Property sector calls on government to change visa regulations to stimulate economy

[webfact]

Property sector calls on government to change visa regulations to stimulate economy

 

Going after foreigners to stimulate the property market

Image: Thansettakij

 

Thansettakij became the latest media to publish calls from the property sector to stimulate the economy by offering deals on visas and Elite Card holders for those foreigners investing in real estate. 

 

The media said that calls to change the 49% total ownership of condo blocks law and also to allow foreigners to buy houses with land had fallen on deaf ears.

 

Now they were pressing the government to offer long stay privileges for those who invest 5 million baht in property so that they could get visas of one year duration renewable five times. 

 

Those who invested 10 million baht would be able to stay twice as long, according to the plans. 

 

The sector is desperate to prop up a flagging real estate market with more foreign investment and feels the government needs to relax rules and make it easier for foreigners to invest and live in Thailand. 

 

Thansettakij indicated that the government were mulling changes but so far there is nothing concrete, only proposals.

 

Source: Thansettakij

 

 

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[NCC1701A]

the fastest way to fix the Thai real estate market especially the condo market is to give a five year visa to anyone who buys a condo over one million baht. BUT NOOOOOOOO.

[ExpatOilWorker]

21 minutes ago, webfact said:

invest 5 million baht in property so that they could get visas of one year duration renewable five times. 

After 5 years, then what?

 

 

[onebir]

27 minutes ago, webfact said:

Thansettakij became the latest media to publish calls from the property sector to stimulate the economy by offering deals on visas and Elite Card holders for those foreigners investing in real estate. 

I've always wanted my very own Elite Card holder

[Grumpy John]

Will take much more than that to entice people to buy now....well Westerners.  The government must think because they live in a bubble the world outside Thailand doesn't know whats going on in Thailand.   Soon to be retired William and Sarah from Buckinghamshire have done their due diligence and decided Malaysia would be a nice place for a holiday home.  Vietnam and Myanmar are on their short list but after several visits to Malaysia they are pretty much sold.

[Grumpy John]

5 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

After 5 years, then what?

 

 

Man you think like a Thai!  Scary! ????

[holy cow cm]

Let's just wait and see how much of the Condo sector those Chinese proxies just allowed in and then the next ones to come will buy up. I just wish that the USA would not allow any  retired Thais back into the USA and not allow them to buy property as well. TFT. Tit For Tat.

[Nobbie49]

A 1 million condo will get you a 20 m2 corrugated iron shack.  And you demand a 5 year visa based on that?  Delusional at best.

[Pravda]

Why is the same condo in Thai name 5 million and foreign name 7 million? 

 

I thought there is no dual pricing on condos. This is directly from developer. 

[Fex Bluse]

Does ANYONE STILL believe foreign tourism and related spending is merely 9% of GDP? ANYONE??!! 

 

LOL

[Fex Bluse]

15 minutes ago, holy cow cm said:

Let's just wait and see how much of the Condo sector those Chinese proxies just allowed in and then the next ones to come will buy up. I just wish that the USA would not allow any  retired Thais back into the USA and not allow them to buy property as well. TFT. Tit For Tat.

This is effectively a cry from the Thais to the Chinese who are laundering their money outside of China. As the Chinese economy continues to suffer, we will see thousands, maybe tens of thousands of Chinese buying garbage Thai property. 

[Mr Meeseeks]

I think the visa rules are more than fair as they are at the moment, however condo ownership should allow the owner to be eligible for a temporary Non-Immigrant visa upon production of authentic ownership papers. This of course can be extended and renewed annually based on legitimate and eligible circumstance; retirement, marriage etc.

 

Owning a condo, regardless of cost should not be entitlement to stay in Thailand perennially.

 

I would hate to see mass immigration without integration in Thailand as we have seen in the West.

 

It would turn out to be a backdoor for mass Chinese immigration and money laundering activities.

 

 

[bkk6060]

The bargirls and scam girls who have plans to be future land barons won't be happy.

[holy cow cm]

4 minutes ago, Fex Bluse said:

This is effectively a cry from the Thais to the Chinese who are laundering their money outside of China. As the Chinese economy continues to suffer, we will see thousands, maybe tens of thousands of Chinese buying garbage Thai property. 

It also effectively saturates the country with Chinese which is one direct aim of the Commie Chinese government in order to take over everywhere..

[donnacha]

The cross current that may undermine this attempt to leverage the Elite visa as bait for property investment is that, once vaccines become available, if the government wants the tourism industry to recover over the next decade, they will have make it a lot easier for people on regular tourist visas.

I would guess that they will increase the visa waiver period to six months and there will be no rules against or discouragement of repeat entries. For at least the next five years, as they compete with equally anxious neighbors such as Vietnam, the Thai government are going to want all the tourists they can get, for as long as they can get them. No more visas or expensive quarantine. The requirements will boil down to proving that you have received a vaccine.

Against that background, property developers waving around Elite visas will be far less enticing.

 

[RotBenz8888]

Thai version:

Am I living in a box? Am I living in a Bangkok box? 

