The Thai Property Market Thrown Into A State Of Confusion....

The changes here and a discussion board. Thai law does not allow foreigners to own a majority of any land. Foreigners are generally limited to 49% but people have been getting around the law by forming corporations whose directors are Thai but the foreigner effectives owns control of the property. Now, laws are being enforced with land transactions, so that the corporation has to prove where the money comes in order to be a legitimate transaction. Obviously, the cash comes from the foreigner and not the Thai partners in most cases.

There are several problems in Thailand. First is that property prices are rising for the nicest areas out of the reach of all but the wealthiest Thais. Second, there is a substantial number of properties that have already been purchased by foreigners and it will be nearly impossible to sell them now. Third, there is a substantial amount of property being developed or purchased with the intent of development and is no longer possible with the rules since most properties are being developed with the intent of marketing to foreigners. The fourth problem is that these developments employ a substantial number of workers to build and operate and these people will probably be out of work.

So, either, Thailand actually wants to cool their property market and will uphold the laws restricting foreign ownership, or this may be a roundabout way to bring the issue up for discussion with the focus being on eliminating these laws as they find that the recent enforcement is hurting their economy.