A list has recently been released to the media regarding apartment ownership in Thailand and which countries owners are from.
The list stated that approximately 1.4 million foreigners owned an apartment in Thailand. More than half of that number of apartments were owned by a Chinese person.
Nearly 730,000 apartment buildings across Thailand are owned by Chinese citizens.
China tops the list with nearly 10 times more apartments owned by people from the country than any other country. Figures like these help explain Thailand’s China-centric tourism programs, often heavily focused on bringing in China’s new middle class and their money.
The second most common country for Thai condo ownership is Russia, with more than 76,000 homes, and about 5.4% of the total number of apartments is foreign-owned. France is third on the list, with around 57,500 apartments across the Kingdom, just over 4%, followed closely by the UK at 4% with just over 56,000 owned apartments.
Fifth on the list, with 41,767 private apartments in Thailand, is the United States. The rest of the top 10 list of foreign-owned apartments consists of all countries whose citizens have each bought about 30,000 houses in Thailand. Germany was sixth on the list, followed by Japan, then India and Taiwan. The top 10 is completed by Australia.
The list was released in response to a proposal by the Thai government to entice high-spending foreigners to invest their money in Thailand. The plan estimated that they could bring in a trillion baht in foreign spending by targeting 1 million travellers with money… LOTS OF MONEY!
One way they want to attract foreigners is with incentives and relaxed restrictions. These tourists get a 10-year visa and can work without a permit at lower tax rates, as well as own land and property. In return, they are expected to deposit money in Thailand with business or investment, and one of the options is real estate investment, such as buying an apartment.
This top 10 list gives some insight into who has traditionally bought condos in Thailand in the past, as tourism officials set their sites to attract new foreign investors.
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