Hi Ratsima, on having a quick couple of scans over the crux of the issue in those Commonwealth Islands, it does appear to be a different issue to Thailand's foreign ownership restrictions. The issue for the company investing on the Commonwealth Island was regards to their 'long-term lease' of local land and the fact that long-term leasehold, in addition to freehold ownership, was prohibited to 'outsiders' (non-blood islanders). Similar restrictions regards foreigners do not apply to 30 year leases here.Ratsima wrote:The Commonwealth has land ownership restrictions that are very similar to those of Thailand.
And then the people who "sold" their land to foreign buyers started to sue; questioning the bona fides of the original transactions. And, they started winning. The courts voided sales that were structured in a way that was clearly designed to circumvent the intent of the land ownership laws. The "investors" lost everything.
I'm not asserting that something similar will happen here. Thailand clearly has a different sort of legal system where things are not quite as absolute as in the US. Still, caution is required if you're planning to do something that is contrary to the clear intent of the law.
SJ