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

houses. 'Town' houses and 'shop' houses take second place while apartments
and one-room accommodation are not so popular. The price of urban and
peri-urban land restricts supply of land for residential and commercial use by

low income families. In and around towns and cities the market rules to the
benefit of real estate developers and investors. Public authorities have not so far
been able to do much to correct the situation.

Land registration over the past sixty years has left the largest share of
land by area and over 40% by value with independent farm households who
represent little more than 10% of the population. The top 1% of landowners
holds a much smaller area of land but in value terms their holding matches
or exceeds land owned by farms. Smaller shares of private land area (3%) and
value (14%) are held by middle-income home-owners who constitute around one
quarter of the total population. The majority of households, around 60% of the
total, have little or no land of their own. This group includes people farming
on state land or renting from private owners as well as low-income home-owners
and people living in rented accommodation or occupying homes rent-free.

Acknowledgement

The author is grateful to two anonymous referees for critical comments
and advice on how to improve the paper.

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Francis Cripps

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