Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the peace of mind often enjoyed by foreigners who decide to go ahead and buy a Thai Condo. What are we talking about here? 

Well, I recently made a video where I was talking about a situation wherein there was a pretty large scandal here in Thailand involving illegal title deeds to land. We have also seen a number of articles and we have seen a number of news stories play out wherein there have been raids of various law firms and professional companies and things associated with foreigners utilizing corporate structures to own land in Thailand. And there have been specific raids to go after that, to tamp down or stamp out that practice probably on the part of, because the policy thinking behind it is in Thailand it is illegal for foreign nationals to own land in Thailand; there is kind of a protectionism associated with foreign land ownership here in Thailand. 

Again not to go too deep into that, we discussed that in a lot of detail, but it does get to the issue of what I would call Peace of Mind associated with condo ownership in Thailand. Under Thai Law, specifically the Thai Condominium Act, it is possible for a foreigner to gain Freehold title, what we would call in the American Common Law vernacular, Fee Simple Absolute Title, Freehold Title, what's called Chanote Title here in Thailand which is freehold. You own it as you would a condo in any other jurisdiction, you can own it out right. Now there are restrictions on that insofar as there is a quota so a given building needs to be 51% Thai, 49% foreign owned; it can never go over that as of the time of this video. Moreover, there are certain requirements regarding foreign capital coming into Thailand and there are various formalities associated with bringing that foreign capital in, making sure it is correctly earmarked if you will so that it can be transferred out at the time that a possible sale would happen in the future, and there are a number of things that are associated with that. We have discussed that in great detail on this channel and for those who are interested in purchasing a Thai Condo, probably quite a good idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed. 

That said, yes Thai Condo ownership, being able to just own a freehold title to a Thai Condo in this country there is a lot of peace of mind to it. I personally bought one when I was a foreigner here and I really enjoyed owning a condo. Yes, I understand there are people that don't like condos, they prefer to own a house, they want a villa, they want this or that, okay whatever, you have your preferences. I am talking about the law here and as we have discussed, difficult to nearly impossible for foreigners to own anything like that. In fact I would say impossible is the starting point and it is my understanding there has been only 8 situations since 2000, where it has even been possible for a foreign entity to own land in Thailand, that's at least according to a Bangkok Post article I cited in a previous video on this channel. In those circumstances, I am very sure there were very extenuating factors going into that where they were allowing foreign ownership under those scenarios. Generally speaking though, it is heavily, heavily restricted. So leaving that aside, you don't have those problems with condos; you do your due diligence, make sure it falls under the foreign quota, you go ahead and secure your Freehold title and you are done, you get to live in that. I have lived in my condos here for like almost 15 years now and I have owned them Freehold ever since I first acquired them. So again, these are major benefits and at the time I actually got my first condo here, quite a reasonable price compared to anything I saw at the time in the West. So again, Thai Condominiums provide really a high degree of peace of mind in this real estate market that is not overly conducive to foreign ownership.