Myanmar’s junta is attempting to crack down on the sale and purchase of Thai condominiums inside Myanmar following reports that the Thai property market is rising on a Myanmar-fueled buying spree.
On Monday, junta officials arrested four people, and are pursuing a fifth, for illegal sales and purchases of Thai condos in Myanmar.
The transactions are linked to Thai property expos held in Yangon.
The five Myanmar nationals are also accused of creating instability in the Myanmar currency market through their Thai property deals.
U Aung Kyaw Tun, director of realtor Minn Thu Co., and the company’s general manager, U Min Thu Kyaw, held two expos for Thai condos at the Sedona Hotel in Yangon “without the permission of relevant authorities,” the regime announced on the Monday evening news.
The junta said the pair had transferred payments for the condos from buyers in Myanmar to Thailand through illegal channels like the hundi cross-border transaction system. U Aung Kyaw Tun has been arrested while U Min Thu Kyaw is evading arrest, the junta said.
Three Myanmar nationals were also arrested for buying Thai condos from Min Thu Co. They are also accused of opening Thai accounts “without permission from the Central Bank of Myanmar” and wiring payments for condos through the accounts.
The regime’s crackdown on purchases of Thai condos by buyers in Myanmar is part of the junta’s increasingly desperate attempt to prevent currency from flowing out of the country to prevent financial collapse. It also follows the kyat’s fall to an all-time low against the US dollar and the surge in the price of gold to its highest peak ever in Myanmar last week. The kyat hit a record low of 5,020 to the greenback on Thursday, while the price of 24-karat gold hit a new peak of 5.8 million kyats per tical (16.33 grams).
Although both crises are considered obvious consequences of the regime’s economic and financial mismanagement, the junta is blaming speculators for the disaster and has arrested gold traders.
Monday’s arrests of Myanmar citizens involved in the Thai property market follow a rise in purchases of Thai condos by Myanmar nationals. During the first quarter of this year, Myanmar nationals comprised the second-largest segment by nationality of foreign buyers in Thailand’s condo market, according to Thailand’s Real Estate Information Center.
The center said Myanmar buyers entered the top 10 nationalities of foreign buyers of Thai condos in 2022 for the first time.
A recent report in the Bangkok Post suggests that purchases of Thai real estate by Myanmar nationals may be far higher than data from the Real Estate Information Center indicates because Myanmar buyers often purchase property through Thai nominees.
“I recently visited Mae Sot district in Tak province and found that low-rise houses in the district had very good sales and all were purchased in cash in a Thai name,” the Bangkok Post quoted a Real Estate Information Center executive as saying. “People in Myanmar are looking for a safe zone,” he told the Post.
Myanmar’s currency has nose-dived since the Feb. 1, 2021 coup, and wealthy Myanmar nationals have either bought condos in Thailand to live in or to shift their wealth into baht-denominated assets.
A source familiar with the Thai real-estate market told The Irrawaddy that most Myanmar nationals buying Thai condos are “regular people.” “Ninety percent of the buyers are regular people and around 10 percent are linked to the regime,” the source said, explaining that the latter include former ministers, their families and cronies. “They normally use Thai agents to hide their assets,” he added.
Last week, one of Myanmar’s richest cronies, Serge Pun, was reportedly questioned by junta officials for allegedly providing mortgages through his Yoma Bank to Myanmar nationals buying condos in Thailand, sources familiar with the matter said. Serge Pun, also known as Theim Wai, is chair of the conglomerate Yoma Group.
A public relations executive at Yoma denied the reports, telling The Irrawaddy that Yoma is not involved in the sale of Thai condos. The executive also said that Serge Pun was at the office conducting business as usual.
It is illegal for Myanmar banks to provide mortgages for the purchase of foreign property.
Following media reports noting that Myanmar nationals are on a condo buying spree in Thailand, the regime began investigating the background of people who bought Thai condos to examine the sources of their income, their compliance with the tax code, and whether the purchases were made using illegal transaction methods.
The regime also threatened on Monday to arrest people who sell or buy condos in foreign markets via online channels.
The regime’s crackdown on the Thai condo buying spree, and the holding of Thai bank accounts, does not include – so far – coup leader Min Aung Hlaing’s children.
Both have Thai bank accounts and share ownership of a luxury condo in Bangkok.
Their affinity for Thai bank accounts and real estate came to light when notorious junta crony and arms broker Tun Min Latt was arrested in Bangkok in September 2022. The Thai bank books of Min Aung Hlaing’s children and the deed of a luxury condominium one of them owned were among the records seized from Tun Min Latt.
Justice for Myanmar reported that a deed for a four-bedroom condo worth nearly US$ 1 million belonged to Min Aung Hlaing’s son, Aung Pyae Sone. Other items seized from the arms broker included two passbooks for accounts at Siam Commercial Bank. They belonged to the daughter of Min Aung Hlaing, Khin Thiri Thet Mon.
