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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing freehold title to Thai land, that is Thai real estate, actual land entitle being held in freehold or what we may call in the Common Law system especially back in the States fee simple fee, simple absolute or Chanote title here in Thailand; basically a foreigner actually owns land here in Thailand. 

There has been some discussion lately on this. In fact I got to think of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Pattaya Grapevine: the Chinese are back, and under the subheading: Doubts about high value. Quote: "Thailand's ambition to get 1 million rich foreigners to register for 10-year visas from now to 2025 sounds somewhat optimistic. The advantages are not so spectacular as fast track at the airport and exemption from 90 day reporting are small-fry stuff to be sure." No one has ever showed me any statutory citation that says these visas are going to get out of 90-day reporting. They are non-immigrant visas, they are covered under the Immigration Act of 79 so I mean I don't know. Unless I am missing something, I am always happy to stand corrected and I'll do another video and go into that, but I have yet to see anything that shows me definitively that these proposed LTR Visas are going to be 90 days exempt; just kind of a side note there. 90-day reporting exempt I should say. Quoting further: "What might move the needle would be a clear and unambiguous invitation to buy freehold property which is missing at the moment with the starting date for applications fast approaching. The Elite Card and Visa, originally started in 2003, faltered badly after early promises about being able to buy one rai never materialized." Well look we have talked about this going back a year ago when they first started talking about this. A spokesperson the Land Office came out and said, "That's not what is going to be happening. There is not going to be land ownership for foreigners." I think they came back and said well there may be some scheme where condos may be able to be purchased under a certain kind of scheme that would allow foreign ownership and there were all these kind of caveats put on and then it kind of fell onto the back burner. I mean honestly I think it is pretty ambiguous if it will happen. In fact my personal opinion is, it probably won't in any meaningful way or it may be possible.

I mean as we have discussed in other videos, it is possible for foreign nationals to own land in Thailand, that is a possibility but as noted the requirements associated with that, most notably sign off by the Ministry of Interior, I mean that is substantial and I very rarely ever even heard of it having been done although it can happen, again it's circumstantially dependent. In this situation where you have just sort of a set fixed scheme that allows it, I think it's unlikely and honestly sort of as a Thai, naturalized Thai, but a Thai nonetheless, I am pretty ambivalent about the notion frankly. I have been a foreigner in Thailand, I understand the frustrations, but there is something to be said for the protections that Thailand has sort of accreted over time like this. Thailand in many ways can be placed in a precarious position. Geopolitically as I have discussed in many other videos, they had to kind of almost tiptoe through the tulips during the during the Colonial era and the Cold War for that matter, so in many ways Thailand has to be very aware of who is coming to the country and who possibly can put down roots and stay here. I can understand the argument that they really only want Thai Nationals to own land here. Again, I can see circumstances where I can understand the argument that "well under these specific circumstances maybe it is a good idea for this particular foreigner", but I do understand fundamentally where the policy thinking is at with respect to the restriction of freehold title to land in the Kingdom of Thailand.