Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests we are discussing land ownership yet again. It has been a major topic in the news out there this notion of foreigners being able to own currently what's being talked about as one rai of land. It is not on the books as Thai Law right now, it is just simply being vetted by the various agencies and the Cabinet having to do with the issue just in general I mean the land office etc., which kind of brings me to the reason I thought of making this video. It was after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Land a very sensitive issue, and I believe this was an editorial but quoting directly: “The Government has had its fair share of complaints recently over its own land ownership policy with accusations that they are "selling off" the country to foreigners. The Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda had to defend the policy in the House of Representative session on Thursday. Then quoting Khun Anupong directly: "For those who are concerned it will lead to foreign land grabs, we will further add regulations to prohibit them from buying connected plots." Quoting further: "The plans can be scrapped if people have serious concerns. We don't see it as a loss of face," Gen Anupong said. I want to re-read that real quick. "The plan can be scrapped if people have serious concerns We won't see it as a loss of face"'. Well I kind of think, I think it's unlikely will see this plan promulgated; I think there is a lot of blowback on this. I don't want to get into the politics of it but you can read all about it. I would urge those watching this video go check out the Bangkok Post, go check out that article in detail, Bangkok Post has got a lot more up-to-date stuff on the politics behind this. Long story short, I think it's rather unlikely. Folks are also, if you have been watching my channel for a while and I know it's not a particularly popular thing to say especially among the farang community, but yeah I am not particularly enthusiastic about this Bill. I don't really see how it is going to greatly help Thailand and I can see a lot of ways that it can be detrimental to Thailand, so on a personal level, just so full disclosure so you can understand where my bias is at, I am pretty well against it; somewhere between ambivalent and against is probably where you would put me. I think just not changing anything would be fine.

Another thing, I was thinking about this over the weekend. They always talk about the sort of "glut" of condos in Thailand which I would argue isn't really an accurate assessment when you look at the overall market. There is a glut in certain sectors and there are certain types of condos are actually hard to find, but there are condos available; they are out there and foreigners can already buy those. Now I know there are foreigners that don't really like the prospect of having a Thai condo, Okay that is fine. But as I have said before in other videos, I think the costs or maybe the downsides to Thailand associated with this proposal, I think substantially outweigh any major benefits to the country that I think would be had by this because honestly, the way it is set up I just don't see a ton of people using it so if it is being discussed as a methodology of bringing in a bunch of foreign investment, I mean I just don't see that happening. I just don't see these great numbers. Meanwhile, there are I think substantial long-term possible downsides to it, a number of them. I have made a number of other videos discussing those at length. 

So the thing I guess to take away from this video is one, a week ago this was kind of bandied about as a foregone conclusion. We made videos explaining that look this is still being debated and then now there is clearly a lot of opposition to it and sort of in the run-up with everything that is going on politically, I can definitely just see this thing at, my thinking is that it will either be defeated out right or it will just be kind of be put on the back burner and it will be another one of those things that we don't hear about for a while if ever. So again, it remains to be seen. We will certainly keep people updated on this channel as the situation evolves.