News Forum - Foreign ownership of Thai land, but with lots of conditions

[Thaiger]

One rai of land in Thailand is all yours to own, if you’re a foreigner, have plenty of money, or are going to stay in Thailand for a long time. The plan to sell freehold land to foreigners is gaining traction and is likely to become law by the end of this year. It’s part of the Thai government’s intention to attract “high spending” foreigners as part of its economic plans for recovery after the two year ‘Covid hiatus’. The four groups, often touted, include, individuals with enormous wealth, wealthy pensioners, those who want to work remotely in Thailand (but […]

The story Foreign ownership of Thai land, but with lots of conditions as seen on Thaiger News.

Read the full story

[ThaiEyes]

Better to freehold 3 condos rather than 1 rai of land with all these conditions. I could get the equivalent of 1 rai in the US for much cheaper as others could do in their home countries. 
I own a house now with my wife of 16 years and her name is on the land. Fine by me because I would give it to her if I kicked off anyway. 
These schemes by Thai officials are laughable. 

[Steve555]

I moved here in Phuket 2004. I used to think it was not fair that Farang could not own land here since in Canada or the U.S. foreigners are allowed too. After several years and giving it more thought I have come around to feeling it's not good to sell land to foreigners. Property in most desirable places on the earth are already very expensive and out of reach for most. Allowing foreign investors will only move the prices more out of reach. I get that it stimulates the economy etc. etc. but in then is it really good for any country to have hose holdings? Very curious to what others think local and foreign?

[Bluesofa]

38 minutes ago, Thaiger said:

many Thais on social media have questioned the Thai government’s U-turn on selling freehold property to foreigners, even if it’s restricted to just one rai.
{snipped}
“These buyers will just invest and not live here. They don’t care about Thailand.”

I know this has been discussed so many times before, but: “These buyers will just invest and not live here. They don’t care about Thailand.”

That's fair enough. Don't forget it works both ways.
Thaksin, and a lot of other wealthy Thais have property in the UK, as there is no discrimination on foreigners buying land in the UK.  These Thais also "just invest and not live [t]here"

Don't forget also that Thailand is twice the size of the UK, even though both countries have a population of seventy million.

[Artemis080]

"We have seen a growth in purchases from high-end buyers from Hong Kong, China and Russia, amongst many other nations."

The article is at least pointing out the obvious. Big Chinese money will flood in. But that seems to be the plan right now. Bangkok is courting heavy Chinese investment and the PM is kissing ass.

[ronnie666]

I got dreams, the government have unrealistic dreams "Thai government aims to attract more than a million qualified (wealthy) people to Thailand attracting an estimated additional income to the country of 1 trillion baht." So keep on dreaming, they tried many times to LURE in rich foreigners and they failed everytime, conditions are like always insane and makes it useless law and option, but at least they made money discussing it for themselves... tax money wasted.. realistic is there are billions of medium income people that do stay in Thailand and spend daily and there are only a few rich people that maybe going to stay here... greediness never paid off something the government STILL have to learn, besides that with ideas like this ( as well as with visas, useless) Thailand makes a fool of themselves and show time and time again we do not give a crap about you only your money... bad reputation is build up here daily... pathetic  once again

[Highlandman]

1 hour ago, ThaiEyes said:

Better to freehold 3 condos rather than 1 rai of land with all these conditions. I could get the equivalent of 1 rai in the US for much cheaper as others could do in their home countries. 
I own a house now with my wife of 16 years and her name is on the land. Fine by me because I would give it to her if I kicked off anyway. 
These schemes by Thai officials are laughable. 

It's a ridiculous scheme, but may just be attractive enough for a rich foreigner who wants to have a foothole in the country, to be able to say "I own land here".

For your average Joe expat though, this scheme won't be attractive at all.

In the US and even expensive real estate markets like Canada and Australia, you can get 1 rai equivalent for much less, especially in more remote areas where land prices are as cheap as the US.

[Highlandman]

1 hour ago, Steve555 said:

I moved here in Phuket 2004. I used to think it was not fair that Farang could not own land here since in Canada or the U.S. foreigners are allowed too. After several years and giving it more thought I have come around to feeling it's not good to sell land to foreigners. Property in most desirable places on the earth are already very expensive and out of reach for most. Allowing foreign investors will only move the prices more out of reach. I get that it stimulates the economy etc. etc. but in then is it really good for any country to have hose holdings? Very curious to what others think local and foreign?

