Buyer's Guide
Buying property in Thailand as a foreigner
Last updated: 27 June 2026
Thailand is one of the most welcoming places in Asia to own a holiday home or relocate - but the rules on foreign ownership trip up almost every first-time buyer. This guide explains, in plain English, exactly how foreigners can legally own property here, what it costs, and how to buy safely on Koh Lanta.
Foreigners cannot own land outright in their own name, but they can own a property in Thailand three legal ways: own a condominium unit freehold within the building's 49% foreign quota, hold land and a villa on a registered 30-year lease, or own through a Thai limited company. A villa deal usually pairs a leasehold on the land with freehold ownership of the house itself.
One important 2026 update: a March 2025 Supreme Court ruling confirmed that a Thai land lease is capped at 30 years, and that pre-signed “30+30+30” renewals stacked to reach 90 years are not legally enforceable beyond the first term. We explain below what this changes - and the structures that still give real, lasting security.
Can foreigners buy property in Thailand?
Yes - millions of foreigners own homes in Thailand. The key restriction is on land: the Land Code prohibits foreign nationals from owning land freehold in their own name. Everything else follows from that one rule. You can own the building on a plot, you can lease the land underneath it, and you can own a condo unit outright - you just can't put a plot of Thai land in your personal name.
On Koh Lanta, where most homes are villas and houses on land rather than condos, that means the typical purchase is structured as a lease of the land plus freehold ownership of the house, or through a Thai company. Below we walk through each route so you can see which fits your situation.
The three legal routes to ownership
Condo freehold
Own a condominium unit outright, within the building's 49% foreign quota. The simplest, cleanest title for a foreigner.
Leasehold
Register a 30-year lease on the land and own the villa on top - often paired with a superficies or usufruct. The standard route for houses and land.
Thai company
A genuine Thai limited company owns the land; you hold up to 49% of shares. Powerful but must be a real, compliant business.
Most Koh Lanta villa purchases use the leasehold route or a combination of leasehold land and freehold building. Condos are rarer on the island, and the company route suits a minority of buyers who want land control and have a legitimate business reason.
Freehold vs leasehold
These two words cause most of the confusion, so here they are side by side.
| Freehold | Leasehold | |
|---|---|---|
| What you own | The asset outright, indefinitely | A registered right to use it for a fixed term |
| Available on land? | Not for foreigners | Yes - registered for up to 30 years |
| Available on a condo? | Yes (within the 49% quota) | Yes |
| Inheritance | Passes freely to heirs | The registered term can pass to heirs if the lease says so - secure it explicitly |
| Resale | Straightforward | Assign the remaining lease, or re-register |
A well-structured villa purchase gives you the best of both: you own the house freehold (a building is not land, so a foreigner can own it) and hold the land on a long lease.
The 30-year lease limit - and what changed in 2025
Thai law (Section 540 of the Civil and Commercial Code) caps a registered residential land lease at 30 years. For decades, sellers got around this by writing leases as 30+30 or 30+30+30 - a registered 30-year term plus pre-signed promises to renew for one or two further 30-year periods, marketed as "60 years" or "90 years" of security.
In March 2025 the Thai Supreme Court (Judgment No. 4655/2566) ruled that a pre-signed, pre-paid "30+30+30" arrangement designed to lock in 90 years is an attempt to bypass the 30-year limit, and is void and unenforceable beyond the first 30 years. A promise to renew is a personal contractual promise only: it does not attach to the land, does not bind a future owner, and does not bind the landlord's heirs if they sell or die. Anyone still selling "guaranteed 90-year" leasehold is overstating what the law will enforce.
Where that leaves a leasehold buyer today:
- The first registered 30 years are fully secure - this right binds the land itself and transfers to any future owner.
- A renewal cannot be guaranteed in advance. It must be genuinely re-negotiated with whoever owns the land as the term nears its end. Price the property as a 30-year holding, not a 90-year one.
- A good lease still adds real protection: a right of first refusal if the land is sold, a renewal at pre-agreed price terms, and clauses making the registered term inheritable and assignable. These improve your position - but they are promises from the landlord, not a registered 90-year title.
- The counterparty matters more than ever. A lease backed by a stable, reputable landlord (or a developer with a long track record) is worth far more than identical wording from an unknown party.
For buyers who want security that genuinely outlasts 30 years, the stronger routes are owning the house itself (next section), condominium freehold, or a Thai company - not a stack of paper renewals. This is exactly the kind of structure we make sure is set up honestly before you commit.
