Samma Keetsin
Board Member, Sena Development Public Company Limited

     Housing is one of the most essential factors for the survival of people of all nations and languages. It serves as the foundation for family or household stability. Thailand has a long history, and Thai people have established settlements and communities since ancient times. Currently, we have a population of approximately 68 million people, with around 21.9 million households. There is a diverse mix of ethnic groups living together, especially in recent years, as more foreigners have come to reside in Thai society due to the increasing openness of trade.

     Governments in developed countries have established various organizations and agencies to support and promote housing for citizens. In addition to the public sector, there are also organizations in the civil sector, including entrepreneurs, consumers, and educational institutions, that are interested in various issues related to housing. Many countries are attempting to create comprehensive housing policies to ensure that housing initiatives are directed clearly and benefit the country as a whole.

     In Thailand, there have been efforts for many years to establish a national housing policy. A National Housing Policy Committee has been appointed for several years now. There are numerous issues and considerations related to housing; almost any economic or social issue can be linked to housing. Therefore, we should first categorize the direct housing issues into various dimensions and sub-issues as follows:

     Dimension of Housing Development The philosophy of housing development in the country must aim to ensure that all citizens have adequate housing that allows them to live with dignity, in accordance with their means of maintenance and ability to pay housing-related expenses. They should have a sense of "ownership" of their housing, whether it be full ownership, long-term or short-term rental, or ownership through government welfare programs.

     Housing for Sale includes general horizontal housing, such as houses with land, or vertical housing like condominiums with shared common property among residents.

     Long-term Rental Housing includes long-term rental rights for foreigners, who typically cannot own land in Thailand unless they meet certain conditions, or rental rights for government property, primarily focusing on high-rise housing or horizontal housing in tourist areas.

     Short-term Rental Housing includes dormitories, apartments, serviced apartments, etc., which are densely located near educational institutions or industrial factories.

     Social Welfare Housing includes shelters or homes for the elderly, infants, orphans, homeless individuals, or other disadvantaged groups, where the state should intervene according to welfare principles to ensure a harmonious coexistence in society.

     These various types of housing require specific development guidelines, and when integrated, they should be coherent. Additionally, housing development can also be viewed from a geographical perspective, such as the development of the capital city and surrounding areas, the development of satellite cities, or major regional cities. Thailand has only one First-Tier city, which leads to continuous expansion of Bangkok into surrounding areas without developing comparable Second-Tier cities that provide sufficient job opportunities, causing rural labor to migrate primarily to Bangkok, resulting in the need for affordable rental or purchase housing.

     Dimension of Legal and Regulatory Framework includes legal and regulatory issues related to housing construction, habitation, community governance, and environmental concerns. A good housing policy should not require the creation of numerous new laws but should focus on improving existing laws, ministerial regulations, announcements, and procedures to align with the changing social context, including resource conservation and controlling or eliminating environmental pollution caused by housing construction. It should also involve categorizing all relevant housing laws, such as land allocation laws, building permit applications, environmental and pollution regulations, waste disposal, community associations, and urban planning. The urban planning of major provinces must align with the urban plans of neighboring provinces. In many developed countries in East Asia, new cities are being built that can fully utilize modern information society.

     Another important aspect is the elimination of redundant procedures or unnecessary steps in the housing construction permit process for citizens, or ensuring transparency to eliminate corruption and illegal fees.

     Dimension of Housing Finance includes considerations such as the government providing long-term loan sources for financial institutions to lend to developers for housing construction and to consumers for purchasing or renting housing, ensuring that the flow of funds in and out of financial institutions aligns with the timeframes and purposes of use.

At the same time, we have seen examples of certain flaws in the financial systems and financial innovations in the West that have led to issues in the housing transaction structure. In modern economic societies, housing is often used as an investment asset, so appropriate regulations should be established to support homeownership according to means and needs, while preventing excessive speculation in the housing market by setting different conditions for promoting transactions based on varying price levels or buyer demographics.

The national housing policy should promote sufficient information sources for decision-making, not just focusing on whether any agency has sufficient data. We still lack support for data production factors, database creation, and the involvement of individuals who understand the principles of data collection, storage, processing, and utilization. Housing data itself is not a ready-made product that can solve every issue, but identifying the problems that need to be addressed will lead to the correct approach for data production processes.