybody can buy anything. Can we own land in the Middle East/Parts of Asia etc, no.

Edited March 12, 2012 by GentlemanJim

[northernlights]

I think that chinese people own a lot of land in Thailand .... not farangs !

A while I saw one dokument film from Africa ... some african countries lease farming land to indian people and the price was very low. I think it is really good that they are worrying land issue in Thailand. But what they can do ..... money talks and thais will listen money.

[SNGLIFE]

Ok, so when will there be a law making it illegal to SELL land to a foreigner or Thai nominee?!?  Heck, that would stop the problem and allow for the return of land to Thais (other than those having relationships to the nominee) via attrition, right?  NOT!

The rise of the middle class would come to a screeching halt.  No more land rich but cash poor Thais monetizing their land holdings = a lot less development = a lot less construction work and purchases (just ask Global House and Home Pro) = a lot more unemployed farmers = ...you get the idea...

If foreigners aren't allowed to buy land, who will inflate the land values?  Somchai, the university educated office worker who earns THB 17k/month?  He's going to bid the land up to over a million per rai?  I don't think so.  Thailand NEEDS foreigners to buy land.  

Full stop.

[spiritrace]

rrrggghhh It was just an hour ago that I decided to sell my house here in the US and move to Saraburi. Brother in law can find a little place and move Grandma in with a couple kids who need a life. Now I wonder where this leaves me......

[waza]

Published: 23 May 2008

Farmers and activists have opposed a plan for a business consortium from Saudi Arabia to invest in rice farming in Thailand. The scheme is said to be the creation of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Farmers fear they could lose their livelihood and rice farming could be held hostage by foreign investors.

The proposed investment was brought to light by Chart Thai party secretary-general Prapat Pothasuthon after Mr Thaksin took a group of businessmen from Saudi Arabia to see the rice production process at Buffalo Village in Suphan Buri's Si Prachan district on Wednesday.

Apart from the Saudi investors, Taiwanese and American businessmen had earlier bought land from Thai owners.

Some Thai farmers were found to have rented land from the Taiwanese to grow crops, Mr Wichian said.

He said foreign investors had usually held land through their Thai nominees.

''Already, about 40% of farmers do not own their land. They rent the land from someone else,'' Mr Withoon said.

[TackyToo]

Get real guys. Isn't that the Thai way we all know already? You sell something to a farrang 'cause he pays double the price as a local and then you find a tricky lawyer to get the sold item back.

At least, now they finally have the guts to do it the "official" way.

They hate farrangs! You are only welcomed to leave your money (preferable right at the airport on a transit) and go home.

I just wonder, are they really that arrogant (stupid?) to believe they can chase away tourists, foreign expertise and investment and survive in the "Thai Light Zone"?

Edited March 12, 2012 by TackyToo

[wjthornton]

I wonder if they are just waving their hands around to get attention without any real understanding of the law. As I understand it, the law was rewritten rather recently so it would now be perfectly legal for a Thai woman, after marrying Warren Buffet, to buy the entire country (if Warren hadn't already remarried). Warren would just have to sign a disclaimer releasing any claim to the funds used for the purchase.

Under the old law, the Thai wife had to keep her maiden name and remain registered as a "sao" in order to maintain her right to own land. To prevent Thai women married to foreigners and their offspring from owning land, it seems they would have to go back to the old law, and even in LOS, I can't imagine them trying to enforce that retroactively.

Plus, somewhere along the line, somebody might realize that the offspring of all these Thai women are just as Thai as anybody else, given most of the leadership are of mixed Chinese-Thai ancestry and Thais are already about as mixed up genetically as any linguistic group in Asia.

Even defining what is meant by "Thai" quickly gets stupid and racist, but thinking ideas through to their logical conclusions is not such a strong Thai tendency. Perhaps they should just pass a law to confiscate the land of anyone who thinks logically if they want to preserve the rights of Thais -- and ensure that nobody questions the logic of Thai politicians.

[pomchop]

ALMOst began to care.

It is an absolutely FALSE statement that foreigners own 1/3 of thai land.

Completely, and utterly false. 0 Statistics to back this up.

1/3 of people reading this article probably believe it when they read that too.

ALMOst began to care.

It is an absolutely FALSE statement that foreigners own 1/3 of thai land.

Completely, and utterly false. 0 Statistics to back this up.

1/3 of people reading this article probably believe it when they read that too.

i agree....NO WAY that is true...NO WAY...not even close...pattaya is a tiny speck of the land in thailand....i would be shocked if farangs own more than 1 percent of all the land in thailand....

[spongeman]

Crackdown of the week time. Party on.

[sfbandung]

This foreign ownership issue is a furphy. Anyone with a modicum of economic savvy knows that foreign investment is always good. Land of course is emotive, but in the words of a famous premier of Queensland, "They can't take it home with them". At the time the Japanese were buying huge tracts of Queensland at grossly inflated prices. They did their <deleted> and contributed enormously to the economc development of the state. Playing the xenophobia card is always good politics, but doesn't mean anything.

[osiboy]

National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) lecturer Piyanuch Potawanich warned that the launch of the Asean Economic Community in 2015 would lead to more foreigners using nominees to own Thai land, especially Singaporeans, who were smart, had money and needed to invest for profit.

did he really say that? or is it just the quality translation?

is he implying that there are more intelligent ppl than thais ??,.......... cant be ,.........can there ?