Owning the house while leasing the land
This is the most common Koh Lanta situation, and the one buyers find most confusing: a seller offers a house on a plot of land, but as a foreigner you can't own the land. So what exactly are you buying? The honest answer is that land and the building on it are treated separately under Thai law - and a foreigner can own the building.
A well-structured house purchase combines two or three registered rights:
Lease of the land
A 30-year registered lease gives you secure, transferable use of the plot the house sits on.
Ownership of the house
You own the building itself - a foreigner can. Ownership is evidenced separately from the land (e.g. via the construction permit / Tor Por Sam Sip transfer).
Superficies or usufruct
A registered superficies confirms your right to own the building on that land; a usufruct can grant lifetime use. Both bind future landowners.
Superficies (สิทธิเหนือพื้นดิน). A registered right to own a building on land you don't own. It can run for up to 30 years or for the lifetime of the holder, it is registered at the Land Department, and - unlike a renewal promise - it binds whoever owns the land next. Pairing a superficies with the land lease is the cleanest way to say, truthfully, "you own this house."
Usufruct (สิทธิเก็บกิน). A registered right to use and enjoy the land for up to 30 years or for your lifetime. It's a personal right that ends on death (it can't be inherited), but for a single owner it can secure lifetime occupation.
Superficies vs usufruct - at a glance:
| Superficies (สิทธิเหนือพื้นดิน) | Usufruct (สิทธิเก็บกิน) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it gives you | Ownership of the building on land you don't own | The right to use the land and take its income (rent it out) |
| Best for | A foreigner buying a house on leased land | Living for life on a partner's or family's land |
| Survives your death? | Yes - it's inheritable and can be sold on | No - it's personal and ends when you die |
| Maximum term | Your lifetime, or up to 30 years | Your lifetime, or up to 30 years |
| At the end of the term | You remove the building, or the landowner must buy it from you at market value (Civil & Commercial Code s.1416) | The right simply ends and the land reverts to the owner |
| Binds a future landowner? | Yes, once registered at the Land Department | Yes, once registered at the Land Department |
In short: a superficies is about owning the house (and is the foreign house-buyer's key protection), while a usufruct is about lifetime use of the land (most common between a Thai owner and a foreign partner). You rarely need both - choose the one that matches the deal.
A Thai-owned house in Old Town is valued at ฿2,000,000 freehold (say land ฿1.2M + house ฿0.8M). A foreigner can't own the land, so they buy the house freehold for ฿800,000 and take a 30-year registered lease of the land for a one-off premium of ฿900,000 - about ฿1.7M all-in, a little under the freehold price. A registered superficies makes the house unmistakably theirs: if the lease ends at year 30, the landowner must either let them remove the house or buy it back at market value - they can't simply seize it. Meanwhile the Thai seller keeps the land, banks ฿1.7M now, and still owns an appreciating plot they get back in 30 years. A usufruct would suit a different case - e.g. a Thai spouse owns the land and grants the foreign partner the right to live there for life.
How we pitch a house-with-land deal honestly:
"You own the house outright, and you hold the land it stands on through a registered 30-year lease, backed by a superficies that keeps the building yours and binds any future landowner. You can live in it, rent it out, sell your interest, and pass the registered rights to your heirs. What no one in Thailand can honestly promise a foreigner is freehold ownership of the land itself, or an automatic 90-year lock - so we don't promise it. We structure the deal so the 30 years are rock-solid and the path to renewal is as protected as the law allows."
What happens after 30 years? The two clocks
This is the question almost every buyer asks, and it's confusing only because the sales pitch usually blurs two things the law keeps strictly separate. Picture a house-with-land deal as two clocks running side by side - and notice that only one of them ever runs out.
At the 30-year mark, three things can happen:
Most common
The landowner renews
You agree a fresh 30-year lease - easiest when you've pre-agreed a renewal price and a right of first refusal. Post-2025, this is a negotiation, not a guarantee, so the counterparty matters.
Your safety net
You keep the house anyway
With a lifetime superficies, your right to keep the building on that plot outlives the lease and binds the landowner. They cannot seize your house just because the lease ran out.
The real risk
No deal at all
If every registered right has expired and they won't renew, you own a house on land you can't occupy. In practice this resolves as: they buy the house from you, or you sell or remove it.
