Crackdown on Phuket condo owners confirmed

[impulse]

This is another nail in the coffin of the Thai property market. Most people who buy condos in Phuket buy for investment purposes if you are not allowed to rent them out why would you buy. Lets face it 90 percent of condo owners are farang so its just another slap on the face for farangs.

"90% of condo owners are Farangs"

Impossible otherwise 90% of most condo buildings would mathematically be owned by farangs, the law does not allow it

please read the other threads then you will understand exactly how this is not only possible but factual with regards to Phuket tourist areas maybe not so much in Phuket town

Sorry, not correct. Your statement is far from factual.

While I agree it's a little far fetched, it's not hard to imagine a project where 49% of the condos are foreign owned and the 51% reserved for Thais are either not sold at all, or owned by Thai shell companies to make it possible to sell the 49% to foreigners.

Or perhaps a tiny portion of the Thai reserved units are sold to Thai owner-occupants, making it a 90/10 mix.

So while the statement may not be factual (I have no clue what the real numbers are), it's not an impossibility.

Edit: BTW, I don't know how the numbers shake out in Thailand, but in China, the developer only has to sell about 1/3 of the units to break even. So they can take their dear, sweet time selling the rest. Doesn't bode well for maintenance, though, when only 1/3 of the units are paying the maintenance fees.

Edited July 6, 2016 by impulse

[metisdead]

Off topic posts and replies have been removed.

[Remus1830]

This is another nail in the coffin of the Thai property market. Most people who buy condos in Phuket buy for investment purposes if you are not allowed to rent them out why would you buy. Lets face it 90 percent of condo owners are farang so its just another slap on the face for farangs.

"90% of condo owners are Farangs"

Impossible otherwise 90% of most condo buildings would mathematically be owned by farangs, the law does not allow it

please read the other threads then you will understand exactly how this is not only possible but factual with regards to Phuket tourist areas maybe not so much in Phuket town

Sorry, not correct. Your statement is far from factual.

While I agree it's a little far fetched, it's not hard to imagine a project where 49% of the condos are foreign owned and the 51% reserved for Thais are either not sold at all, or owned by Thai shell companies to make it possible to sell the 49% to foreigners.

Or perhaps a tiny portion of the Thai reserved units are sold to Thai owner-occupants, making it a 90/10 mix.

So while the statement may not be factual (I have no clue what the real numbers are), it's not an impossibility.

Edit: BTW, I don't know how the numbers shake out in Thailand, but in China, the developer only has to sell about 1/3 of the units to break even. So they can take their dear, sweet time selling the rest. Doesn't bode well for maintenance, though, when only 1/3 of the units are paying the maintenance fees.

it should also be mentioned that many developers built properties as apartments rather than condos because of building regs plus sales ratios. This technically means that the building and land is Thai owned (Thai entity controlled by foreigners) and leased to foreigners in many cases 100% these are also being targeted for nominee shareholders etc. Whatever the situation is it does not look good for investors/ owners in the long term

[Poppadom]

I wonder if this law will be selectively enforced

No need to wonder. I give you a 100% guarantee that this law will only be enforced upon Thais with no connections/farang.

It's an assassination attempt on AirBnB in Phuket. They were taking away too much money from the Thai hotel owners

Like the Chomsky quote! Wrote my thesis in syntax...

[newnative]

I could see how you could register a single property such as a guesthouse as a hotel but I can't see how you could do that with a condo room as it is already registered at the Land Office as a condominium.

[Psimbo]

This is the smile of " now we're going to screw you well and proper farangs " on this man's face.....

Ever think its a 'now we can enforce the law' face. Funny how any time the authorities actually try to do something they are automatically farang bashing.

The fact these farang are BREAKING THE LAW never seems to come into these xenophobic comments.

I do not want the screaming kids downstairs who are here for a week disturbing the peace in my (long term) and LEGALLY rented condo.

[Psimbo]

....let me guess who the prime targets are....

...... the people BREAKING THE LAW?

[mcfish]

Our condo in Bangkok has posters in all the lifts showing police arresting a landlord for short term rental. They are absolutely serious about pushing this Thailand wide and it makes me happy

[Peterphuket]

This is the smile of " now we're going to screw you well and proper farangs " on this man's face.....

I was thinking exactly the same, and tought by myself, I have to sign in to give you a thump up.

[GR8fun in LOS]

Been going on for years. Wonder why the crackdown now?

“Phuket officially has about 50,000 hotel rooms but we know that there are in fact close to 100,000 rooms in the province that are being operated like hotels through rentals on a daily basis,” said the vice governor.

Perhaps the officials are attempting to reconcile the ToT Chinese tourist numbers with those actually registered and spending money on the island. "We have been told that the actual spending by our Chinese visitors is not up to the levels we have projected, please determine reasons for this error."

