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The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand
Volume XII, 2020

higher than a recent Credit Suisse estimate of 17 trillion Baht for private wealth.
For comparison, NESDB estimated the value of private net capital stock in 2018
12
at 26 trillon Baht which does not include the value of land. In the few countries

for which official figures are available, private wealth is reckoned to be between
3 and 5 times annual GDP. The 2018 estimate of 34.5 trillion Baht for Thailand is
13
equal to 1.88 times annual GDP.

In developed countries land is nowadays recognized as the largest
component of private wealth and a major source of inequality as high urban land
prices drive a gap between middle class and professional people who can afford
to live in conveniently-located, good quality accommodation and low-income
people who cannot. Small groups of landowners, property-developers and
14
'super-landlords' have a key role in the development of new real estate, and
landlords are presumed to be the principal beneficiaries. Problems that have
15
long afflicted developed countries have extended to middle-income countries
and have to be considered explicitly in the development of policies and institutions
for land management and taxation in urban and peri-urban areas.

12 This does not include the value of land or net financial assets such as external investments
and holdings of government debt. NESDB estimates of capital stock include dwellings, other
buildings and structures, machinery and equipment, cultivated assets, mineral exploration and
computer software but not land.
13 The estimated value of land in the UK end-2018 was equal to 2.82 times annual GDP, accounting
for 58% of national net worth (UK Office for National Statistics, National Balance Sheet
estimates, 28 Nov 2019,table C). The estimated value of real estate owned by households and
non-financial businesses and corporations in the US end-2018 was equal to 2.83 times annual
GDP, accounting for 63% of national net wealth (Financial Accounts of the United States, Federal
Reserve Statistical Release, 12 Dec 2019, tables B.1 and B.103).
14 See Luke Murphy, “The Invisible Land”, published in 2018 by the Institute for Public Policy
Research Commission on Economic Justice, which argues that "reform of the dysfunctional land
market is essential if the UK is to be more equal".
15 The actors and process by which housing projects have been put together over the past 40 years
in a formerly agricultural suburb of Luxembourg are documented in detail in an article by
Antoine Paccoud.(2020).“The top tail of the property wealth distribution and the production
of the residential environment,” International Journal of Housing Policy,Vol.20 (1): 110-119.

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