They can't take it away with them

He cries, “If illegal buying is not prevented, will there be any land left for our children?”

Khun Siracha, Thaksin Shinawatra has been able to buy as much land as he wanted in countries around the world, including Dubai (where liveable land is scarce), the UK and exceedingly crowded China. What do they know about letting non-citizens buy their land that we do not?

Contrast our approach with that of the US: “A new wave of buyers from China is snapping up luxury properties across the US, injecting billions of dollars into the country’s residential-real-estate market. The industry is scrambling to court the new buyers.” (Wall Street Journal, June 22)

Laws should be rigorously and impartially enforced, by all means, but before we even have a law, much less enforce it, we should have an impartial study on the matter to see the costs and benefits to the nation as a whole.

Allowing foreigners to buy as much land as they want – much like Thaksin being able to buy as much of Dubai as he wants – will drive land prices up. Instead of a farmer having to sell all his land to give his kids a good education, he might need to sell only half. Who are you, sir, to deny him that opportunity? Khun Siracha, is such a father not protecting his children’s best interests?

I suggest that we have, say, the Thailand Development and Research Institute study the matter and make recommendations. Then instead of a shotgun (a blanket ban), we should use a sniper’s rifle to prevent the dangers that the study reveals, such as tax breaks for the first house, with land, for low-income households. That way our farmers benefit from higher incomes and the next generation is able to buy homes at subsidised prices – a win-win proposition.

Burin Kantabutra

Bangkok