[spidermike007]

No question the property market is in bad shape. And few in a position of authority are facing the music. Courageous of BAM chairman Bunyong Visatemongkolchai to state the truth. The pain will be felt for many years to come. I anticipate condo prices to drop by half. A friend of mine recently moved to Pattaya. He looked at condos in Jomtien. He walked into one of the nicest towers, looked at a 36th floor unit with panoramic views, and when he was quoted 26,000 a month, he offered 10,000. Though the agent was either shocked, or pretended to be shocked, they settled on 13,000. He said the agent more or less admitted the building was nearly empty, and they could not rent or sell anything, at this time. 
 
Demand is way down. The Chinese market is nearly gone, Russians and others are very hesitant to commit. And the long term tourists are gone too. So, who does that leave? Wealthy Thais, many of whom see the market collapsing, and would rather wait and see how all of this shakes out, and ex-pats with cash, many of whom are smart enough to be shopping for bargains right now. 

 

Anyone interested in buying a condo right now, would be better off waiting awhile. Timing is on your side. Time is now your ally. The economy is going remain devastated here, for a very long time to come. And the longer this goes on, the more people are going to be affected by it, and the more desperate some will become. For the wealthy it barely matters. But, there are many middle class people who have money invested, and there are alot of Chinese and Russians who bought, and cannot even visit Thailand. Some of them will want to unload their properties. Wait. The condo market is severely overbuilt. And demand is low, for all but the top buildings, in the best locations. For condos and houses in the suburbs, and the smaller cities, the market is very soft. 

[holy cow cm]

31 minutes ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

I think the visa rules are more than fair as they are at the moment

I don't and they have never been accommodating. Married, raising / raised a Thai family, sunk millions upon millions of baht into schools, vehicles, house, and it still get's you didley squat and no easy PR. If you think that is fair then you are so excuse me for saying, delusional. Even all retiree here treated less appropriate after years of sinking money into this give me give me give me and no return the love country. In the USA if most of the Thai have gotten about 5 years there, they would already have PR and on their way to an easy citizenship. They have shown to be more condescending than anything else.

[ChouDoufu]

32 minutes ago, Fex Bluse said:

This is effectively a cry from the Thais to the Chinese who are laundering their money outside of China. As the Chinese economy continues to suffer, we will see thousands, maybe tens of thousands of Chinese buying garbage Thai property. 

 

not necessarily laundering.  even with stricter currency controls, chinese are allowed to transfer US$50K annually with minimal paperwork.  1.5 million baht should buy a decent condo in pattaya, or make a nice down payment on a villa.

 

plenty of northern retirees with cash for 2nd (or 3rd or 4th!) apartments who would prefer not to pay US$15K/square meter in beijing center, or $US7.5K/meter in the suburbs.  wow!  for the cost of just 1 square meter in beijing, you can get an entire thai style 30-meter efficiency condo in an older building in the bangkok suburbs!  (yes, i know, apples vs. rutabagas)

 

i suppose the new STV is designed with just this group of "tourists" in mind.

[CraigInBangkok]

Maybe they should have thought about all this, before discarding types of people/nationalities they wanted here when they thought smoething better had come along. Not many nations left to attract now

Edited October 26, 2020 by CraigInBangkok

[Fex Bluse]

46 minutes ago, ChouDoufu said:

 

not necessarily laundering.  even with stricter currency controls, chinese are allowed to transfer US$50K annually with minimal paperwork.  1.5 million baht should buy a decent condo in pattaya, or make a nice down payment on a villa.

 

plenty of northern retirees with cash for 2nd (or 3rd or 4th!) apartments who would prefer not to pay US$15K/square meter in beijing center, or $US7.5K/meter in the suburbs.  wow!  for the cost of just 1 square meter in beijing, you can get an entire thai style 30-meter efficiency condo in an older building in the bangkok suburbs!  (yes, i know, apples vs. rutabagas)

 

i suppose the new STV is designed with just this group of "tourists" in mind.

I can agree with you that it's not necessarily laundering... Though it's extremely common as they seem to be predisposed to law breaking. 

 

Well, we can only pray that we don't have a situation where millions of PRC Chinese are retiring in Thailand. That would be a nightmarish disaster and run almost every other nationality out of Thailand. Nobody wants to live with them, I suspect. 

[UB40]

2 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

After 5 years, then what?

Try a guess ... 555

[UB40]

5 minutes ago, Fex Bluse said:

Well, we can only pray that we don't have a situation where millions of PRC Chinese are retiring in Thailand. That would be a nightmarish disaster and run almost every other nationality out of Thailand. Nobody wants to live with them, I suspect. 

That's it, what will happen. Sad

[billd766]

58 minutes ago, CraigInBangkok said:

Maybe they should have thought about all this, before discarding types of people/nationalities they wanted here when they thought smoething better had come along. Not many nations left to attract now

But that would mean forward planning and giving up a portion of face.

 

2 reasons why it will probably never happen.

