It's 49% allowed foreign ownership for virtually all companies (apart from ones sponsored by the Bord Of Investment of Thailand). Land ownership for foreigners

It's 49% allowed foreign ownership for virtually all companies (apart from ones sponsored by the Bord Of Investment of Thailand). Land ownership for foreigners is not allowed. The land ownership is creating big problems for expats trying to build a future there as they either try to circumvent the law by holding the land in a companies name (which they are not really allowed to control) or in their wifes/girlfriends name which tends to end badly in many cases. Thailands court system is also not exactly stellar and tends to side with Thais. Combine that with visa troubles (even if you should be so lucky to get permanent residency, you'll still need a work permit to do any work even voluntary for free, what the?) and you can see that it's tough for foreigners to invest in Thailand and to put roots down and build a future. If they didn't have the BOI, Thailand would likely have no economy to speak of as none of the bigger companies would have set up their factories there. Similar (and arguably even bigger) issues are to be found in virtually all countries in south east asia apart from Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan.