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As the title of this video suggests, we are positing the question: "Does Thailand really want to see high real estate prices?" This came to my attention in a recent article from ASEAN NOW, that is the legacy from thaivisa.com but aseannow.com, the article is titled: Give Foreigners Thirty Year Visas for Million Dollar Investment and Watch Land Prices Skyrocket Says Phuket Group". “A Phuket Real Estate Group has thrown support behind plans”, let's be clear plans “that have been presented to the government to attract a million foreigners to Thailand. They claim this and other measures would result in land prices on the southern Thai Island Rising by up to three times." 

It does beg the question, I see this a lot and I don't think that people that look at this really look at it from the broad perspective. What I am saying is I don't think they really stop to take a bird's eye view. Yeah I definitely think folks that purchase real estate here in Thailand definitely want to see the value of their investment go up and I definitely think that a lot of real estate agents and developers and things want to see the real estate market boom. But Thais, the public in Thailand generally and I would argue certain sections of the government because they are responding to the public's desires if you will or the public's needs, I don't know that they necessarily want to see their real estate prices skyrocket. I think it is concerning for any countries' people and for any country to see their own people basically be priced out of the market for their own real estate. I think that is often times a major concern here in Thailand and it is not one that I think that a lot of folks in the real estate industry or foreigners in general really take into account. In fact I think a lot of foreigners when they are just kind of looking at it think, "oh yeah higher real estate prices is great for Thailand." Well is it? I mean if no Thai or the vast majority of Thais can buy a villa in a certain area, does that necessarily help Thailand? On one level I would say yes it does. There is tax revenue associated with that; it creates jobs in the real estate development industry etc. but on the other end again, do locals really ever want to be priced out of their own real estate market? I would say oftentimes a lot of people would say no. I think reasonable people can disagree but it is definitely an aspect of real estate in Thailand that I don't think foreigners always look at.