No. Civil & Commercial Code s.1416 is a two-part safety valve, not a confiscation power. The default is that you may remove the building and restore the land - the owner doesn't automatically get your house. They can override that only by offering to buy it at genuine market value (ราคาตลาด); only then may you not refuse without good reason. A token “10-baht” offer isn't a valid market-price offer, so refusing it is good reason. If the figure is disputed it's set objectively - anchored to the Treasury Department's appraised value (ราคาประเมิน) and licensed appraisers using comparable sales, and ultimately by a court on that evidence, not the owner's say-so. The honest caveat: “market value” here means the depreciated 30-year-old structure only (not the land) - a modest but real, defensible figure, never zero.
Can you sell before year 30? Yes - and this is the normal exit. You don't sell a bare house; you sell the house plus the remaining lease plus the superficies, so a buyer in year 12 steps into your shoes with ~18 years left. The remaining term is a big driver of resale value, which is why a renewal locked in early protects your price.
The honest bottom line. A leasehold house buyer is really paying for outright ownership of the building plus ~30 years of secure, registered control of the land, with a realistic - but not guaranteed - path to renew. That is not the same as owning the land, and it is not a guaranteed 90 years. Price it, and pitch it, as a 30-year holding with strong protections.
The condominium foreign-ownership quota
Condominiums are the one property type a foreigner can own freehold, in their own name. The catch: under the Condominium Act, no more than 49% of the total floor area of any registered condo building can be foreign-owned. Once a building hits that quota, the remaining units can only go to Thai buyers or be leased.
Before reserving a condo, always confirm the building's current foreign quota and that your funds qualify - the purchase money must be remitted from abroad in foreign currency and documented with a Foreign Exchange Transaction form, which the Land Department requires to register foreign freehold.
Buying with a Thai spouse
If you are married to a Thai national, the simplest route is often the most direct one: your Thai spouse buys the land freehold in their own name, and you can own the house on it. There is no lease at all - the land is held freehold, just not in the foreigner's name.
At the Land Department both spouses sign a declaration that the purchase money is the Thai spouse's own personal (non-marital) funds. This is a legal requirement, and it has a real consequence: the land is treated as the Thai spouse's separate property, so in a divorce it stays theirs. For that reason many couples pair the purchase with a registered usufruct, superficies or 30-year lease from the spouse to the foreign partner - so the foreigner has a registered, enforceable right to live in and use the home regardless of what happens to the marriage.
Done this way it is a clean, fully freehold route for a mixed-nationality couple to own a Koh Lanta home. The one rule: register the protective rights up front, at the same time as the purchase - not "later".
Thai company structures (and a warning)
A Thai limited company can own land, and a foreigner may hold up to 49% of its shares and control it through director rights and share classes. For some buyers - particularly those running a genuine business such as a rental operation - this is a legitimate and useful structure.
Setting up a company purely to hold a home, with Thai "nominee" shareholders who have no real stake, is illegal under Thai law. Such structures can be investigated and unwound, putting the property at risk. A company must be a real, active, properly accounted business. Never use this route without specialist legal advice.
Title deeds & the Garuda colours
Not all Thai land is held on the same kind of paper, and the difference is huge for what you can safely buy. Every land document is headed by a Garuda - the mythical eagle that is Thailand's national emblem - and its colour tells you, at a glance, how strong the title is. The stronger the title, the more accurately the land is surveyed and the more securely it can be sold, leased and registered.
Chanote - Nor Sor 4 Jor (โฉนด)
True freehold title, GPS-surveyed with concrete boundary markers and registered at the Land Department. The clearest proof of ownership and the only title we'd want behind your lease or purchase.
Nor Sor 3 Gor - น.ส. 3 ก.
A confirmed right of possession, aerial-surveyed with set boundaries. It can be sold and leased and is normally upgradeable to a full Chanote. Acceptable with proper legal checks.
Nor Sor 3 - น.ส. 3
A right of possession only, with boundaries that are not precisely surveyed. Any sale or lease must be publicly posted for 30 days first. Buy only with careful legal advice.
Sor Kor 1, Por Bor Tor 5 / 6
Possessory or tax-payment papers, not ownership titles. They confer no registrable ownership and cannot reliably secure a lease. We do not list or recommend land held this way.
Some plots carry a Sor Por Kor 4-01 document, issued under land reform for farming. It can look like a title, but it confers use rights for agriculture only - it cannot be bought, sold, mortgaged or leased to an outsider and passes only to family who keep farming it. It is never a valid base for a foreigner's house, lease or superficies. If a cheap plot seems too good, check the deed colour and class first - your lawyer confirms this in the title search.
