Crackdown On Land Owned By Foreign Residents

[george]

NATIONAL SECURITY SEMINAR

Foreigners own 100 million rai

Some 100 million rai of Thai land is owned by foreigners, mostly through their Thai spouses or nominees, Auditor-General Sriracha Charoenpanit revealed yesterday.

He said if this situation was "unsolved", it could lead to later generations of Thais having no land to live on.

Sriracha told a seminar yesterday on concealed juristic acts that threats to national security came from: firstly, drug problems ruining people, and secondly, the lack of land for future generations, as foreigners now owned a third of Thai land - about 100 million rai.

Foreigners own about 30 per cent of Hua Hin and Pattaya

It was a long-standing issue that resulted from a policy in 1997 to stimulate the economy by giving a special right of land ownership to foreigners with one million US dollars, he said. Some 90 per cent of coastal land at Ban Phe Beach in Rayong was foreign-owned, and foreigners owned about 30 per cent of Hua Hin and Pattaya.

Land deals were done in ways such as via marriage with Thais or setting up a Thai-based company and a law which allows foreigners to hold up to 49 per cent of the shares. Indeed, he said, many companies let them hold the other 51 per cent through nominees.

Sriracha called for a limit on land owned by foreign residents and said the land tax should be hiked to promote the use of land, although doing this might be difficult, as the rich would object.

Arrests for those who break the law

As a long-term solution, he urged the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) and Department of Special Investigation to look into foreign land ownership and give rewards to people who help police arrest those who break the law.

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. Among many solutions, she also urged laws to punish nominees and deport any foreigners who do wrong.

Land Department executive Sujit Jongprasert admitted that finding nominees for foreigners who buy land wasn't easy. And AMLO chief Pol Colonel Sihanat Prayoonrat said the agency only checked land transactions that involved over Bt2 million in cash, so many buyers reduced the payment to avoid having to report such deals.

-- The Nation 2012-03-13

[makescents]

Crackdown like last time?

Nothing happened.

[Jayman]

I wonder how this would effect those of us that are married to thais with children and own our primary residence that is obviously in the name of the Thai spouse. Certainly if all the paperwork was done and filed correctly then no laws were broken right? No intention to break or circumvent any laws either.

[tragickingdom]

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. Never mind, nothing will happen. Lay down for a few weeks, and the boys in charge have filled their pockets and go back to sleep.

[happysanook]

so basically if you're married and your wife has bought land, you're in violation.

they needed you in 1997...but now it's screw off.

[theblether]

Oh dear..........If they start investigating the funding sources of a lot of these deals there will be a lot of problems for a lot of people......and if someone decide's it's a good way to get rich on the cheap then dive for cover!!

[Jimi007]

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...

[eddie61]

OMG

Time to move to Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia, or Cambodia, who all encourage foreign devils to invest in land.

It reminds me of Switzerland in the 1960's when the German hordes were stealing our beautiful Alps.

Fortunately, that huge injection of capital made our poor little country, with fewer inhabitants than Bangkok, so rich that we can now buy it back at a discount.

That off course will never happen in Thailand, because the money from land sales will go straight to Switzerland.

The big difference is that we invested our windfall gains in a world class education system and lean, efficient bureaucracy, while Thailand invests it in Mercedes-Benz's, Swiss watches and smart London apartments.

Please keep up the good work..

[MaiChai]

This seems to surface as an issue every 3/4 years and then goes to sleep again. It makes me wonder if the real reason behind it is a land grab?

You could also argue that the loan sharks and rich are also hording large tracts of land and its just the foreigners being mad4 to look the villians?

[Jimi007]

<snip> Maybe it is about time hat Thais will lose their right on landownership abroad too. It will teach them a lesson.<snip>

Like that will ever happen. Dream on...

[IslandMuayThai]

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.

[bangkokrick]

Another bullshit story. We are not allowed to own land so all the land 'owned by foreigners' is actually owned by Thais, be it nominees or people like jay and me. The Thais still own it.

