Foreign Ownership of Property in Thailand

Direct foreign ownership of land is not allowed under Thai law. However, a foreigner may own a unit of a registered condominium and a building upon a piece of land, which is considered a separate entity from the land itself.
While foreign individuals, and partnerships and companies with less than a 49% Thai share-holding, are virtually barred from owning land, companies with a majority Thai shareholding of more than 51% are legally allowed to purchase land. Though, in practise, this can still be a difficult purchase to be allowed to make. However, there are exceptions for foreign company ownership of land allowed under Section 27 of the Investment Promotion Act, administrated by the Board of Investment (BoI). This allows for certain companies involved in certain businesses - usually manufacturing - who have invested or will be investing a significant amount of foreign capital into the project to buy land in certain designated areas. Land use is limited to the promoted activity and must be sold within one year of termination of that activity. The BoI regularly reviews the land use to ensure that the promoted activity is being undertaken.

Thai spouses of foreign nationals are also barred from purchasing land, unless their partner signs a declaration indicating that the land is owned independently of the spouse and that they have no interest in the property in any way (including financial).

Currently the most popular method of securing the land beneath a building that a foreigner wishes to own is to take out a thirty-year lease on the land, with options to renew for two further terms of 30 years. Ownership of the house upon the leased land can be confirmed under civil law as an independent component separate from the land. This means that the lessor of the land has no rights to seize the building should the lease expire or either party default upon the lease agreement. Each renewal of the lease must be registered by both lessor and lessee at the Land Department and payment of government fees and stamp duty must be made upon the renewal.

Building a Home in Phuket

While local labour and building materials are relatively low cost, in comparison to most western countries, beach front property is at a premium and imported materials can come with hefty import duties.

The progress and quality of your building project will be greatly improved with the hiring of an experienced project manager This should be either a Thai with a good working knowledge of your native language and a clear understanding and background in the requirements of a foreign owner, or a foreigner who has significant experience in working on projects of this type in Thailand and has a good working knowledge of the Thai language.

Land Measurement

While building and construction measurements are usually taken in metres (though sometimes in feet and inches) the Thai measurement system for land area is broken down into Rai, Ngan and Wah.