There is no announcement by words. For now, just rumors. Circulating among the journalists ambushed on the heights of the Samui Court. They are not agitated by the elusive circle of the accused, Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, but by the opposite bench. The mother, they say, would already be looking for a house in Thailand, to be close to her son. Silvia Bronchalo, they say, would have a significant budget to purchase a home near the prison. A tacit acceptance that the alleged murderer has several years ahead of him in the shadow of the tropics.
One of the prosecution lawyers acknowledges that Daniel Sancho could remain in the relatively new and airy Samui prison, although “it depends on the sentence.” The premeditated murder would take him to the harsh and overcrowded Bangkok prison, where Artur Segarra is serving his sentence for dismembering David Bernat. But an involuntary homicide would open the door to remaining in Samui, following in the wake of his friend Carlos Alcañiz, who stabbed a Chilean to death in Phangan, but mitigating circumstances were observed.
Staying in Samui, everyone agrees, would be the best thing that could happen to the young man who dismembered surgeon Edwin Arrieta last year. “This prison once had a thousand prisoners, but with the pandemic they released many and now it has two hundred, 5% foreigners,” reports a Sancho translator.
“At the moment no one has contacted us,” acknowledges Iván, owner of Martínez-Colomer Real Estate in Samui. “But we would be happy to assist Silvia Bronchalo. “More than half of our clients are Spanish.” The Valencian agent, who opened his business a couple of years ago in Lamai – near the aforementioned court and prison – is clear about his advice for the investment analyst. “Buy! Renting a decent house has cost 2,500 euros.” His second piece of advice: “Doing renovations is crazy, so new or renovated, because nobody wants to work here. “99% of the bricklayers are Burmese.”
They give more clues in another real estate agency, Dream, door to door with High Life, which also promises a high dream life, albeit based on grass. “A foreigner cannot buy a house in Thailand, because he cannot own land. But he can register a company, with 49% in his name and 51% in two straw men, which he can then buy back.”
In Bangkok there is the option of purchasing an apartment in a condominium, although there is a maximum percentage of foreigners per block. Pao, a visa agency, adds that “from the age of 50 you can have a residence permit as a pensioner, renewable as long as you have 20,000 euros in your account.”
For many tourists, construction has gone too far on Samui and obscures the island’s beauty. But the real estate agent’s view is different. “Climb a mountain and you will see that it is almost virgin. This is the next Ibiza of Southeast Asia. Even more so when they finish the Navy, for cruise ships and yachts.” When it comes to refinement, Martínez-Colomer would recommend to Bronchalo “a three-bedroom villa, without sea views, for 275,000 euros. With views, for 350,000”. Although there are houses worth several million.
