Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Nominees. This is a topic that I think a lot of foreigners just, it's one of these things that I find it interesting that a lot of times - I have said this sort of to myself and to my family here and things in the past - foreigners oftentimes make a big deal out of the small things and just completely disregard the bigger things. Thai nominees is one of these things that foreigners just, you'll hear them say it. I've heard it many a time, oftentimes more than once a day depending on the day. If I'm like out on a weekend or something sitting around a bar somewhere, you'll hear people say, "you can just get a Thai to go ahead and own the shares for that, or you have a Thai do that in their name, but you get to do whatever you want with it." Thai nominees are illegal; it’s in the Foreign Business Act; it's explicit. 

That being said, quoting directly, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the title: Foreigners and Thai law: the changing Pattaya scenario. Quoting directly: "Thanks to the massive building programs in Pattaya over the same period, there's a lot more property for sale. Since foreigners can own condominium units but not land, they often establish a company to buy a house. One of the problems here is the use of Thai nominees.." Well yeah, it's a big problem because it's explicitly illegal. It even has criminal penalties attached to it. Quoting further: "..who have no connection with the foreign buyer who will own at least 51 percent of the shares. When the foreigner dies or wishes to sell the property, the cooperation of the nominees is required by law and they are certain to demand their percentage share." Well not their percent share, they own the equity in the enterprise, you know. Or they are a nominee which they are a criminal. Quoting further: "Our general advice of setting up a company to buy property is to "keep it in the family" and avoid including strangers." Yes now I tend to agree with that. I have discussed that. There are discreet, it is few and far between, where you may have a married couple, they may want to run a shop house or some kind of thing like that where yeah, a married couple in a company structure, one of the parties is Thai, that may work, but again that's a very low number. You should not look at the exceptions in order to come up with a rule.

At the end of the day, foreign ownership of land is illegal in Thailand; nominees are explicitly illegal in Thailand. Utilizing one to do the other is basically like creating a feedback loop of illegality. It is not a great idea here in the Kingdom of Thailand.