I may be wrong, but I reckon the potential loss of investment from farang house owners doesn't even warrant a footnote on the agenda of Thaksin and his cohorts right now.

And whoever wins the election - probably TRT - it will still not raise anyone's pulses for a very long time to come.

We flatter ourselves if we really think they give a shit about either us, intenational opinion or the effect on the regional economies.

Eventually they may do something, but many farangs may get burned in the meantime.

I have asked several of my Thai, foreign-university educated friends in Bangkok, none of them had even heard of the recent enforcement of the restrictions on farangs buying land. It seems that you are dead right, this is not a big thing for neither the upper middle class Thais, nor for the majority of the population in the agriculture and villages. The few people I have met who are a bit interested are those with foreign husband ... and the majority of Thai's actually don't have foreign husbands.

On a similar note, I must admit that I am not terribly interested in foreigners ability to own versus lease land in neither my home country or where I'm staying now (England), and it is not something that influences who I will vote for on upcoming elections.

cheers

nm

In the Netherlands we had something of an invasion of German people. I am not talking about the wars but people with a holiday intention.

A lot of older villages along the coast especially in the southern part (Zealand) had many germans buy the houses, leaving nothing for the people living there. Their children and family had to find other places to live, most of the time very fa away. The houses the germans bought where empty 40-48 weeks per year! Of course their is resentment. In Thailand you will see this same resentment in for instance Samui and somewhat in HuaHin. When foreigners "take over" a line is crossed. And then you have to be extra carefull with land ownership laws and the way they are bent to facilitate foreigners.

I think Thai people will have the last laugh. Especially over silly foreigners that pay top money for NOT owning 100%.