Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing heightened scrutiny associated with corporations and real estate in Thailand. This is a topic that I've discussed at length over the past few weeks. There is a heavy crackdown going on here in Thailand associated with so-called nominee corporate structures as well as corporate structures generally, which are utilized to circumvent Thai legal restrictions on foreigners owning real estate in Thailand. 

For those who are unaware, without I mean sort of high-level clearance for lack of a better term, it is virtually impossible for foreigners to own land in Thailand. Now there are those who would say, "oh there's a "loophole" by utilizing a corporation to own Thai real estate". Yeah, the authorities here in Thailand are coming after that. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article in the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Rising crime prompts Visa-free policy review impacting Pattaya's business and expat community. As the title of that article suggests, the thrust of it goes in a different direction. That said, I'm going to quote an excerpt here under: The Real Estate and Corporate Sector, quoting directly: "In the short-term, stricter corporate scrutiny may slow down the pace of new company formations and property transactions as legal firms conduct deeper due diligence to comply with the tightening environment. However, cleansing the market of illicit actors protects legitimate investors. A transparent, strictly regulated property market prevents artificial price inflation driven by gray market capital and ensures that legal titles and business investments remain secure and uncompromised." 

Yeah, I mean I don't know if I necessarily think that there is some huge gray market going on with regard to Thai property, but we have clearly seen, we have seen demonstrable cases just in the past few weeks, of foreigners who are utilizing various types of corporate structures and other sort of arrangements to effectively own property in Thailand. In light of the fact that some of those have been investigated and they found not one but two weapons caches in two different parts of Thailand, it has led to a situation where this has been raised to the level of a national security issue. As a result, we're not even talking about law enforcement specifically anymore. In certain circumstances the Army is now even getting involved in this again because it's viewed as a national security concern. What does that mean? Well, what it means is if you are trying to utilize some flim flam sort of setup to basically own Thai property, you are really going to want to rethink that and maybe a restructuring is in order; again depends on the underlying facts in a given individual's case. 

But that said, what we know is that law enforcement is not messing around about this. I think we are in line for more, if anything. I would say that the trend - especially going into this summer - is more of not really that this is just kind of going to fade away or “blow over” as it were, no. If anything, I think they are going to be more assiduous in scrutinizing corporate structures especially if it's thought that foreigners are using them to own property. What does that mean? Well it could mean property being seized; it could mean corporations being dissolved; it could mean forced sales; failure to do so being auction and basically seizure by the state.

Again, these are not circumstances that one wants to find oneself in, and for that reason, it is probably a good idea if you are looking to come to Thailand, if you are looking at property matters if you are looking at corporate setup, if you are looking at immigration issues, probably not a terrible idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.