The Office of Ombudsman Thailand is set to propose a bill to crack down on the use of Thai nominees by foreigners to purchase real estate immediately after the 2014 budget consideration.
According to the Public Relations Department of the Royal Thai Government, Ombudsman Sriracha Charoenpanich expressed his concern over the rising trend of foreign businessmen using Thai nominees to buy land, saying that the problem is not only persisting but also intensifying, affecting local economy, as well as social and security development of the country.
Sriracha said more and more foreign people are using a loophole in Thai law to acquire land illegally because Thailand is geographically suitable for living in and attractive in terms of tourism. Besides, prices of land here are not exorbitantly high.
Last year he drew ridicule from many quarters by suggestingthat as much as 30 percent of land in Thailand was owned by foreigners.
The Ombudsman claimed that the practice of foreigners’ illegally holding land in Thailand has led to other problems such as tax evasion and money laundering. Another major concern is that in the future those foreigners might take control of tourism, residential and farming businesses.
He said that if the problem prolonged, the nation would likely face unemployment, as occupations meant for locals would fall into the hands of foreigners.
Thailand has, over the past 20 years, regularly touted similar “crackdowns”, although a time when other countries are moving towards relaxing foreign property ownership laws ahead of AEC 2015, any significant tightening could have detriments impacts to the Kingdom’s attractiveness in the eyes of foreign property buyers and investors.
Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru Group, wrote
this story. To contact him about this or other stories email andrew@allproperty.com.sg
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