I think this is accurate. You can't own property, or a house in Thailand. Same goes for owning or running businesses. There are 'legal' ways to go about it though. You can start a Thai corporation and that entity can buy a house. But you can not own 51% of a Thai corporation. You need Thai's on the board of your corp. who then sign over their proxies, but, if laws changed (as they do often without rhyme or reason here) you might be out. I was always worried about the devious ways that things could pan out. I also worry about a change in government, military, constitution, or a new King that could impact matters undesirably.
It cost me about 25,000 baht to set up a Thai corporation so I could buy a house/business in Pattaya about 4 years ago. Finally, I chose not to buy the house or open the business. It costs me close to 20,000 baht yearly for taxes, even with no business activity. I was quoted 40,000 by my lawyer to dissolve the corp. The corp. is still active and is transferrable, if anyone wants it - cheaper than what you can get it for new today. But that's not my point.
You can own a condo as long as most of the units are owned by Thai's. Your spouse (if they are Thai) can own property, house or business, or whatever. It will not take living here long to hear the myriad stories of supposedly loving wives who, when they got the property, immediately said, bye bye, after putting on an act - sometimes for years.
Now, my Mother owned several condos in the US before she died which had gardens, and property and were very much like houses. Every condo I've heard about in Thailand is basically an apartment. Most I've seen in Pattaya are high-rises. If anyone knows any different, I'd like to hear about it. I'm only going on what I know, or have heard personally. At this time, I'm thinking seriously about leaving the "Land of Smiles" or "LOS". After 4 years I'm getting a bit fed up. Hate to recommend another forum, I hope this isn't against forum rules, but there is a lot of discussion on topics of home ownership, daily news, weird laws, latest visa requirements, and a host of other matters on the thaivisa site. Be forewarned, posters there can get a bit crude at times. - Buzzer