Buying land after crisis is over

[Chob]

I can't see that happening here...Thais know the value of their land very well and don't give it up outside of the family without a decent price...besides, people in the villages are very used to hunkering down and living cheaply for long stints at a time....

and the curve on this virus is flattening out pretty darned well here atm...only 33 reported new cases here announced today...so that boat may have already sailed

My thoughts exactly.
Its usually the older who own much of the land , and they are quite capable and even willing to hunker down with the basics , if they ever actually stopped living like a rural peasant to start with.
Theres no cultural cringe about being a farmer here - its a matter of pride for many young ladies to go home and help Mumma in the muddy paddies at harvest time still in Thailand.
National pride rejoices in the pastoral here , the noble 'gare' ( elderly ) stands proudly overlooking their abundantly green rice fields as the Anthem plays on many a TV ad.
They are more likely to be forced to sell their land thru some irresponsible son buying an oversized pick-up , than needing to eat .. they grow and barter for most of what they need. But they need land to do that ..
Of course , illness may be a factor.
But usually theyre willing to sit and wait for their price to come along.... or put a price on it that is so high nobody comes along.

Its also very common practise to buy out each others debts ( at least in the South).
So sister puts her deeds to 2 Rai with the bank , and borrows 200k , even though the land is worth 400k.
She goes out of work immediately and cant make a payment.

Mumma puts out word across the family , and aunty decides to buy the land by paying the loan off to the bank , plus any interest .
Aunty now owns the land.
But in my TLs family/area anyway , its pretty much accepted that aunty should be willing to sell that land back to sister at what it cost her within a year ... if sister can afford it of course.

Theres a few reasons for that.
First , its all family land and it all came from beloved ancestors which they've learnt a deep down veneration for - see the family shrine in each house.
Also Thai families just love being all together , all bunched in ...
Third , outsiders can be argumentative or problematic - bloods thicker than water. Family arguments get moderated , fights with new people often go on and on. Particularly over land boundaries.
And also , and very importantly , if sister has no land , she cant very well feed herself and her kids , so she becomes a burden on the group. Thais will always provide food for each other , its a system of mutual obligation , but that works best when EVERYONE is contributing. So best for all if she has her own land to work. The land has stayed in the family.

So like baccy says , it would have to be seriously bad times before Thais will sell their land cheap.
Still , consumerism has increasingly infected the young since we both arrived , and the one and only effective way we've seen to get farmers to part with their land is for the banks to confiscate it in lieu of bad debts.
And bad debts are certain to rise.
Thus , a deal of land COULD come on the market.

But whats really odd here is that the Banks will take years before they attempt to sell it , and fine houses will rot , and farms go thoroughly to pack
while it sits there with some silly price , or no price put on it at all !
I will never 'get' that.

Ive never heard a good reason why that happens.

 

[Chob]

This is exceptional value ... just when I was thinking , "I aint seen any bargains in Phuket yet..."

5 punters , less than 3 million baht ( $150k aud ) each.

Im in , 4 to go.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/440138782750005/

 

[Moo Uaon]

^ need to be in the group to view it.

 

[Nomad]

But whats really odd here is that the Banks will take years before they attempt to sell it , and fine houses will rot , and farms go thoroughly to pack
while it sits there with some silly price , or no price put on it at all !
I will never 'get' that.

Ive never heard a good reason why that happens.

The reason is that it only hits the banks profit & loss (including capital provisions with regulators) when the bad debt is realised. Doesn't mean they won't provision for bad debts and reduced interest receipts, but that is a less direct hit as the full value of the loan may still be recorded as an asset of the bank. (note, commenting generally as I don't know the regulations in Thailand specifically).

During the GFC, massive bad debts were "buried" by the banks by doing debt to equity swaps, with the equity being equal to the full value of the debt, even though that was unlikely to reflect its value. I believe the regulators were complicit in this because writing down the debt would have triggered a more extreme banking crisis. Thus, the eventual cost of these positions were drip fed into the profit & loss over many years as businesses were later sold.

 

[MarcTwoSix]

My thoughts exactly.
Its usually the older who own much of the land , and they are quite capable and even willing to hunker down with the basics , if they ever actually stopped living like a rural peasant to start with.
Theres no cultural cringe about being a farmer here - its a matter of pride for many young ladies to go home and help Mumma in the muddy paddies at harvest time still in Thailand.
National pride rejoices in the pastoral here , the noble 'gare' ( elderly ) stands proudly overlooking their abundantly green rice fields as the Anthem plays on many a TV ad.
They are more likely to be forced to sell their land thru some irresponsible son buying an oversized pick-up , than needing to eat .. they grow and barter for most of what they need. But they need land to do that ..
Of course , illness may be a factor.
But usually theyre willing to sit and wait for their price to come along.... or put a price on it that is so high nobody comes along.

Its also very common practise to buy out each others debts ( at least in the South).
So sister puts her deeds to 2 Rai with the bank , and borrows 200k , even though the land is worth 400k.
She goes out of work immediately and cant make a payment.

Mumma puts out word across the family , and aunty decides to buy the land by paying the loan off to the bank , plus any interest .
Aunty now owns the land.
But in my TLs family/area anyway , its pretty much accepted that aunty should be willing to sell that land back to sister at what it cost her within a year ... if sister can afford it of course.

Theres a few reasons for that.
First , its all family land and it all came from beloved ancestors which they've learnt a deep down veneration for - see the family shrine in each house.
Also Thai families just love being all together , all bunched in ...
Third , outsiders can be argumentative or problematic - bloods thicker than water. Family arguments get moderated , fights with new people often go on and on. Particularly over land boundaries.
And also , and very importantly , if sister has no land , she cant very well feed herself and her kids , so she becomes a burden on the group. Thais will always provide food for each other , its a system of mutual obligation , but that works best when EVERYONE is contributing. So best for all if she has her own land to work. The land has stayed in the family.

So like baccy says , it would have to be seriously bad times before Thais will sell their land cheap.
Still , consumerism has increasingly infected the young since we both arrived , and the one and only effective way we've seen to get farmers to part with their land is for the banks to confiscate it in lieu of bad debts.
And bad debts are certain to rise.
Thus , a deal of land COULD come on the market.

But whats really odd here is that the Banks will take years before they attempt to sell it , and fine houses will rot , and farms go thoroughly to pack
while it sits there with some silly price , or no price put on it at all !
I will never 'get' that.

Ive never heard a good reason why that happens.

We have seen plenty of deals in the past
But only on large plots of land but as low as a bit below 150k/rai

I'm actually now ok with buying a bigger plot but would like to get it closer to 100k/rai, which might be a pipe dream

10rai at 1mil would be ideal, but again, that may be just wishful thinking