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ResourcesThailand Real Estate & Property LawThailand Condominium LawWill the 51-49 Percent Rule for Thai Condos Ever Change?

Will the 51-49 Percent Rule for Thai Condos Ever Change?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing condos here in Thailand and we're discussing the so-called 51-49 rule. What are we talking about here? Well let's be clear foreigners in Thailand are not allowed to real estate per Thai Law, but they are able to own condominiums in freehold pursuant to the Thai Condominium Act so long as it meets the requirements. A foreign national can have freehold title sometimes called Fee Simple Absolute in the Common Law System often times in the United States basically Fee Simple Title, freehold title, you own it out right. It is possible for a foreigner to own condo in Thailand in freehold but you need to meet certain requirements. One of the requirements is that the overall composition of the condo ownership within a given condo community must be 51% Thai, 49% foreign. People get into the big "does that mean square footage? Does that mean units?" Generally speaking it means units. If there's a hundred units in a given condo and 51 of them, the rule of thumb is 51 of them need to be Thai, 49 of them can be foreign owned and due diligence oftentimes is required in order to ascertain the composition of a given condominium complex. Long story short, yes it is possible for a foreigner to own such a piece of real estate and they can gain freehold title to that. 

Now the question is "Will this ever change?" There has been a lot of talk about this recently especially in the context of the so-called Long-Term Residence Visas here in Thailand. Many people asking, they have asked me as well, "do I think that this will ever change?" Long story short, very unlikely. It could. What I think is more likely to happen is if there was a change and this was talking about, about a year ago where they started saying "yeah we may allow more foreign ownership of condos but the voting rights will need to be maintained, the sort of the voting rights within the Juristic Person which governs the up keep and maintenance of the condo premises, that will need to maintain a 51-49 Thai to Foreign sort of discrepancy, disparity with respect to voting rights. That never came to fruition. Ultimately that seems to have been shelved. Now it remains to be seen, that could change in the future. My personal opinion is unlikely. I think we will probably continue to be dealing with the 51-49 ratio into the relatively foreseeable future.