[khunkhen]

Ain't most of the yellow shirt "Thais" mostly Chinese?

Ain't most of the red shirt "Thais" mostly Lao and Cambodian?

Ain't most of the Southern "Thais" Malaysian (mixed with Arabian folk)?

I'm not sure I have ever met a Thai person.

[osiboy]

WARNING; Do not invest in thailand .keep your money for a country that treats you fairly and apply's the same laws to all . I wonder how many "farang" here think thais should not be able to buy land in our countries .......hands up ! thought so .

[givenall]

Crackdown like last time?

Nothing happened.

Right on schedule!!

This is time for annual crack down for land own by foreigners. They seem to have reoccurring crack down schedule for different things in Thailand, for dvd, fake designer items, etc.

[patroller]

Edited March 12, 2012 by patroller

[JMG]

Why not go after Thais that allowed and profited from the illegal land holdings as well? Don't bother to respond, we all know the answer...

Yeah, and legislate at the same time to deport those Thais to the UK.

[osiboy]

The whole article is a farce.

1. If farangs with 1 Mio Baht can own land, why would they need to go through a spouse or company ??

2. Therefore, land owned by a spouse or Thai company, is still thai owned.

3. The headline of this article is therefore an ad absurdum. (NONSENSE)

This general doesn't know what he's talking about.....and by doing so, he fits himself perfectly into TIT.

LOL

im pretty sure this applies only to americans from what i understand,.... what i would like to know is ..........why ?, ...i suspect its becouse the US stopped the british and french " punishing" thailand after their role during WWII , anyone have more info on this ??

[RogueLeader]

I doubt it'll stem the flow of unrealistic 70-year-old farang who have suddenly and magically become irresistibly desirable to nubile teenage girls.

You can't buy class, but you can certainly sell it.

[Jerrytheyoung]

XENOPHOBIA.....afraid by foreigners, in fact it is a demonstration of weakness

[kimamey]

1/3 of the land? Right. Tell me another one.

Gosh, maybe people who own 1/3 of the land are indeed vaguely related in some distant way to some foreigner or another (or even married), but if you're going to start making too close a degree of separation with a foreigner grounds for invalidating the right to own land, some pretty highly placed folks are going to be in trouble- lots of the 'highest-so' Thais have foreign connections.

If they really did follow this through then you can bet only the small people will get troubled. The rich and connected will buy their way out as always.

"give rewards to people who help police arrest those who break the law."

I assume they mean report offenders rather than physically help the police arrest them. Shouldn't be a problem finding these offenders as they must know who they are to be able to work out the figures. It's a bit ironic trying to arrest people for doing something they can't do so haven't done but happen to know, live with or are married to someone who is Thai and owns some land while at the same time desperately trying to avoid a prison sentence for someone who while prime minister, abused his power to help his wife buy public land at auction.

[diehard60]

Second class Citizens again....

Again??? Dont you mean still!!!!

[Nisa]

How interesting. Are they afraid they going to take Pattaya or Phuket to other countries, leaving a big whole in the country with just black matter? Maybe it is about time hat Thais will lose their right on landownership abroad too. It will teach them a lesson.

There is not much fear of Thais buying land in the West because their purchases will not lead to inflated prices so that locals are unable to buy a home. This is a relatively poor country where it would be easy for foreigners of even little value to gobble up land and cause prices to sky rocket beyond the reach of all but the rich Thais.

Some places in the west don't care about such things as much and you have places such as the US where prices became insanely artificially high only to see the housing market collapse and people losing more than 50% of the value of their home to disappear overnight and being stuck owing a bank more than twice what their home is worth. Even now as prices continue to settle, home (the American dream) prices are still well beyond the reach of many.

I would love to be able to buy land outright in Thailand but I understand and agree with the policy given this country's current place in history. In fact, as I look at the prices of condos in Bangkok, I wish they would have more restrictions here too when it come to foreign ownership.

[Nisa]

Wow! Foreigners own 31% of the total area of the Kingdom!

No one will believe this.

(100 million rai = 160,000 km2; Thailand has an area of 513,120 km2)

Yes, I don't believe this and thought for a moment they could have been talking about land value and not actually land area (which would still seem off) but your conversions (thanks) seems to indicate about 31% (513 x .31 = 159)

[Nisa]

Second class Citizens again....

Again??? Dont you mean still!!!!

Who are second class citizen .. non-citizens?

[samran]

Yawn......

Songkran is just around the corner. Next off the rank will be the obligatory complaint from the ministry of culture about girls wearing spaghetti strap tops. You can set your watch by the timing of these announcements.

Life will go on. People will buy land via nominees. Most will do so in full knowledge that there is a small inherent risk in doing so.

Is it right? Not really, but people enter the transaction knowing the potential consequence.

Foreigners who also complain about this issue also show profound ignorance of Thai politics on both side of the fence. Land ownership for foreigners is the third rail of Thai politics. Touch it and you die.

Edited March 12, 2012 by samran

[mayday49]

So Mr. Auditor is making such statements because he can set proposed policy or because he is a paid speaker for the PAD? What is it about denigration of non-ethnic Thai by shifty fax governmental leaders, besides what is presumed to be personal gain? Story lacks detail and should be considered a Super Troll (ST) @the least ......