Then you should consider that America and Canada should tighten the criteria for foreigners to own land, after all, "fair is fair" and reciprocity makes sense.

I'm not suggesting no foreign land ownership at all, but maybe land ownership with more conditions than at present. Similar to New Zealand or Australia's latest proposal, whereby foreign nationals have to pay extra. Or perhaps they can't own land in certain areas or something like that.

[Bluesofa]

37 minutes ago, Highlandman said:

Then you should consider that America and Canada should tighten the criteria for foreigners to own land, after all, "fair is fair" and reciprocity makes sense.

I'm not suggesting no foreign land ownership at all, but maybe land ownership with more conditions than at present. Similar to New Zealand or Australia's latest proposal, whereby foreign nationals have to pay extra. Or perhaps they can't own land in certain areas or something like that.

The was an Amity Law agreement between the US and Thailand which allowed US citizens to purchase one rai of land in their own name in Thailand, as long it was to be used for a residence.
The agreement expired a few years ago, so that US citizens cannot buy land any more. I assume that Thais can still buy land in the US in their own name.

I'm willing to be corrected if anything i said is wrong.

[Ramanathan.P]

If a person has millions why would he/she leave their native country to come and live in Thailand. It is only those retires with limited small income wanted to enjoy life and are moving to developing countries for a decent living with their small income. This scheme is a money making scheme, very soon all those wealthy Thais will start selling their land for a hefty profit. And when the law changes with the flip of the coin, the foreigner who invest in land will be in a limbo.......

[Janneman]

So basically you have to invest 1 million US$ for 3 years in order to buy 1 rai  of land. Which is like 1000 sq meter or so? Quite expensive

 

[KhunG]

3 hours ago, Bluesofa said:

The was an Amity Law agreement between the US and Thailand which allowed US citizens to purchase one rai of land in their own name in Thailand, as long it was to be used for a residence.
The agreement expired a few years ago, so that US citizens cannot buy land any more. I assume that Thais can still buy land in the US in their own name.

I'm willing to be corrected if anything i said is wrong.

There is an Amity treaty, still in force, that allows US citizens to be the sole owner of a business.  Nothing about owning land.

[ronnie666]

1 hour ago, KhunG said:

There is an Amity treaty, still in force, that allows US citizens to be the sole owner of a business.  Nothing about owning land.

Either way they can seize anything they want when they want, unreliable are thai officials against foreigners, no forget we are dogs to them with $$$$ because they think we have a tree somewhere that grows 1000 thb every day... the day they get their brain around it that we just normal people and try to get around every month like any other person in Thailand. You will all be invited on that celebration   ( don't get your hopes up)

Edited July 16, 2022 by ronnie666

[dimitri]

7 hours ago, ronnie666 said:

they tried many times to LURE in rich foreigners and they failed everytime, conditions are like always insane

 

I checked the conditions of the 4 groups of wealthy foreigners they defined. But it is almost impossible to satisfy the requirements. 

For example the high income professions. Many people I know make more than what they ask for.  But than there is the condition that you must be employed by a company that has public traded shares on a stock exchange. Why?  All people I know who make that much money are self employed, have their own business. And people who do satisfy the requirements...  Which company will allow their employees to move permanently to Thailand and work from there?  

These rules are made by Thai who never travelled abroad and have no clue about how things work in other countries. Extremely stupid and ignorant.

 

 

[ronnie666]

29 minutes ago, dimitri said:

I checked the conditions of the 4 groups of wealthy foreigners they defined. But it is almost impossible to satisfy the requirements. 

For example the high income professions. Many people I know make more than what they ask for.  But than there is the condition that you must be employed by a company that has public traded shares on a stock exchange. Why?  All people I know who make that much money are self employed, have their own business. And people who do satisfy the requirements...  Which company will allow their employees to move permanently to Thailand and work from there?  

These rules are made by Thai who never travelled abroad and have no clue about how things work in other countries. Extremely stupid and ignorant.

You hit it on the spot, all decisions are always made by Thais that do not know squad about it, they make ideas as they go along so they can keep their job and get  their salaries, simply they do not care, decisions like this, like freelance visas, PayPal limitations all decisions made by someone that does not know squad about it, shows once again that thailand want to show how incapable they are to make a fair and correct decision and do some serious investigation in it before making such nonsense.. like said wasted tax money and greediness that does not pay off. Another point of showing how ridiculous they make laws and USELESS ideas. All these things make them look bad and they just do not get that point.

