Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing leasing here in Thailand. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Foreigners and Thai Law: the changing Pattaya scenario. Quoting directly: "Thanks to the massive building programs in Pattaya over the same period, there is a lot more property for sale. Since foreigners can own condominium units but not land, they often establish a company to buy a house. One of the problems here is the use of Thai nominees (who have no connection with the foreign buyer) who will own at least 51% of the shares. When the foreigner dies or wishes to sell the company, the cooperation of the nominees is required by law and they are certain to demand their percentage share." Well let me just stop there. 

It's generally speaking never a good idea to try and circumvent the restriction on foreign property ownership in Thailand by utilizing one of these “companies” that basically operates in colour of law, okay. Now we have discussed this in videos before. There are certain scenarios, for example if you have a Thai spouse where maybe you are in business together, you have set up a shop and you own a shop house or something like this, there are certain scenarios where it may be optimal for a foreigner to be involved in a company that does own some property. Those are going to be few and far between and quite frankly, again they make sense if you will insofar as again, if you own it with your wife that makes some degree of sense. Again if you're just using a company to circumvent the rules on foreign land ownership in Thailand, you are going to find yourself with some real problems. And it's also worth noting, Thai nominees are explicitly illegal in Thailand under the Foreign Business Act; it's just written black and white. Quoting further: "When the foreigner dies or wishes to sell the property, the cooperation of the nominees is required by law and they're certain to demand their percentage share. Our general advice, if setting up a company to buy property, is to "keep it in the family and avoid including strangers".

Well my advice generally is to just avoid it if at all possible because there are better ways to do it which are, quoting further: "Or take out a lease rather than purchase." People always sort of just dismiss this, but if you really want the locked in, sort of straight up best method of utilizing property in Thailand, leasehold does it. It's explicitly authorized under the Civil and Commercial Code; foreigners are allowed to lease and your rights are unfettered once you're leasing. If you have a registered lease, it can be up to 30 years here in Thailand. In many ways, that's the way to handle these things and oftentimes I think trying to play all these games and do all this colour of law stuff, I think most foreigners either are spinning their wheels or putting themselves in a position that could operate to their detriment in the long term here in the Kingdom of Thailand.