Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing land ownership for wealthy foreigners. I got to thinking about this when reading an article from the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Thailand continues to hunt for the super-rich "bleisure" travelers. That is the combination of business and leisure, so "bleisure". I keep thinking, when I read this "bleisure", I keep thinking of that scene in Dodgeball where, just off topic, I kind of thought of the top of my head, the film Dodgeball where Ben Stiller is walking along, he has got his dodgeball team and he is introducing them, “Blade, Laser, Blazer” and I was thinking of the “bleisure, and I just thought it was funny; maybe that is just me. 

In any event, we are talking about land ownership in the context and the article again titled: Thailand continues to hunt for the super-rich "bleisure" traveler. First of all I would urge those who are watching this video, go check out this article, a lot of insight in there, good information. The point of this video and the reason I made it was because of this small excerpt: "Critics say that the Thai Government has many schemes on offer or in the pipeline to lure wealthy foreigners but none of them offer full residency or unrestricted ownership of freehold land. Both of these "maybes" are currently under consideration in Government Committees.” The article goes on to imply it might be a good idea or maybe the question should arise "Should wealthy foreign nationals be able to gain free whole land ownership in Thailand?" Going back into April 2021, we read an article which cited a Government Spokesperson who said “there is not going to be any freehold landownership”. We have also seen where condo ownership, a change in the quota system is presently not on the cards. So what exactly are we looking at out there? There are a lot of “maybes” but I think again if the recent news that folks with a certain kind of Elite Visa may be eligible for a Work Permit provided they invest a million dollars into Thailand is anything to go by. I think land ownership in Thailand you are going to have a high financial threshold if we even get there. I don't think it is a foregone conclusion. 

Now should Thailand allow this? I think it is a pretty tough call and I do understand the paradigm, the policy thinking on restriction of land ownership to foreign nationals. Thailand is not the biggest country in the world; it has got issues, it would cause the property market to become possibly warped where Thai nationals would be unable to invest in the property market in their own country because outside "hot money" would come in and force up the prices of certain types of land and things. It can cause real problems, I understand the concern. So should it happen? I think maybe more discussion is in order. It is probably going to be the context, the type of land. We have seen discussion about possibly “Mooban” ownership which is like ownership of a house inside of a subdivision here in Thailand. Possible but again a spokesman came out and roundly rejected that notion. So exactly what happens remains to be seen. What should happen, I think probably requires further discussion.