Don't underestimate greed anywhere

Burin Kantabutra argues in favour of foreigners buying land, but mistakenly cites America as an example of the soundness of his logic. Burin, why would you want to use as an example a country whose real-estate market is in disarray?

Twenty-five years ago my sister bought her home around 50 kilometres from Los Angeles for $280,000. It climbed in value to $850,000 just prior to the property bubble popping. Now the industry is saying homes have depreciated to the point where people can afford them again. In reality, the value of her home has dropped significantly, to around $500,000. But who would want to buy a modest track home that far from Los Angeles for a half a million dollars? Further, who could afford it or qualify for a loan?

This is what occurs when any given country has an open realty market with few controls.

The wealthy of Thailand have been buying up prime lots for decades in anticipation of a change in the laws because Thailand is one of the few countries left (at least among countries where you would want to live) that has reasonably priced land and homes.

Burin, look at the market in Bangkok, Phuket and a few other resorts and tell me that the inflated prices were not caused by wealthy Thais speculating. Why would you want to cause that to happen across Thailand?

Actually it is fairly obvious why you would want that to happen, as well as it was obvious why Thaksin’s wife was buying up more land in Bangkok and why the wealthy continue buying land in all of the resorts. It’s called greed, with little consideration for what happens to those whose only possession in life is their ancestral home.

John Arnone

Bangkok