[englishinsiam]

Second class Citizens again....

[Soboringtochooseaname]

Foreigners own 30% ? Stupid !

This guy really believe that its country is the only one in the world... come back to earth Charlie !

[ReeceArnold]

Lock up and then deport tens of thousands (many tens) of (mostly) honest openminded useful and generally quite good people, who are often caring for children ( mostly Thai children) , who may be partially supporting other familymembers . . . Who are good for the Thai ecconomy, mostly bringing a lot of good cold cash into the country on a regular basis . . . And think about it 30% of even Pattayas beach front land, no way . . .

[NovaBlue05]

1/3 of the land owned by foreigners???

All I want is a couple of rai to build a house on and retire with the wife.....

[Soboringtochooseaname]

Exactly as post office checking EVERY parcel, the goverment will hire 10000 people to check land ownership...

Noo more SOM TAM sellers soon, they will be checking our lands !!!

[shatteredreams]

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?

[Ijustwannateach]

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.

[pointoffew]

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)

[pisico]

Another bullshit story. We are not allowed to own land so all the land 'owned by foreigners' is actually owned by Thais, be it nominees or people like jay and me. The Thais still own it.

The Amity Treaty enables American citizens to own up to 1 rai of land. It has not been modified or annulled to date.

[TAWP]

A couple of times per year we are reminded why we should never really, truly, invest here.

Set up shop, make money, and then move the money out. Their loss.

[TAWP]

Another bullshit story. We are not allowed to own land so all the land 'owned by foreigners' is actually owned by Thais, be it nominees or people like jay and me. The Thais still own it.

The Amity Treaty enables American citizens to own up to 1 rai of land. It has not been modified or annulled to date.

The stats doesn't come from 1 million Americans owning land here.

It might come from over-estimations and fear-mongering...

Edited March 12, 2012 by TAWP

[rotorbreeze]

What about the Thai wife whom sold property with out my knowledge, forged my signature to sell house, forged my travler's cheques without my passport present at Bank in Roi Et and stoled my savings....I got little response from the law here in Thailand...years went by with lawyer taking my money...nothing came out of it...so where is the law...does not exist here in Thailand. Crack down is cracked up... I know of another fellow that is going down the same road but he will come to the reality that Thailand is not a place to invest in property or any future indevours one might have a likeing to do.

[Kodan]

So what if the land is owned by the wife well before the marriage and the farang builds the house? This looks like a real can of worms that isnt going to work out well for anyone IF the pursue it....this time.

[sprq]

It would be hard to beat this report for the combination of nationalist paranoia, gross exaggeration and petty spite. Foreigners own one third of Thailand?! Pathetic garbage. Encourage Thais to snoop on foreigners?! The beginnings of a nazi state. This is the Auditor-General of Thailand?! A new level of idiocy for Thai officials.

[yoshiwara]

The issue is not whether the story re percentage of foreign land ownership is true or whether the nominee ownership of land system is under immediate threat. The announcement is part of the background noise from ministers pandering to their perceived electoral base namely small farmers and landless labourers. These guys will have been promised the earth (ha-ha) prior to the election and will be expecting some payoff as they are corralled into the so-called red villages. Under no circumstances however must there be any land reform which threatens the landed interests of the north-eastern land barons who are an essential prop of the Thaksin establishment. Instead offer them credit cards to keep the farmers happy for the next year and drum up a nationalist threat from foreign ownership of land to create a nice element of directed indignation. Start to stir as the campaign to bring back back Thaksin ups pace and you see where this all leads. The foreign land ownership issue is just a useful tool. Self-destructive? Sure, but that is not their main concern right now.

[bobbyphon]

Read the article.... plus Baht Two (2) Million... I don't think my wife and I have any problem.. I can't even write the figure..

[oilreg]

Another bullshit story. We are not allowed to own land so all the land 'owned by foreigners' is actually owned by Thais, be it nominees or people like jay and me. The Thais still own it.

+1 so wondering which brain owner but not brain user came to the above conclusion

[eddie61]

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.