Same old Same Same and of course the local Farangs will provide very good scapegoats.

[schvonsky1]

I wonder if this law will be selectively enforced

No need to wonder. I give you a 100% guarantee that this law will only be enforced upon Thais with no connections/farang.

It's an assassination attempt on AirBnB in Phuket. They were taking away too much money from the Thai hotel owners.

Yup this is getting at airb&b but if you have a house how can it be a hotel Thais are never satisfied always want money one way or another this really boils my pizz ??????

[Peterphuket]

How about time sharing, maybe it is also a way of renting out?

[Peterphuket]

This comes up every other year. Next will be that farangs who purhased a home with a thai company will lose them. Then all the guys who cant afford to buy one will write I would never buy a house here. Followed by zillions of questions by guys wanting info on setting up Thai companies to buy a house.......The never ending cycles.

And you know why??

Because they don't like the faranfgs, only the money they love "Mak Maak"

[Basil B]

As a former owner of a condo in Pattaya I can understand the governments standing on this:

1. Registering all aliens with immigration, (cracking down on over stayers).

2. cracking down on businesses that do not pay tax.

My thoughts on this:

Can it be a managing company that registers the condo as a hotel? many owners who or letting out on a daily basis are using a agent to get them customers and manage the unit for them.

Could the Condominium manage the registration of guests? not only a service to co-owners but by registering all guests they can tighten security.

Edited July 6, 2016 by Basil B

[mcfish]

How about time sharing, maybe it is also a way of renting out?

Good point. It depends if the owners names are all on the condo deeds. if not then then would need to stay for a month or more

[wvavin]

Not only at Phuket but Rayong, Hua Hin, Pattaya etc. So its temporary applies to Phuket until such a time they consider the rest.

[Psimbo]

This is another nail in the coffin of the Thai property market. Most people who buy condos in Phuket buy for investment purposes if you are not allowed to rent them out why would you buy. Lets face it 90 percent of condo owners are farang so its just another slap on the face for farangs.

To be fair they obviously haven't done their due diligence then. The market is over saturated, overpriced and the second hand property market is sluggish to say the least. I know properties that have fallen into disrepair having been on the market for 5 or more years.

2 week millionaires conned by the chick in the miniskirt dribbling all over them and distracting them from the actual costs and returns deserve all they get in my opinion. It's buyer beware. If people are foolish enough to buy into it it serves them right- it comes back to what I said in the closed thread- 'would you do this at home'?

Most of the condos in my property that have changed hands either went for below what people paid for them or at cost.

"We will rent out your property and guarantee 'x' return"- its all complete BS. People barely break even due to the lack of demand and the money being eaten up by CAM fees, taxes, management fees, etc.

Phuket as an investment? Maybe 20-30 years ago but not now. Works for me though as there are cheap rents everywhere.

Maybe some of them needed a slap for plunging into something they had no clue about.

Standing by for incoming!

[Remus1830]

How about time sharing, maybe it is also a way of renting out?

time share is illegal in Thailand in patong I think there is only one active company left which is Thai owned the rest have either been put out of business or keeping a low profile

[mcfish]

A solid potion of owners would be British and with the collapse of the pound they were doing well on exchange getting paid in Baht. What a nightmare it would be for them now..Not only is there going to be a flood of rental properties hitting the Phuket market but the further downside is... who the hell would want them?

[stevenl]

How about time sharing, maybe it is also a way of renting out?

time share is illegal in Thailand in patong I think there is only one active company left which is Thai owned the rest have either been put out of business or keeping a low profile

Marriott, Anantara and others do timeshare.

It is not timeshare in itself that is illegal, but the way it was sold. However enforcement is still not very active.

[LivinginKata]

<snip>

Phuket as an investment? Maybe 20-30 years ago but not now. Works for me though as there are cheap rents everywhere.

I agree. We were lucky enough to buy land and build homes 18 years ago. Returns were very good with full occupancy. After our last build 10 years ago we had the land bought for the next project but even back then I could see the writing on the wall and cancelled the project. Now invest profits outside Thailand.

Edited July 6, 2016 by LivinginKata

[Remus1830]

This is another nail in the coffin of the Thai property market. Most people who buy condos in Phuket buy for investment purposes if you are not allowed to rent them out why would you buy. Lets face it 90 percent of condo owners are farang so its just another slap on the face for farangs.

To be fair they obviously haven't done their due diligence then. The market is over saturated, overpriced and the second hand property market is sluggish to say the least. I know properties that have fallen into disrepair having been on the market for 5 or more years.

2 week millionaires conned by the chick in the miniskirt dribbling all over them and distracting them from the actual costs and returns deserve all they get in my opinion. It's buyer beware. If people are foolish enough to buy into it it serves them right- it comes back to what I said in the closed thread- 'would you do this at home'?

