Should you be buying Property in Thailand ?

[colin howard]

hi john , a great down to earth common sense post ,your fourth in row i think , keep em coming , colin .

[robin]

AJ,
Not in your life time.
Rich people keep poor people poor by deflecting the blame for the poverty to a perceived influence. In Thailand’s case it is foreigners.
The best example I can think of is the "foreign" superstores running the mom and pop stores out of business farce.
Where I live the dominate retailer spent considerable money and exerted a great deal of power to keep a "foreign superstore of his domain. Mom and pops buy from him, he has exorbitant prices, fickle stocking practices and an utter and complete monopoly.
The superstore would not only force his prices in line but would increase the profit of mom and pop stores by reducing their overhead.
The only issue he employed was keep the "foreign" owned store out.

[ChaoKoh]

resident , you've come to the right conclusion. But most of the money laundering of the world come to Thailand to exploit the alleged corruption to its interests so it can wash the dirty money away from the law.
I wish they find it difficult for them, Thailand isn't a washing machine and not enough corrupt to let them pass unnoticed.
Let us enjoy Thailand instead of polluting it.

[Vittorio]

Chaokoh , how right you are. They come here with loads of illegal monies any want to twist the laws and promote corruption in order to unload the dirty money on land purchase and fraud businesses.
I repeat you saying "enjoy the magic of Thailand instead of polluting its beauty".
Thailand has a false but bad image in the West regarding transparency and law dominance, thanks to those who were disappointed to break the laws and finance corruption. They're burning with anger and grudge on Thai officials because they didin't let them pass with their dirty banknotes.

[Ian]

There is n't any problem about Thais coming to Oz.
They're generally very good citizens who contribute a lot to the country.
Oz is a much better country - in so many ways - for having them here.
The problem is : Thailand does n't recognise that many farang are the same in Thailand - especially those married to Thais, long-time.
The worst thing about Thailand's antiquated anti-foreigner laws - is that they keep Thais poor.

[robin]

ChaoKoh, Vittorio,
Why would anyone bring money to Thailand to "wash" it?
It costs too much, the people of whom you speak would probably go to a more forgiving country, why pay more and get less?
Your posts have no basis in fact.

[SARDINES]

hi Robin,

Whether there really is money coming in to be laundered or not, I don't know and can not add anything to that.

However, I disagree with you on your statement:... "It costs too much, the people of whom you speak would probably go to a more forgiving country, why pay more and get less?"

The last 2 years would have been excellent timing for and I could think of several possibilities..

a. bring into the stock market. several months later (and passing several hands), bring back out squeaky clean.

b. open up small trading business and buy & sell to your company at inflated prices

c. open entertainment club. You might have tons of customers or no customers... it doesn't matter because books will show always having a "busy night".

Lastly, with the strong Baht from 38 / US$ a year ago to 33.80 / US$ now, you also make a nice profit of over 4 baht (over 10%) right there.

Please don't misunderstand. I am not making any recommendations for anyone out there to follow such practices but just illustrating possibilities for the criminals with a lot of money might be doing here and/or elsewhere.

Russian, Japanese & Chinese mafias are pretty much everywhere nowadays.

rgds / sardines

[Ian]

Yes - a watcher is correct : Thailand's condo laws are better than those regarding the anti-foreigner laws regarding land, house, and small business.
The intellligent thing about these condo laws is that they recognise : FOREIGNERS WANT SECURITY OF INVESTMENT - NOT TO TAKE LAND AWAY FROM THE THAIS.
If a Thai developer wanted to knock down an entire condo he would have to
get agreement from most Thais - or a minority of Thais with a majority of foreigners.
Either way Thai people benefit - because the price of THEIR land is raised. Remember on this point that the problem in Isaarn is that the price of land is at an impoverishing low level - in no small part because there is nothing like the relative investor security of Thailand's condo laws.

[robin]

Sardines,
Your theory would require a currency that was on a par with the baht to start with and then would require a way to circumvent The Bank of Thailand or customs in bringing it into the country. Thai banks have reporting regulations and unless you are on the current "A" list you will chance getting caught.

Two of the 3 schemes would require being a Thai, or at least having a work permit and appropriate visa and the stock market is a gamble.
Expense has many forms.

[SARDINES]

Robin,

As you pointed out, there are a lot of laws and check & balances. Unfortunately, this makes it tough for the "good guys" foreigners wanted to invest but since there are so many "back doors" and unofficial ways in our corrupt system, it's peanuts for the criminals or "bad guys" to easily work around.

I won't go into details or I might have to shoot you :)

rgds / sardines