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Posted on 13 Apr 2025
25544
#Old wine in a new bottle with Thai real estate
.
About 5-6 years ago,
the Chinese flocked into Thailand,
whether for food, tourism,
or even business.
.
Businesses that came in during that time
included both legal and illegal ones in Thailand.
Must emphasize: illegal “only in Thailand.”
A clear example is casino businesses.
.
Casinos are legal in China.
Chinese investors who saw opportunities came to Thailand
and wanted to open casinos here,
but little did they know,
this type of business
is still illegal in Thailand.
.
And many “grey” businesses
hit major roadblocks
that blocked these investors.
.
Yet, we still see some operating secretly.
These people are smart —
they know who to approach,
who to talk to,
to keep their businesses running.
.
The real estate market was no less bustling.
Chinese people
cannot own property in China,
everything is under lease.
.
When they came to Thailand,
which allowed foreigners
to own freehold titles,
with their name behind the title deed,
.
And property prices in China
are at least 5 times higher than ours.
Thai property laws and policies
perfectly solved this “pain point” for the Chinese.
.
No surprise that Chinese people poured into buying Thai property.
.
In Thailand,
if you buy a house worth 20 million baht, you’re considered very rich.
But for the Chinese,
a 40 million baht house is nothing.
Only at 80–100 million baht and up,
would they consider someone truly wealthy.
.
Luxury to high-end real estate
was bustling,
supported by Chinese purchasing power.
.
But eventually,
the Chinese government issued policies
limiting money transfer abroad.
Chinese can only transfer
50,000 USD per year,
or around 2 million baht.
.
Thai property demand from Chinese buyers
then slowed down until today.
.
When the big Chinese wave subsided,
a new wave from Myanmar arrived.
.
Starting from 2021,
there was a significant increase
in demand from Myanmar buyers
looking to purchase condos in Bangkok.
.
The purchasing power from Myanmar
came from domestic problems,
including political and economic issues.
.
Myanmar’s currency
depreciated heavily.
.
As a result, Myanmar businessmen and tycoons
shifted to invest in Thai assets,
especially Bangkok condos,
massively.
.
In many buildings,
the full FQ (foreign quota)
was thanks to Myanmar buyers,
who became the main buyers in many projects.
.
Many developers
even went to hold roadshows in Myanmar,
and received overwhelmingly good feedback.
.
In Q1 alone,
purchasing power from Myanmar
for Thai condos
grew 300%
compared to the previous year.
.
They became the second largest
foreign condo owners in Bangkok,
only after China.
.
Everything seemed to go well,
but recently,
problems started to arise.
.
Myanmar’s military government
began cracking down
on condo buying and selling activities
in Myanmar.
.
It involved arrests
at Myanmar’s Property Expo.
.
Arresting sellers was already serious,
but in this case, they arrested buyers too.
.
The charges stated by the Myanmar military government
were for illegally
transferring money out of the country.
#Illegally
.
Or what Myanmar people call
the “hundi” system.
(If it were China back then, it was called “Poy Kuan”)
.
This system bypasses Myanmar’s central banks,
using cash handed to intermediaries,
or to real estate agents,
to move money abroad.
.
What will happen next
is that selling property to Myanmar buyers
will definitely become more difficult.
.
Because it must now pass strict scrutiny
by the Myanmar government,
regarding the origin of funds
used for purchase.
.
Their government
does not want money
flowing out of the country anyway.
.
The immediate impact on our country
is a shrinking purchasing power.
.
And for condos already bought by Myanmar buyers,
whether they can be transferred or not,
remains to be seen.
.
If the situation continues like this,
Thailand’s real estate market
will definitely be severely affected.
.
As mentioned earlier,
many projects’ foreign quotas (FQ)
are fully booked
mainly thanks to Myanmar’s buying power.
.
Chinese purchasing power
has already shrunk for years.
Now we get hit by Myanmar too.
.
Does this situation sound familiar?
It’s like a copy-paste,
just with a different nationality.
.
It is reported recently that
some transactions are no longer done in cash or currency.
If they don’t use normal money transfer channels,
they exchange property
using gold instead.
.
In the end,
are Thais selling the country?
Selling real estate, houses,
and the homeland
to foreigners?
.
In short:
please study Thailand’s laws
on property ownership carefully.
.
There are strict regulations
controlling foreign ownership rights.
.
They don’t have full freedom
like locals.
.
Even if they set up nominee structures,
it’s not as easy nowadays.
.
Thai banks and the Land Department
strictly comply with policies
to verify the source of foreign funds.
.
There were already case studies from China,
and the government doesn’t want history to repeat itself.
So there are also preventive measures
against illegal inflows from Myanmar.
.
We have to see whether,
after this Myanmar wave,
there will be another country
to help support our property market.
.
Because Thai buyers themselves
might not be able to sustain it.
Household debt is already enormous.
.
.
Parinwatch Knapakvorn (X)
CEO of Matching Property Co., Ltd.
AKA: The "Agent Few-Fan" of Huai Khwang
.
Accepting sales/listings/rent/mortgage/sell with right of redemption
for all types of real estate
“only in Bangkok”
.
Contact/consult
Call: 095-645-9656
Line OA: @matchingproperty
.
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