Most of the condos in my property that have changed hands either went for below what people paid for them or at cost.

"We will rent out your property and guarantee 'x' return"- its all complete BS. People barely break even due to the lack of demand and the money being eaten up by CAM fees, taxes, management fees, etc.

Phuket as an investment? Maybe 20-30 years ago but not now. Works for me though as there are cheap rents everywhere.

Maybe some of them needed a slap for plunging into something they had no clue about.

Standing by for incoming!

years ago the market was better plus exchange rates were much more in favour of the buyer that has changed however selling at cost or slightly under may give the buyey a small profit if they are repatriating funds to there home currency depending on when they bought. Can the developers who promised these returns now achieve them they may have had good intentions but I am sure these returns were in many cases based on holiday lets and having a stable government non military also the world economy as a whole. Maybe a case for force majeure in some cases at least. Not saying that there are some unscrupulous developers out there.

[mcfish]

This should be a strong warning for Pattaya. Sell up now while you still can

[The Deerhunter]

I wonder if this law will be selectively enforced

No need to wonder. I give you a 100% guarantee that this law will only be enforced upon Thais with no connections/farang.

It's an assassination attempt on AirBnB in Phuket. They were taking away too much money from the Thai hotel owners

Good job I say. Hotels are hotels. Condos are residences! If you want that sort of S#!t, go and live as a proper guest in a hotel where you can check out if you don't like it or complain to the management who DO care about the condition of their room.

How would you like to have a condo next to those ones in Bangkok where they were renting out to how many ?? 15 or 20 was it?? Arabs sleeping in shifts. A hotel would not accept that but a condo manager will take the daily rate and pass some of the money onto the owner (if he is lucky) and to hell with the room condition or other owners/neighbours.

[elgordo38]

Crackdown or shakedown his smile tells it all. Another tourist killing crime solved way to go. Surely there must be more serious crime out there that these KC could chase. Amazing Thailand

Edited July 6, 2016 by elgordo38

[aidon]

This is another nail in the coffin of the Thai property market. Most people who buy condos in Phuket buy for investment purposes if you are not allowed to rent them out why would you buy. Lets face it 90 percent of condo owners are farang so its just another slap on the face for farangs.

You can still rent out a condo monthly, just not daily.

Given that farang cannot own more than 49% of any condo block, Not sure were the 90% comes from.

You need to check the legality of that as you can rent for a monthly rate but you cannot rent for only a month it must be a minimum term of 1 year.

[mcfish]

This is another nail in the coffin of the Thai property market. Most people who buy condos in Phuket buy for investment purposes if you are not allowed to rent them out why would you buy. Lets face it 90 percent of condo owners are farang so its just another slap on the face for farangs.

You can still rent out a condo monthly, just not daily.

Given that farang cannot own more than 49% of any condo block, Not sure were the 90% comes from.

You need to check the legality of that as you can rent for a monthly rate but you cannot rent for only a month it must be a minimum term of 1 year.

Care to post a link to this fantasy?

[theguyfromanotherforum]

Is it really that bad in Phuket?

There is a guy on the other thread basically giving away his 600k deposit on a condo in CM?

Is Bangkok the only place left where the price of real estate is somewhat justified?

[trogers]

Been going on for years. Wonder why the crackdown now?

Many wrongs have been going on for years and even decades that past elected governments did not fix.

But this government has started fixing issues since two years ago.

Aren't you a little old to be trolling on the internet like a teenager?

Some would always be hurt by the truth...

Some would indeed, but that his little to do with your post.

This is a local matter as it is rolled out in Phuket only at the moment.

It is therefore safe to say that the decision has been made by the local Phuket municipality under pressure of the Thai Hotels Association Southern Chapter.

You are trying to tie this to the change of central government which happened 2 years ago, but there is no suggestion this change in policy is related to that in any way.

Did the order to do this come from Bangkok? If so, show me where that is stated.

Is this related to the mouth service the central government is giving to "anti-corruption"? If so, show me the link and explain to me why it is happening after 2 years and not sooner.

In short you are just trying to get a rise out of posters by linking this to the general political conflict in Thailand.

This can be done easily with every news item; if its positive you remarks that "previous electeed governments" didn't do that, and every negative news item you can say: "its the mess from the previous government" or "the previous government wasted 500 billion on the rice scheme and did other stupid things".

It has therefore little to do with the "truth" you proclaim to tell, and is just some pathetic level of trolling that is basically a waste of time for everybody.

So was the special forms for foreigners issued by Immigration. Started in Phuket, but...

And it will come to pass...

[Bung]

I'm sure there was a nice "incentive" given to the good governor to facilitate this crackdown.....