Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing land transfers in Bangkok and apparently there has been a drop in the number of land transfers occurring in Bangkok.

In a recent article from the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Bangkok Land Price Index Drops 2.2% in First Quarter. Quoting directly: "Vichai Viratkapan REIC's (Real Estate Information Center) acting Director General said the quarterly decrease in the land price index in greater Bangkok in the first quarter of 2021 followed a year-on-year decline of 13.3% in the number of land transfers in the fourth quarter of 2020." 

For those who are unaware, for those who come from a common law background or the Americans watching, the Land Office is akin to a Registrar of Deeds back in the US. Oftentimes we would see this in a courthouse usually in the US. Depending on your jurisdiction, that may be a little different from state to state, but it is akin to the Registrar of Deeds. The Land Office, in my opinion, for them their record keeping is a bit more precise in certain ways than the way deed recordations are done in certain jurisdictions in the US. For example, much more difficult in Thailand in my opinion to have what I would call "wild title" or "wild deed" out there floating around. It is unlikely in the modern era, especially with digitization back in the States, but it still can happen depending on circumstances especially certain kind of warranty deeds and quick claim deeds can sometimes be done. They may not necessarily, depending on the circumstances, it can be done bilaterally between two people and so you may not necessarily know that that transaction is out there or at least there may be a little bit of a delay from the time that you know. 

Veering back to the point of this, the Land Offices in Thailand have a pretty good idea of what is going on most notably because they collect transfer fees. There is a transfer fee associated oftentimes with the transfer of real property in Thailand from one person or entity to another person or entity. For this reason, they have got pretty meticulous records so to see a drop off of 13.3% in the numbers of land transfers here in Bangkok, that is pretty substantial. 

As I have noted in other videos, I think we are definitely in a buyer's market right now at least up here in Bangkok although I would say throughout Thailand probably the Property Market has a lot of bargains in it. Those who are interested in purchasing property or living in Thailand in a more general sense, it might be a good time to be looking at purchasing property now. Now down the road things could still remain the same or even get a little worse; it could become more advantageous buying later. I am not making any recommendations on way or the other, but I definitely would say, compared to 14 months ago it is definitely much more of a buyer's market than it was then.