Oct 3, 2026Thailand

New Nordic Group in Thailand: The Court and Regulator Record Buyers Should Read First

New Nordic Group is one of the most visible foreign-founded property names in Thailand, and it is also one of the most heavily documented in the country's court and investigation records. Anyone considering a unit from the group should start with that record rather than the sales material. The group completed real buildings over a long run in Pattaya, Koh Samui and Chumphon. Since January 2021 its principal Thai development company has been working through a court-supervised rehabilitation process, and since May 2021 it has been the subject of a special case opened by Thailand's Department of Special Investigation.

Both of those things can be true at once, and keeping them separate is the whole job when you are checking a developer.

What the group has actually completed

Bektu's project records for New Nordic Group list five Thai developments with stated completion dates. New Nordic VIP 1 in Nong Prue, Chon Buri, completed December 2011. New Nordic VIP, also in Nong Prue, December 2015. New Nordic Suites 5, March 2016. C-view Boutique and Residence, May 2016. Koh Samui Waterworld in Maret, Surat Thani, March 2019.

The group has claimed considerably more than that. A press release issued by New Nordic Group on 26 July 2018 and distributed through PR Newswire described the company as having "built or is building to date" more than 100 properties across Southeast Asia, and named Kurt Svendheim as chief executive. A Bangkok Post report on the group's shift toward Thai buyers described 14 projects priced around 75,000 baht per square metre, with units between 2.2 and 16 million baht, and quoted Morten Marthinsen, general manager of Nordic Living Thailand Co, the developer's exclusive agent at the time.

The gap between 100 properties claimed and a handful with verifiable completion dates is the ordinary condition of this sector, not a finding against the company. It is also the reason a buyer asks for the completion certificate on the specific building rather than the group brochure.

The business model that drew regulators

The model was a rental return attached to a purchase. The Bangkok Post report described "10% projected rental returns per year" marketed as the highest yield in Pattaya, with buyers under five-year contracts receiving half the unit price back and ten-year contracts projecting a full return of capital. Le Petit Journal, reporting from Bangkok on 2 April 2021, put the promised range at 6 to 10 percent annually and reported that construction on several sites had stopped in October 2019, before the pandemic that the group later cited.

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In its own restructuring update, the company signalled a move away from that structure, telling clients it was preparing "proposals for a revised commercial scheme which will most likely be in the form of a profit share model rather than a guaranteed return."

Guaranteed or near-guaranteed yields attached to property sales are exactly what Thai regulators scrutinise, and that is what happened here.

The DSI special case

On 31 May 2021 the Department of Special Investigation published notice that investigation case no. 37/2564 concerning New Nordic Development Company Limited had been accepted as a special case by the DSI Director-General. The case concerns the Phetchaburi Park Project in Rai Khok Subdistrict, Ban Lat District, Phetchaburi Province, a scheme of hotel, condominium, detached houses, a garden restaurant and a water park across 555 rai 1 ngan and 49 square wah. The DSI put the sum invested at 3,400 million baht.

The DSI notice cites the Emergency Decree on Loans of Money Amounting to Public Cheating and Fraud, B.E. 2527 (1984), together with Section 21, paragraph one (a), (b) and (c) of the Special Case Investigation Act, B.E. 2547 (2004), and Notification of the Board of Special Case (No. 7) B.E. 2562 (2019). The complaint was brought by Srisuwan Janya, vice-president and secretary-general of the Association for the Protection of the Thai Constitution. The DSI states the company promised returns of 10 percent per year and stopped paying after three to six months.

A second DSI notice, under Special Case No. 56/2564, opened registration for people who had invested in New Nordic Development condominium schemes in Phetchaburi, Chonburi, Chumphon, Surat Thani and Phuket. Phetchaburi investors were asked to submit information by 31 December 2024, and investors in the other four provinces by 31 March 2025.

A special case is an investigation. It is not a conviction and it is not a court finding that any offence occurred. What it does establish is that a national investigative agency has formally taken the matter on, named the company, and put a figure on the money involved.

The rehabilitation process

Separately from the DSI case, New Nordic Development Co. Ltd applied for business rehabilitation under Thailand's Bankruptcy Act. Le Petit Journal reported the bankruptcy filing was announced on 28 January 2021, with a hearing scheduled for 31 May 2021.

The company's own update dated 22 May 2022 described attending court to present the application, with ten days set aside by the court, and stated that "the Court announced that it plans to issue its ruling on July 27, 2022, at 09:00." It named Don McBain, appointed a non-executive director of the company in June 2021, as the nominated plan preparer, and set out the sequence that would follow: creditors lodging claims within one month of publication in the Government Gazette, a reorganisation plan within three months, and a creditor vote roughly two months after that.

Rehabilitation under the Bankruptcy Act is a protective, court-supervised restructuring. It is a sign of financial distress, not of criminality, and plenty of companies emerge from it.

In the same restructuring communications the group reported the four buildings of the Lamai Hotel and Resort on Koh Samui as completed, main buildings and five villas finished in Chumphon, and site preparation complete in Phuket with the long-term viability of the masterplan under review.

What a buyer should check

The group's corporate site at newnordicgroup.com was not reachable over a verified secure connection when checked on 3 October 2026, because its TLS certificate had expired. That is a maintenance issue rather than a finding about the business, but it is the kind of small signal worth noting when the rest of the public record looks like this.

The practical checks are the ordinary ones, applied harder. Ask which legal entity is selling, and whether that entity is the one in rehabilitation. Ask for the construction permit and the completion certificate for the specific building. Confirm where the foreign ownership quota stands on the title, since Thai law caps foreign ownership at 49 percent of a condominium's saleable area. Put any promised return in the contract and ask what happens to it if the company restructures. Bektu (https://bektu.com) keeps developer delivery histories for exactly this kind of comparison, and the group's own entry sits at https://bektu.com/companies/new-nordic-group.

For wider context on how these structures are marketed and where they go wrong, see our guide to property scams targeting foreign buyers in Thailand, the explainer on the 49 percent foreign ownership quota, and our review of the country's larger developers.

Sources

- DSI accepted a case of the private company swindling foreigners to invest in the Phetchaburi Park Project out of 3,400 million baht as its special case, Department of Special Investigation, Ministry of Justice, Thailand

- DSI Opens Registration for Victims of Condominium Investment Scheme by New Nordic Development Co., Ltd., Department of Special Investigation, Ministry of Justice, Thailand

- New Nordic Thailand: Update May 22, Rehabilitation process, New Nordic Group

- Update from the New Nordic restructuring team, New Nordic Group

- New Nordic en Thaïlande, chronique d'une faillite annoncée, Le Petit Journal Bangkok, 2 April 2021

- New Nordic scavenges Thai buyers, Bangkok Post

- New Nordic World and Kurt Svendheim: The Unlikely Fusion of Scandinavia and Asia, New Nordic Group via PR Newswire, 26 July 2018

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Developers referenced

New Nordic Group Surat Thani, Thailand

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