Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing whether or not foreign nationals can own villas rather than condos here in Thailand. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: 'No effect' from increasing foreign ownership quota. Quoting directly: "Even in tourist destinations such as Pattaya or Phuket, they prefer villas over condos." Okay, some context there. The "they" is foreigners looking to buy into the real estate market here in Thailand. 

As we have discussed in prior videos,  foreign nationals are restricted from land ownership in Thailand which precludes a great deal of real estate ownership; come back to that in a minute. That said, there is an exception to this with regard to condos. It is possible for foreign nationals to own a condominium here in Thailand notwithstanding the restrictions on foreign real estate ownership. It is possible for a foreign national to get like what we call Fee Simple Absolute title, Freehold Title or what the Thais call Chanote title. Basically you own your own condo. That is definitely a possibility pursuant to the Condominium Act of 1991. That said, as noted in here there are unfortunately, unfortunately for them, a lot of foreigners who think, and they oftentimes kind of get led down the Primrose path on this whole thing, they think they can own a villa. Well at the end of the day you can't. And we have discussed this in other videos and it is not a great idea to try to utilize a so-called "Holding Company" in order to own one of these Villas or one of these pieces of real estate. As we have discussed in other videos, there have been law firms over the years - and we have done the videos on this - who have been raided because they were setting up corporations to circumvent Thai restrictions on foreign nationals owning land in Thailand. So those who are looking at villas, looking to buy, quite honestly unfortunately a lot of Fly-by-Night, less than reputable operations will "yes" you to death as a foreigner. They will tell you what you want to hear and you will kind of want to believe it especially if you have parked a bunch of money in the thing because at the end of the day you don't want to believe that it can just be taken overnight. As we have discussed, I have done the videos on the raids. They do come in and take over some of these companies, they dissolve them and they take back the land. It's not unheard of, we have discussed it many times on this channel before.

So again this is a word of caution. Again condos yes, possible for foreign nationals to own; Villas not so much. Discussed in other videos, there may be circumstances with corporate ownership of Thai property especially in the context of somebody married to a Thai national where yeah that may be feasible, but again it is very circumstantially dependent and again the vast majority of folks who are looking to buy something here, are just going to find themselves in a situation where at best they have some colour of law solution that if ever tested could see them really losing out a lot. 

That said, there are other options with regards to villas and other types of housing here in Thailand most notably long-term leasing as we have discussed in other videos. And this present Government is talking about even extending the duration of long-term leases and we will certainly keep folks updated on all of those developments on this channel as that situation evolves.