Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing this notion of foreign land ownership here in Thailand. It has been discussed a lot. Quite honestly, I think the media has been rather remiss in talking about this the way that it has. Frankly I can kind of understand why BOI is talking about this far more cavalierly than I think they really should be. They have talked about "oh it is possible for foreigners to own land in Thailand because BOI has the ability to grant a concession for that", but if you look at the scenarios under which that can happen it is very, very limited and these criteria that people are bandying about, I don't know where they are coming up with the authorization for this so bear with me for a moment.

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from Thai PBS World, that is thaipbsworld.com, the article is titled: Select foreigners can own 0.16 hectares (that is 1 Rai) for residential use in Thailand from September. Quoting directly: "Effective from September, foreigners will be able to buy up to 0.16 hectares of land in Thailand for residential purposes if they meet certain requirements said Government Spokesman, Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana today (Friday)." Quoting further: "Thanakorn said that the Land Department is in the process of drafting guidelines and regulations pertaining to land ownership by foreigners, which are expected to be ready before September." Well I find that rather interesting because this is just a Government Spokesperson. We saw a Spokesperson a year ago, actually in Thai PBS World back in April of ‘21, quoted as saying this isn't going to happen. So it still remains up in the air and then meanwhile again, there are limited circumstances. It is possible for foreign nationals to own land in Thailand, it has just got to be signed off by the Ministry of Interior, specifically the Minister of Interior which that's not something that happens overly frequently. I am thinking this might be something similar to that where "yeah, it is possible for a foreign national to own but sort of the confluence of events that have to occur for that to happen, it's like tumblers falling into the lock in the second Matrix movie where it is like all this stuff had to occur for that to occur. I don't see this being a broadly used development; I don't see this development applying broadly to many foreigners here in Thailand. It will probably be a pretty low subset if anyone.

As I have said before, my opinion on it, I'm pretty ambivalent on this and kind of leaning negative. I don't really love the idea of ownership of land. I think Thailand frankly has had the right idea on this long term. Thailand, in truth, there is not a lot of real estate in Thailand; there is not a lot of land. It is kind of wedged, not wedged but it sits in a place, Thailand is not a huge country, it's not like the USA or Canada or something or Australia that just the land goes on and on. I know people from those countries, they kind of get miffed when they hear that Thailand or places in Asia say "hey, we're going to be restrictive with foreigners owning our land." Well they're not as big, I mean that is a major reason for it and the dynamic of agriculture and the dynamic of labour to land is kind of inverted here. It's more people work less land as opposed to less people working more land in many Western countries.

So again, not to get too deep into this you, I can see the argument for it, I can see the possible benefits, I don't really see a ton of people are going to end up enjoying this if it ever comes to fruition, and the big question is if it ever comes to fruition. I mean they have been talking about doing regulations and things on this for some time and it could be one of those, they talked about "Travel Bubbles" for nearly 2 years and we never saw one of those. So it will be interesting to see and we will certainly keep people updated on this channel as the situation evolves.