On Koh Lanta most of the land worth buying is Chanote or Nor Sor 3 Gor. Whatever the colour, your lawyer should pull the official deed at the Land Department and confirm it matches what's being sold before any money changes hands - see due diligence below.
Fees and taxes when buying
Beyond the price, budget for transfer costs. As a rule of thumb these total 5–7%, and who pays which portion is negotiable and should be written into the sale agreement.
| Cost | Typical rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Transfer fee | 2% | Of the registered value, paid at the Land Department |
| Specific business tax | 3.3% | If the seller has held under 5 years (instead of stamp duty) |
| Stamp duty | 0.5% | If specific business tax does not apply |
| Withholding tax | Varies | Based on seller type and holding period |
| Legal fees | ~1% | Independent lawyer: title search, contracts, transfer |
| Lease registration | 1.1% | On leasehold deals, of the total lease value |
Rates and who-pays-what change with the deal and current regulations. We give you a full, itemised cost breakdown for any specific property before you commit a baht.
If the seller still has a mortgage
A common real-world wrinkle: the owners still owe a bank on the house and land. A mortgage does not kill the deal - it just adds one step. The bank is paid off and the mortgage discharged before, or at the same moment as, the lease registers - and the buyer's money can be exactly what pays off the bank.
A Thai mortgage is a registered lien on the land title (the Chanote), and the bank physically holds the deed with first priority. So there's one hard rule: you can't put a clean 30-year lease and superficies on the land while the bank's mortgage still sits ahead of them. The normal, clean route - used in ~99% of deals - is to discharge the mortgage first, on the same day, in a single sitting at the Land Office:
- The buyer arrives with funds (usually cashier's cheques), one made out to the bank for the exact payoff (redemption) figure.
- The bank's officer accepts it and signs the discharge - the mortgage is cancelled and the Chanote released clean.
- The same day, on the now-clean title, the building sale, the 30-year lease and the superficies all register to the foreign buyer.
In a freehold sale the owners sell the land, so the full price is available to clear the bank. In a leasehold the owners keep the land - the only cash coming in is the lease premium plus the building price, which is deliberately lower than freehold. So the one question that decides whether a mortgaged leasehold can close is: is the premium big enough to pay off the outstanding balance? If yes, it works beautifully - the buyer's money clears the bank, the title goes clean, the lease registers, and the owners keep an appreciating, now-unmortgaged plot. If it falls short, the owners must top up the difference themselves, or a freehold sale - which raises more cash - becomes the realistic route.
The single most important early action is the same as always: engage an independent Thai lawyer to run a title search before anyone signs. That surfaces the exact redemption figure, any early-repayment penalty, and any hidden encumbrances - and confirms the lease can actually be registered.
Due diligence: what to check before you pay
- Title type. Insist on a Chanote (Nor Sor 4 Jor) - the strongest, fully surveyed title. Be cautious with weaker title deeds.
- Title search. Your lawyer checks ownership history, exact boundaries, and any mortgages, liens or court orders against the land.
- Access and utilities. Confirm legal road access, water, and electricity - not always a given on island plots.
- Zoning and build rights. Setbacks, height limits and environmental zones near the coast can restrict what you build.
- The lease or company papers. Have every clause reviewed for renewal, inheritance, assignment and exit.
- Clean funds transfer. Keep the bank paperwork (FET form) that the Land Department needs for foreign registration.
The buying process, step by step
- Find the property and agree the price and structure (lease, condo or company).
- Sign a reservation and pay a holding deposit to take it off the market.
- Engage your own lawyer to run due diligence and the title search.
- Sign the sale & purchase agreement (and the lease, if applicable) once checks pass.
- Transfer the funds from abroad and obtain the bank documentation.
- Complete at the Land Department - pay the balance and fees, and register the transfer or lease.
Done properly, a Koh Lanta purchase is calm and predictable. The pitfalls almost always come from skipping the legal steps to save time or money - which is exactly where we keep buyers on the safe path.
Frequently asked questions
Buying on Koh Lanta? We'll guide you through it.
Every Lanta Homes listing comes with a clear ownership structure, a verified title, and a full cost breakdown - and we work only with trusted bilingual lawyers. No surprises, no nominee shortcuts.
This guide is general orientation, not legal, tax or financial advice. Thai property law is detailed and changes; always engage a qualified Thai lawyer for your specific situation. See our Terms of Service.