Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing land ownership in Thailand. I originally thought of titling this video: "Why can't foreigners own land in Thailand?" Well because my answer would have been kind of snarky, it would have been like "because the Thais don't really want you to", that would have been the answer and that is the answer, really. From a policy standpoint, Thai Law does not want foreign nationals to own real estate; they don't want foreign nationals to own land and the reasoning behind that is pretty simple. I mean Thailand went through the colonialism era and managed to get out of that with their sovereignty intact, without being colonized, went through the two major World Wars, went through the Cold War, Thailand has held its own through a lot and one of the reasons I think they have done that or been able to do that is they haven't been overrun basically by foreign nationals owning their own land. In fact I think for example the United States might take a page from Thailand's book on this issue because it is sort of odd when foreign nationals come in; residential housing I think reasonable people can disagree, that said here in Thailand I have made my views on that clear, I don't think it is a great idea when they were talking about it about a year and a half ago because to do that, it sounds rather innocuous but in the longer term, bigger picture of things, it is really not all that innocuous, I discussed that in a prior video. 

Leaving that aside, for example in the United States I can see an argument, "foreign nationals owning residential property, what's the big deal there?" Fair enough, but again when foreign nationals own huge tracts of farmland and like mining consortiums and things you start to wonder at what point shouldn't at least some minor protectionism at least come into play? Again this video isn't about what is going on in the West though, this is about here in Thailand. I thought of making this video after reading a recent comment on our channel, quoting directly: "Interesting subject, thanks for sharing. Is it also true a foreign national can be left property in a Will by a Thai spouse as long as it is under one rai in size? If so, what are the implications with this?" No, in point of fact No. Thai Law stipulates that any property left to a foreign national by dint of a Will would need to be sold within 90 days of the closure of the estate unless you can get a signature from the Ministry of Interior associated with the ownership of the property.  More to that, I am going to quote from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Business leaders back U-turn on land sales. Quoting directly: "The 2002 regulation allowing foreigners to buy land was not popular, with only eight individuals using it. Quote: "The existing regulation is difficult to use as applicants need to compile related documentation from various government agencies and submit them directly to the Interior Minister". Mr. Issara said, and this is Issara Boonyong, Chairman of the Committee for Real Estate Development of the Thai Chamber of Commerce. So, yeah the reason it really hasn't happened as a practical matter is the Ministry of Interior doesn't sign off on that because again there is an overarching policy of not selling land to foreigners. So the thing to take away from this video is yeah there are misconceptions out there about this and they are far and wide. Another big one is it can be owned through corporate structures as I have discussed in other videos. You need to be very, very careful with that because if it's viewed as simply a vehicle for circumvention of relevant Thai Law, that corporation can be dissolved and the property can be as escheated, I mean confiscated back to the State, the State can just take it back and I have done videos on that before and there's activity on that, it happens from time to time, in fact places will get raided for that issue.

So the thing to take away from this video is yeah foreign land ownership in Thailand is heavily restricted; it's not overall going to be a major possibility for foreign nationals here. As we discussed in other videos, there are other methodologies of enjoying property here. Things like usufructs, that's like lifetime usage what we might call a life estate in the common law vernacular; things like long-term leasing, 30-year leases, multi-year leases things of this nature and then also things like condominiums can be owned Freehold. A foreign national can own a condominium here in Thailand pursuant to the provisions of the Condominium Act but as far as real estate, actual Land Title, no that's pretty well restricted from foreigners here in the Kingdom of Thailand.