Myanmar Junta Arrests Thai Condo Buyers and Realtors

Myanmars 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 companys 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 regimes crackdown on purchases of Thai condos by buyers in Myanmar is part of the juntas increasingly desperate attempt to prevent currency from flowing out of the country to prevent financial collapse. It also follows the kyats 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 regimes economic and financial mismanagement, the junta is blaming speculators for the disaster and has arrested gold traders.

Mondays 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 Thailands condo market, according to Thailands 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.

Source: Irrawaddy