Thailand's Nominee Probe Reaches Condominiums as Foreign-Linked Firms Are Found Holding 76,840 Units

Thailand's Department of Business Development has published the condominium half of its nominee-shareholding review, and the figure it reports is 76,840 condominium units held by foreign-invested companies, or 31.48 percent of the 244,115 units registered to legal entities nationwide. The dataset is current to 4 September 2026 and was compiled jointly with the Department of Lands and the Department of Provincial Administration.

That disclosure changes the shape of an enforcement campaign that has so far been read as a land and villa problem.

What the numbers show

The DBD is examining 125,622 companies that hold land or condominium titles, out of 144,706 registered entities holding property of either kind. Of those under review, 36,277 have foreign investment. Those foreign-invested firms hold 305,838 land plots covering 1,064,265.38 rai, roughly 1,700 square kilometres, or about 0.33 percent of Thailand.

The land holdings break into three tiers by foreign shareholding. Companies with a foreign stake of up to 49 percent number 31,516 and hold 287,176 title deeds over 901,596 rai. Companies with a foreign stake between 49.01 and 99.99 percent number 1,311, holding 8,633 deeds over 59,077 rai. Wholly foreign-owned companies number 3,450 and hold 10,029 deeds over 103,591 rai.

The condominium figures follow the same structure. Of the 76,840 units held by foreign-invested companies, 73,786 sit in the up-to-49-percent tier, 1,875 in the 49.01 to 99.99 percent tier, and 1,179 with wholly foreign-owned companies. According to Thai Examiner, 7,082 foreign-linked companies hold that stock.

Concentration is heavy. In the up-to-49-percent tier, Bangkok alone accounts for 36,047 deeds, and the top five provinces of Bangkok, Chon Buri, Samut Prakan, Pathum Thani and Nonthaburi carry 47.02 percent of deeds. In the wholly foreign-owned tier the pattern shifts to the eastern seaboard, with Chon Buri at 2,580 deeds and Rayong at 2,006, and the top five provinces holding 76.38 percent of the land area.

The legal mechanism

The campaign runs on sections 36 and 37 of the Foreign Business Act B.E. 2542 (1999), which prohibit a Thai national or entity from holding shares as a nominee to allow a foreigner to operate a restricted business, and on section 94 of the Land Code, which provides for forced disposal of land held unlawfully by a foreigner. Penalties under the Foreign Business Act run to imprisonment of up to three years and fines of 100,000 to 1,000,000 baht. Land found to be unlawfully held must be disposed of, with Thai Examiner reporting disposal windows of 180 days to one year.

An earlier tranche of the same exercise, reported on 18 August, identified sixteen priority provinces: Bangkok, Nonthaburi, Samut Prakan, Pathum Thani, Samut Sakhon, Nakhon Pathom, Chon Buri, Surat Thani, Phuket, Rayong, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Krabi, Phang Nga and Mae Hong Son. At that stage the condominium side was still awaiting data from the Department of Lands. It has now arrived.

DBD director-general Poonpong Naiyanapakorn said nominee arrangements distort Thailand's economic system, create unfair competition and harm Thai businesses. Officials also stated that the figures are being used to identify cases requiring further examination and do not themselves indicate lawbreaking. Thai Examiner reports the inter-agency coordination was agreed at a 4 September meeting between Commerce Minister Suphajee Suthumpun and Deputy Interior Minister Polpeera Suwannachawi.

What it means for a foreign buyer

The distinction that matters is between individual ownership and entity ownership.

A foreigner who bought a condominium unit in their own name, inside the 49 percent foreign quota that the Condominium Act applies to each building's aggregate floor area, and who remitted the purchase funds from abroad in foreign currency, is not the target of this review. That route is unchanged and the 49 percent quota rule has not moved.

The exposure sits with property held through a Thai limited company. Until this week that risk was understood as a land and villa structure question, because a foreigner cannot hold Thai land directly. The condominium data shows the same corporate route is used at scale for units too, often to hold stock that sits outside a building's foreign quota or to keep a portfolio in one vehicle. Those holdings are now inside a live cross-agency review that has both a land disposal remedy and a criminal penalty attached to it.

Anyone holding through a company should be able to answer the questions this exercise is built to ask: whether the Thai shareholders have demonstrable funds of their own, whether they receive dividends, whether the company carries on real business activity, and whether its registered address is shared with a large number of other entities. Bektu (https://bektu.com) is one place to check what a developer or corporate vehicle has actually registered and delivered before committing.

Context

Foreigners buying in Thailand have three practical routes: freehold ownership of a condominium unit inside the building quota, a registered long-term lease, or ownership through a Thai company. The company route has always been the legally weakest of the three, and enforcement against it has escalated through 2026. Province-level figures published in August covered Surat Thani, Koh Phangan and Phuket and were framed around land. The national dataset now released is broader in every dimension, and for the first time it counts condominiums.