How Foreigners Buy Property in Thailand in 2026: The Rules After the 2025 Lease Ruling

Foreigners cannot own land in Thailand. They can own a condominium unit outright, subject to a 49 percent project-wide foreign quota. Long leases of land have been the standard workaround for decades, but a March 2025 Supreme Court ruling closed the door on stacked 90-year lease structures and reset what foreign investors should actually expect.

Anyone reading older guides should update them. The legal landscape in Thailand has shifted, and the polite fiction that a foreigner could effectively hold land for 90 years through nested leases is no longer defensible in court.

The 49 percent rule under the Condominium Act

The governing law is the Condominium Act B.E. 2522 (1979), as amended. Under Section 19 bis of the Act, the aggregate foreign-owned floor area in any registered condominium project cannot exceed 49 percent of the total saleable area. The remaining 51 percent must be held by Thai citizens or Thai-majority entities.

This is a building-level quota, not a unit count. A 100-unit project with mixed unit sizes does not split into 49 foreign and 51 Thai units. The split is measured in square meters. Developers track the foreign quota at the project's juristic person office, and the Land Office requires a quota certificate when registering a foreign buyer's title at transfer.

A foreign buyer needs three things to register a condominium unit:

1. A Foreign Exchange Transaction (FET) Form issued by a Thai commercial bank for each inbound transfer used to pay for the unit, with the purpose stated as "to purchase a condominium." Cash brought into Thailand or funds from a domestic Thai source generally do not qualify.

2. A foreign-quota certificate from the condominium juristic person confirming the unit is within the 49 percent cap.

3. Personal documents and a representative if not signing in person, processed at the relevant Land Office.

Buyers should request quota confirmation before signing a reservation agreement. Popular projects in Phuket, Pattaya, and central Bangkok routinely sell out their foreign quota years before Thai-side inventory clears.

Two mechanics of the FET requirement catch buyers out. Banks are only obliged to issue an FET form for inbound transfers of USD 50,000 or more; below that, a confirmation letter from the receiving Thai bank citing the SWIFT details and the purpose is accepted instead. The purpose must be on the wire from the outset, because bank officers will not amend it retroactively. Keep the original, since you need it again to repatriate proceeds when you sell. Where a building's foreign quota is exhausted, the unit can still be sold to a foreigner on a registered leasehold basis.

Land: leasehold is what's available

Foreigners cannot hold freehold title to land under Section 86 of the Land Code Act B.E. 2497 (1954). The standard structure for a villa or a piece of land has been a 30-year registered lease under the Civil and Commercial Code, with contractual renewal options for two further 30-year periods.

The renewal options were the entire foreign-investor proposition for landed property. They are no longer enforceable in the way the market assumed.

In Supreme Court Decision No. 4655/2566 (issued March 18, 2025), the court ruled that contractual lease renewals beyond the statutory 30-year cap are void. A lease cannot exceed 30 years. A promise to renew is binding only insofar as both parties agree to enter a fresh registered lease when the original expires, and a successor landowner is not bound by the predecessor's renewal commitments. In practical terms, the 30-year lease is a 30-year lease, with no enforceable extension built in.

This affects every foreign-marketed villa development in Phuket, Koh Samui, and Hua Hin that sold units on the basis of a "30 plus 30 plus 30" structure. The first 30 years are secure. Years 31 through 90 are now a matter of trust and contract law, not enforceable land law.

Thai law treats land and the building on it as legally separable, so a foreigner can hold freehold ownership of the building on leased land under a building-only title registered at the Land Office. That combination, a registered land lease plus freehold building ownership, is how most foreign-buyer villa projects are actually structured. A usufruct or a registered superficies right achieves something similar over land you do not own.

The 30-year ceiling itself comes from Section 540 of the Civil and Commercial Code, and any lease longer than three years must be registered at the Land Office to be enforceable beyond three years.

Routes for foreigners who need land

There are three legitimate paths to controlling land in Thailand as a foreigner, none of which is as clean as the marketing material usually suggests.