[Mr Meeseeks]

1 hour ago, holy cow cm said:

I don't and they have never been accommodating. Married, raising / raised a Thai family, sunk millions upon millions of baht into schools, vehicles, house, and it still get's you didley squat and no easy PR. If you think that is fair then you are so excuse me for saying, delusional. Even all retiree here treated less appropriate after years of sinking money into this give me give me give me and no return the love country. In the USA if most of the Thai have gotten about 5 years there, they would already have PR and on their way to an easy citizenship. They have shown to be more condescending than anything else.

The US does not have sex-tourists en-masse marrying ladies of ill-repute though. Which is what the case is, or at least was, in Thailand and is one of the main reasons for the lack of permanent resident options for married or 'retired' Western men.

 

Also, marrying a poorly educated and financially struggling woman would be an easy route to circumvent immigration rules and you would end up with even more disparate, sham marriages between Western men and desperate Thai women.

 

It is unfortunate there's no route to PR if you are married but then again there's no problem staying here if you are.

 

As to sinking money into Thailand, caveat emptor. You knew the rules before you started playing the game. 

[holy cow cm]

1 hour ago, ChouDoufu said:

 

not necessarily laundering.  even with stricter currency controls, chinese are allowed to transfer US$50K annually with minimal paperwork.  1.5 million baht should buy a decent condo in pattaya, or make a nice down payment on a villa.

 

plenty of northern retirees with cash for 2nd (or 3rd or 4th!) apartments who would prefer not to pay US$15K/square meter in beijing center, or $US7.5K/meter in the suburbs.  wow!  for the cost of just 1 square meter in beijing, you can get an entire thai style 30-meter efficiency condo in an older building in the bangkok suburbs!  (yes, i know, apples vs. rutabagas)

 

i suppose the new STV is designed with just this group of "tourists" in mind.

 

That is the last thing everyone Thai's and other foreigners included as not needing a zillion overly boisterous squawking rude Chinese buying up condos and staying here having more than the majority of all Thailand's visitors being their own country people. Gross! The elite and regime are quite sheltered from their presence  a nd honestly as it is very apparent do not care one iota what the peons below their wealth think.

[Grumpy John]

1 hour ago, CraigInBangkok said:

Maybe they should have thought about all this, before discarding types of people/nationalities they wanted here when they thought smoething better had come along. Not many nations left to attract now

"Not many nations left to attract now"  You maybe proved wrong.  I think the Eskimo people are an as yet untapped source. ????

[CraigInBangkok]

6 minutes ago, Grumpy John said:

"Not many nations left to attract now"  You maybe proved wrong.  I think the Eskimo people are an as yet untapped source. ????

can't see the igloo doing so well here, although they may be able to sell ice by the truck load ????????

Edited October 26, 2020 by CraigInBangkok

[AlfHuy]

Soon in "the gazette":

 

People of the following criteria:

White

long nose

big belly

not always nicely dressed

favoured place/bar

often in company of a much younger female or something similar

Also know under the name: farang, falang, farlang, hansum, werjuflom.

 

We are considering the above species to become full members of the Thai society and will grant a 200 year visa.

 

Conditions:

Buy a condo of minimum 69,000.000 Baht

Put 125,000.000 baht in a local bank and give power of attorney to the government.

Buy a 257,000.000 baht farm house in the name of a Thai lady and wave all future regress.

Buy each family member a new Toyota Rocco

Buy a local health insurance which covers you for 500 baht outpatient and 1700 baht inpatient for the bargain price of 247,000 baht a year.

 

If you fulfil all of those requirements, please get in touch.

 

Hurry up, people are queuing to sign up for this once in a lifetime opportunity.

 

Signed, 

Khun Pong

[holy cow cm]

11 minutes ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

The US does not have sex-tourists en-masse marrying ladies of ill-repute though. Which is what the case is, or at least was, in Thailand and is one of the main reasons for the lack of permanent resident options for married or 'retired' Western men.

 

Also, marrying a poorly educated and financially struggling woman would be an easy route to circumvent immigration rules and you would end up with even more disparate, sham marriages between Western men and desperate Thai women.

 

It is unfortunate there's no route to PR if you are married but then again there's no problem staying here if you are.

 

As to sinking money into Thailand, caveat emptor. You knew the rules before you started playing the game. 

Err, if you have been with a gal married for over 5 years and can prove as have stayed with her then what is the problem? Don't think these IO's are people who just fell off the cookie truck and can't tell body chemistry. Even now days they have better checks and balances on the marriages and my current wife is not one of those gals you seem to look down upon. And what does that have to do with the price of tea in Japan even if some guy fell in love with a gal who was serving beer or giving companionship? We still cannot outright own things here for the most part. For me no biggie as I have children to take over on all invested assets as well as my wife.

 

Ill-repute? Sounds like what the masses of Thai think about the elite and powers that be. The stigma of bar girl and foreigner is fading as the dating websites are producing more different types of couples now. I have been here a long long time, and back in the day one might have been able to grease a palm or two and easily got the PR. The fact is a foreign woman married to a Thai guy has all green lights, where we as gentlemen do not as it is a double racist standard. If these elites and regime were or are ever banished from power  then this might just be a better society for us who have made a life here. I do think the USA and all other countries should do a Tit for Tat and see how their people like it.