Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the possibility of foreigners owning a Rai of land in Thailand. All of this discussion has come up in the context of "approved in principle" Immigration provisions. There has been a push at a relatively high level within policy circles here in Thailand to create some incentivized Immigration schemes for foreign nationals to come to Thailand and set up shop here, basically live here. 

As I have discussed in other videos, they keep getting called Resident Visas and by definition they are not in any real sense of the term but what we are discussing here is there have been discussions of property incentives. One of the big ones being apparently and I have seen this in both the Bangkok Post as well as the source material we are going to quote here in a moment, that foreign nationals could be again "approved in principle". The devil is in the details on this stuff but it has been approved in principle that foreign nationals may be able to own a Rai of land associated with a residential property. 

Now a couple of things to bear in mind with respect to this. Going back into April of last year, the last time this was discussed a Government Spokesperson came out, we did a video on it, Government Spokesperson came out and said "no that is just not going to happen period, end of story." So how this plays out remains to be seen. But in a recent article from the Thaiger, that is thethaiger.com, and the article is titled: Thailand News Today ꟾ Thai Government approves 10 year Visa program. Quoting an excerpt directly: "Proposals to increase the foreign ownership quota for condominiums and maximum lease for foreigners were rejected by Thailand Center for Economic Situation Administration. However, the proposal to allow foreigners to hold ownership of 1 Rai of land for residential purposes was agreed in principle." Now let's be clear the CESA is not the final decision maker on this. There is Parliamentary participation as well as the Cabinet has to deal with this. So how exactly this is going to look remains to be seen. For those out there who are really, and I know there are some of you who are really excited about the prospect of this, I am not trying to burst bubbles here; I am not trying to be a downer but I think where this may actually end up being promulgated and come into actual practical effect, the practicalities are where the rubber hits the road with this kind of thing. I think it is pretty safe to presume it is going to be a narrow subset of folks that are going to come within eligibility of being able to enjoy this scheme if it ever comes about to begin with. 

So the thing to take away from this video I guess is to be sort of cautiously optimistic about the prospect of land ownership in a residential context for foreigners here in the Kingdom of Thailand.