The first is a Thai limited company. A 100 percent foreign-owned company cannot own land. A company with at least 51 percent Thai shareholding can. The Department of Business Development and the Department of Lands actively investigate companies set up with nominee Thai shareholders whose only purpose is holding land for a foreign principal. Nominee structures violate the Foreign Business Act B.E. 2542 (1999) and can result in forced divestment, fines, and imprisonment of up to three years.

The nominee prohibition is Section 36 of the Foreign Business Act, and enforcement changed character through 2026. The Central Investigation Bureau, the Department of Business Development, and the Anti-Money Laundering Office now run coordinated audits of Thai land-holding companies. March 2026 operations in Pattaya and Chonburi found one Thai national acting as proxy for more than 100 companies, and 146 Chonburi companies were blacklisted and placed under financial audit. Since 1 January 2026 the Department of Business Development has required documentary proof of source of funds for every newly incorporated Thai company. Fines reach THB 1 million plus daily fines while the violation continues, and a proposed amendment would forfeit nominee-held land to the state without compensation.

The second is the Board of Investment (BOI) route. Under Section 27 of the Investment Promotion Act B.E. 2520 (1977), a foreign-promoted company can be granted the right to own land for a promoted activity. This is real, but it requires a qualifying business activity, not a vacation home.

The numbers are specific. A promoted company with at least THB 50 million in registered capital can apply to own up to 1 rai (1,600 square meters) for office and residential use by its executives, with certain categories qualifying for up to 5 rai for offices and 20 rai for worker housing. If the promotion ends, the land must be sold within one year. Within the Eastern Economic Corridor, qualifying investors can secure a 50-year lease plus one renewal of up to 49 years subject to EEC approval.

The third is the Long-Term Resident Visa (LTR) and the Thailand Elite Visa, which provide residency benefits but do not grant land ownership rights. A foreigner with LTR status still cannot hold land in their own name.

The LTR runs ten years across four categories, including Wealthy Global Citizen (USD 500,000 invested in Thailand) and Wealthy Pensioner (USD 250,000 invested, over age 50), and carries a 17 percent flat tax on Thai-source employment income for qualifying holders. None of that touches the land rules.

Where foreigners are actually buying

The freehold condominium market remains the cleanest path. Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya, Hua Hin, and Chiang Mai all have transparent foreign-quota tracking. Established Thai developers like Sansiri, Ananda Development, Origin Property, AP (Thailand), and Land and Houses dominate the formal market.

For investors evaluating a project, the developer's delivery record matters more than the brochure. Bektu maintains developer profiles across Southeast Asia, useful when committing to a pre-sale tower in a 49-percent-capped project.

Transfer costs and inheritance

A freehold condominium transfer attracts a Land Office transfer fee of 2 percent of the appraised value, customarily split evenly. The seller pays either 0.5 percent stamp duty where the unit has been held more than five years, or 3.3 percent Specific Business Tax including municipal surcharge if not, plus withholding tax at progressive rates. Appraised value is the official government valuation and sits below market price. That split is convention, not law, so settle it in writing before signing the reservation.

A foreigner who inherits a condominium keeps it if the foreign quota allows registration at that moment; if the quota is full, Section 19/7 of the Condominium Act gives the heir one year to dispose of it, and the same rule applies to inherited land. A land lease terminates on the lessee's death unless the contract provides for assignment to heirs, so check that any long villa lease contains an assignment clause.

Compare structures across the region with Bektu's Guide to Foreign Real Estate Investment in Asia, and review the rules in Vietnam and the Philippines for a regional view.

The takeaway

A condominium under the 49 percent rule is what Thailand offers a foreign buyer. Land is leasehold-only, and after the 2025 Supreme Court ruling, leasehold means 30 years. Anything else needs a legitimate corporate structure with real Thai partners or a BOI-promoted business activity. The era of "30 plus 30 plus 30 is effectively freehold" marketing is over.