Thailand plans to launch a buying property for residence visa program, the threshold is as low as 2.56M HK dollars

In the past year, the emigration of Hong Kong people has become a hot topic of discussion, with many people concentrated in traditional countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and so on. As the global economy has been hit hard by the Covid-19 and Thailand’s real estate has been hit as well. The Thai government will consider launching a five-year residence visa program for buying property, hoping to attract foreign investors to settle in Thailand.

The Nikkei Asian Review reported that in order to revitalize the real estate market, the Thai government turned to foreign funds. However, Thai law stipulates that foreigners are not allowed to buy Thai land, but can buy apartments or condominium. Therefore, they propose relevant preferential plans for buying houses. . As long as foreign buyers purchase one unit or more of residences with a total value of more than 10 million baht (approximately 2.56 million Hong Kong dollars), they can obtain a five-year residence visa worth 500,000 baht (approximately 130,000 Hong Kong dollars) for free or at a reduced fee.

Somchai Soongswang, chairman of the "Thailand Privilege Card" company responsible for the visa work of the Thai government, said that the name of this visa is "Elite Flexible One" and it can also enjoy membership rights, including 5 years of visa validity, Airport VIP treatment, priority entry and customs clearance, 24 round-trip airport luxury car transfers a year, etc. 

Somchai Soongswang did not disclose relevant details. He only stated that the plan will be implemented in the first quarter of 2021 and is expected to last for 2 years. However, the units purchased must be available for occupancy, and the pre-sales under construction are not eligible. For those real estate developers are in financial difficulties, and some companies are already heavily in debt, this new plan will help them no longer lay off employees."

Thai real estate developers have experienced several waves of layoffs affected by the epidemic. Pornnarit Chuanchaisitit, Chairman of the Thai Real Estate Association, said that if the government does not take measures to deal with the impact of the epidemic, more than 2,000 people may be laid off in the fourth quarter of this year. 

In recent years, Thailand has attracted overseas buyers from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the United States, Singapore and other overseas buyers. The capital Bangkok and tourist attractions Pattaya and Phuket are the first choices of these buyers. According to the survey, from 2010 to 2018, Bangkok had an average of 105,000 apartment units for sale each year, but only 96,000 units were sold a year, which was obviously oversupply. Before the epidemic, because of the Sino-US trade war and the appreciation of the Thai baht , Chinese funds in Thailand’s real estate market have been shrinking since 2019.

Thailand has launched the "Thai Elite Visa" residence visa program in 2003. The purpose is to attract high-income foreigners to stay in Thailand. This is the first time that a visa is combined with real estate.