General Prawit Wongsuwan intervened on Monday to withdraw the controversial plan to allow foreigners to buy residential land in Thailand. It is understood that an application will be made on Tuesday by the Minister of the Interior General Anupong Paochinda to withdraw the regulation agreed in principle by the cabinet on October 25th last. It comes as the minister responsible for the plan and the accompanying 10 year Long Term Visa proposal, Deputy Prime Minister and Economics Czar Supattanapong Punmeechaow, has revealed a disappointing response to the scheme since it went live in September and has accepted that its goals might have to be addressed given stiff competition, particularly from Indonesia.

Disappointing: only 1,300 applications in 9 weeks, well below the ambitious targets for the visa scheme
He revealed that many of these applicants were from both the United States and the United Kingdom.

The figure, however, is somewhat disappointing when considered against the plans set out initially in 2021 with one million foreigners projected by 2026.

The proposal has run into a raging storm of criticism in a kingdom particularly uneasy in the last few weeks with growing evidence of existing abuses by ultra-wealthy Chinese people who are investing in the property market using illegal drug money. This is a disturbingly similar pattern already seen in Myanmar and Cambodia.