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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing foreign home ownership in Thailand. That is home ownership, presumably a house or something like a townhouse akin to that, or what is called a Moo Baan in Thailand which is like a development area, what might be called a suburb in the US; a Housing Development. So it is sort of a house with a lawn and there has been some talk recently that it may be possible for foreigners to actually gain ownership of such property structures sometime in the near future. 

A recent article from the Buriram Times, that is buriramtimes.com and they are citing, Source: Thai Visa News. The article in Buriram Times, that is buriramtimes.com, that article is titled: Thai Government Considers Allowing Foreigners to More Easily Buy / Own Property. Quoting directly: "Thai Business Media has said that their sources in the Thai Government are suggesting that laws relating to the Condo Act of 2008 and rules about owning land and houses are about to change." Quoting further: "It would mean foreigners with at least 10 million Baht could buy and own a house and even the plot of land it is on." Quoting further and this is a key point; there are a couple of key points and I will expand on it further here momentarily but this is a key point: "However any changes in the law are likely to be temporary for the next 3 to 5 years as a post-COVID stimulus package." Now what exactly that means I don't know and I will expand on that in a little bit because that is a little bit worrisome when you read this in a broader sense. Quoting further: "House ownership has been a bugbear of foreign investors for years with only those prepared to invest 40 million Baht up and up, able to buy a house on land and even then it comes with the need to seek Ministerial approval." I am going to circle back to Ministerial approval along with this temporary thing in a minute as that is a key point as well here. Quoting further: "The plan is now to drop that threshold down to properties between 10 million and 15 million baht. This would only apply to property and housing estates and even then foreigners can only buy 49% of property in any one estate." Then quoting further: "The source indicated that changes to all these regulations would only be temporary for the next 3 to 5 years." 

So let's circle back to a couple of things. The temporary nature of this. If this does happen and it is temporary, that can have really complex ramifications on someone who actually is able to buy a house. Now if it is someone that is just going to buy it and live in it and just never leave until the rest of their born days, it may not be a big issue. But if there is only a window of 3 to 5 years in which foreigners can own houses like this, okay you may be able to lock in your title and lock in your ownership but what if you want to sell it later after this temporary window. It is a good question. I don't know what the answer is but it is something to be really concerned about if this is something that interests you. The other thing is, and this article did not go into this, and I tried to do some research to find if there was anything further on this specific thing but to circle back "and even then it comes with the need to seek Ministerial approval." There is nothing in anything I have read about any possible proposals regarding home ownership that I have seen which says that the Ministerial approval rule would be negated; would be nullified under any future legislation. In fact it is my understanding that is pretty hard and fast law here in Thailand and therefore Ministry approval, and in this case Ministry of Interior approval, would still be necessary to gain freehold title to a house in Thailand. As a practical matter that is difficult. That is an amazingly difficult thing to get done mostly due to the fact that getting a Minister's approval of anything requires a great deal of time and processing a request for such an approval can be a complex endeavour. It is a rather Byzantine process to go ahead and even formally request such an approval. There is nothing in this article nor in anything else we have been trying to find on this topic that would seem to suggest that even though they may be lowering the financial thresholds associated with the possibility of foreign land ownership, there is nothing out there that we can see which would suggest that Ministerial approval would not continue to be a requirement. Now maybe they will streamline processing I don't know but for now that is a major issue and that is something that definitely keeps the notion of foreign home ownership far from being presumed to be a foregone conclusion when you are dealing with this stuff because it is a major thing to overcome.

So we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves because I know that this is a topic that is of interest to a number of expats and foreign nationals also looking to retire in Thailand. It does appear that the Thai Government, the various policy makers associated with the review of this policy, I do think that they are serious and they are keen to stimulate the economy here in Thailand but it remains to be seen just exactly how these possible changes to the law may actually as a practical matter come into being. For that reason, it may be a good idea to contact a legal professional before proceeding on anything associated with the purchase of a home here in the Kingdom of Thailand.