Edited July 16, 2022 by ronnie666

[Disenfranchised]

Thaksin, and a lot of other wealthy Thais have property in the UK, as there is no discrimination on foreigners buying land in the UK.  These Thais also "just invest and not live [t]here"

Try buying a decent house in the UK and you will be in hock forever. London property has sky rocketed in value since overseas money moved in. 

[Benroon]

18 hours ago, Janneman said:

So basically you have to invest 1 million US$ for 3 years in order to buy 1 rai  of land. Which is like 1000 sq meter or so? Quite expensive

Totally separate entities.

[Benroon]

9 hours ago, Disenfranchised said:

Thaksin, and a lot of other wealthy Thais have property in the UK, as there is no discrimination on foreigners buying land in the UK.  These Thais also "just invest and not live [t]here"

Try buying a decent house in the UK and you will be in hock forever. London property has sky rocketed in value since overseas money moved in. 

Correct - infact so bad that in 2015 the U.K. government had to bring in onerous capital gains taxes to stop London becoming a suburb of Moscow. 

[Benroon]

15 hours ago, ronnie666 said:

Either way they can seize anything they want when they want, unreliable are thai officials against foreigners, no forget we are dogs to them with $$$$ because they think we have a tree somewhere that grows 1000 thb every day... the day they get their brain around it that we just normal people and try to get around every month like any other person in Thailand. You will all be invited on that celebration   ( don't get your hopes up)

Have you any examples of ‘seizures’ that was legally purchased ? 

This scheme is not compulsory, it’s an option (not a great one I grant you) so for those on a very limited income can feel free to ignore it and enjoy their day. 

[Namealreadyinuse]

The tricky part here is that you can only buy "first hand" land, and sell it to Thais only.

So basically you buy some undeveloped land from a rich Thai, build a house, and when selling it, no Thai is willing to pay you that rip-off farang price, so you end up selling it at a loss to an even richer Thai. All Thais probably government officials or other mafia.

[Benroon]

6 minutes ago, Namealreadyinuse said:

The tricky part here is that you can only buy "first hand" land, and sell it to Thais only.

So basically you buy some undeveloped land from a rich Thai, build a house, and when selling it, no Thai is willing to pay you that rip-off farang price, so you end up selling it at a loss to an even richer Thai. All Thais probably government officials or other mafia.

 

Yep I don’t understand the ‘only sell to Thais’ bit. If you don’t get the price you want you’re not going to sell so don’t understand the rationale behind that stipulation. 

What I find really frustrating about these articles is the complete lack of meaningful detail. The 40m is clearly the pertinent point but not a word of the detail. Presumably not land purchases, so I’m assuming equities right ? and if so can you pick them ? who manages them ? what’s their track record ? Do you lay out 40m up front for 3 years or invest 40m OVER 3 years etc etc 

Without detail it’s a pointless article which will just attract the usual crowd with misgivings about something they (along with me) have no clue about. 

 

[Benroon]

15 minutes ago, Namealreadyinuse said:

The tricky part here is that you can only buy "first hand" land, and sell it to Thais only.

So basically you buy some undeveloped land from a rich Thai, build a house, and when selling it, no Thai is willing to pay you that rip-off farang price, so you end up selling it at a loss to an even richer Thai. All Thais probably government officials or other mafia.

I suspect one reason will be it makes marrying that bar girl a quarter of your age a lot safer

[LoveThailand]

Such a phenomenal country must be totally mad to allow itself to be bought by foreigners.  Before you know it is gone, and I am not kidding.  Approx 1MM $ may be a lot for Thailand, but it is completely nothing for rich farangs; and there are so many.  For the love of God, pls don't enact such extraordinarily stupid law.  Keep Thailand for Thailand!

[trooper]

Honestly 40 million :) :) :) :) :) I would move to swizerland before investing this kind a money! Who is this dreamer who belive forang would invest 40 million for one rai land? Just laugthing non stop! :)

[ronnie666]

17 hours ago, LoveThailand said:

Such a phenomenal country must be totally mad to allow itself to be bought by foreigners.  Before you know it is gone, and I am not kidding.  Approx 1MM $ may be a lot for Thailand, but it is completely nothing for rich farangs; and there are so many.  For the love of God, pls don't enact such extraordinarily stupid law.  Keep Thailand for Thailand!

Phenomenal, why not keep it clean then? Holding your ice latte for 30 minutes and when it is done flying it in the bushes... thanks for making a difference between foreigner or thai, we all the same just the outside looks different  .... you want respect from us? Then make sure to respect us too....

Edited July 18, 2022 by ronnie666