Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Property Title. For those who are unaware, there are different types of Property Title in Thailand. It is somewhat different than the for example American Common Law system wherein Fee Simple Absolute tends to be the base title although depending on if it is Government land or things like this or set aside land for example, especially in the context of allotment land with regarding native Americans in the United States, there may be some similarities to some of Thai Law but for the most part, your average person that is used to dealing with Property Law for example in the USA, you are probably going to find yourself a bit out of your depth when you are discussing matters pertaining to Thailand because it is a very different system with regard to Property Title. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Land reform long overdue. Quoting directly: "Agriculture Minister, Captain Thamanat Prompow, scored some political points recently. He got the front page treatment from local media after he publicly announced his "New Year gifts" to millions of farmers. That translates as the new Sor Por Kor land policy, which will permit Sop Por Kor 4-01 holders to turn their land reform papers into Title Deeds." (I will get to the analysis in a moment.) "After that, the land - public plots originally given to poor and landless farmers - can be sold, which is not usually possible for land with Sor Por Kor status. Such a national land reform policy was unthinkable in the past. Created half a century ago, Sor Por Kor 4-01 plots are public land plots given to poor landless farmers to do small-scale farming. Holders must comply with many rules. For example, they can only build small houses, dig small ponds and cannot alter the land for other purposes except farming. Holders can only use land as a guarantee to get a small loan from Government Banks."

So yeah, this is something that in its time it was a reform that gave landless folks the ability to make a living farming but as noted it had restrictions and apparently the new Agriculture Minister is taking steps to allow folks to gain full title, so-called Chanote title, which again in the US context is most analogous to Fee Simple Absolute. Freehold it is sometimes called, I hear the Australian say Freehold title; that is what we are talking about when we are talking about Chanote title. So again, there are varying types of title in Thailand.

Foreigners looking to come to Thailand and engage in any type of Real Estate activity, for example owning a home or something, first of all recognize foreigners are specifically restricted from owning any real estate in Thailand other than condos and those condos must comport with the provisions of the Thai Condominium Act. Meanwhile, Property Title associated with land is specifically restricted from foreigners; they can't own it. So again title in this sense, may not be overly relevant to many foreigners, but again, it is not uncommon here in Thailand for those foreign nationals with a Thai spouse to go ahead and especially the Thai spouse goes ahead and owns certain land here in Thailand. So for this reason, understanding at least at a basic level, the types of title that exist here in Thailand is probably a good thing. I have made previous videos specifically discussing the different types of Thai property title, for example red Chanote just as one example; there are different colours of Chanote denoting the colour of the Garuda at the top of the Title Deed. I made prior videos on that. I will go ahead and put links to those videos in the description below for those who would like more information on Thai property titles specifically.