Date – March 10, 2010

Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij has order the country’s land department to remain open for the remaining 3 weekend of this month in order to allow the buyers of the property to be able to take advantage of the tax breaks offered to the buyers.

“Khun Korn has asked the Land Department cooperation that they will work on all three the remaining weekends (March 13, 14, 20, 21, 27 and 28),” Trairak Tengtrirat the key advisor to Finance Minister Korn said.

He further said that as long as anyone submitted the document by 4.30 pm on March 28, 2010 t the Land Department will make sure that they will finish the process within that day.

The Thai cabinet had on February 22 decided not to extend the term of tax incentives to the property development sector, which ends on March 28.

The government had said that the tax breaks had helped property development and real estate companies boost profits and the number of property rights transfers had increased by 10 per cent. It was believed the property development sector would continue to expand even with the end of the tax break.

The tax incentives which will end include a reduction of the property rights transfer fee from 2 per cent to 0.01 per cent, a cut in the mortgage registration fee from 1 per cent to 0.01 per cent and the reduction of the special business tax from 3.3 per cent to 0.11 per cent.

But the short period given before the end of the incentives had driven a lot of the buyers of the property to rush through their transfers in order to keep save money with banks and other financial institutions being overburdened with applications.

The initial deadline was March 26 as the it falls on Friday and in Thailand the weekends are public holidays.