A friend recently told me about correspondence issued by a Thai law firm to its client, a foreigner director (who held 38% share in the Thai company ,in conjunction with two Thai nationals who held 31% of shares each), of a Thai company, which is the owner of a condo, in which the foreigner was advised to transfer the shareholding of one of the nominee's (employee of the Thai legal firm) to a Thai shareholder because the Thai government is now looking into Thai's who hold the shares for foreigners as nominee's !!!!!

Are the days of the nominee shareholder in a Thai company which owns a condo coming to an end ??

The real estate guys claim it would take years to trawl through company records and thus be administratively unfeasible to close down this nominee structure of Thai corporate condo ownership.

Any comments or speculations about the final outcome surrounding this contentious issue ?

..the westminister defence of laches....allowing the state of affairs to prevail for so long without action !!!

The Bad news:

Purchasing a condo /house with land using a Thai company .

The act of purchasing a condo or a house (with land) via a Thai company that is set up for the sole purchase for the property buying transaction –is , without doubt , in conflict with the spirit of the Thai law.

The Good news:

In respect to foreigners Thai authorities can be very emotional –often irrational emotions can surface.

If all loop holes were closed –then a good portion of the construction industry would simply close down.

No developer (with the possible exception on Bangkok) would consider building a condo block if for certain 51% of the purchase income had to genuinely come from Thai people.

All evidence suggests that business opportunities will always overcome emotions.

Back in 2006 (just post coup) a Bill was presented to Parliament that stated that if a foreigner had more than 49% of the voting rights in a Thai company –then that company would have be re-listed as Foreign company.

The Bill was defeated.

There is a body of opinion in Thailand (I refer to them as the Old Guard) who wish to return ,such as Pattaya, to its former status i.e a fishing village. They argue that if such resorts such as Pattaya did not exist , then the young Thais would stay on the farms. Thus preserving the wonderful ‘old ways’.

My guess is that the ‘Old Guard’ will not be around too long.

In my view Thailand would do itself a big favour if there were no restrictions on property/land ownership in certain designated areas.

It is highly unlikely that this is going to happen –too much emotion and a lack of guts by the politicians .

At the end of the day it’s your call.

(With respect to the scenario that you opened your post with-it sounds dodgy to me. Typically the 62% will be owned collectively by 5 or 6 Thais shareholders. I think that some Thai is trying to extract cash from a naive and fearful Johnny Foreigner.)

Sell the condo to a Thai and then close the company. Problem solved.

Sell the condo to a Thai and then close the company. Problem solved.

Expect to pay 25 to 30 K to legally close the company

The days that nominees were allowed are already over a long long time ago.

It is just the enforcing part that is lacking and the threat is that it can start any day or maybe never.

It would however not take years to trawl through all the records, you just start with law firms and their employees.

Easy job. And who knows off all the thousands of records they could start with yours tomorrow.

An option may be to appoint the Thai as trustee under a Trust Deed ,holding the share for and on behalf of the falang beneficiary, rather than just as a mere nominee,thus the Thai would hold the share on behalf of the falang beneficiary under a legal trust,which is the classic instrument of avoidance in western legal sytems. the Trust Deed spells out the terms under which the share will devole to the falang beneficiary.