What a foreigner can own

A condominium unit, in your own name

You can own a condo unit outright if two conditions are met. First, foreigners together may own no more than 49% of the saleable floor area of the building: the “foreign quota”. Second, you must bring the purchase money into Thailand from abroad, in foreign currency. For transfers of USD 50,000 or more, the receiving Thai bank issues a Foreign Exchange Transaction form (FET). The Land Office asks for it when the unit is registered, and the name on it must match yours.

  • Get written confirmation of how much foreign quota is left: from the developer for a new building, from the building’s juristic person for a finished one. Do it before you pay.
  • Send the money from your own account, in foreign currency, and state the purpose on the transfer: purchase of a condominium unit.
  • Keep every FET form and bank advice. You will need them again when you sell and take the money out.

Land: generally not

Foreigners generally cannot own land in Thailand. The usual alternative is a lease of up to 30 years, registered at the Land Office. Offers of “30 + 30 + 30 years” are options to renew: contractual promises rather than registered rights, and whether they bind a new owner of the land is doubtful.

Since 2024 the government has studied raising the condo quota to 75% and allowing 99-year leases. None of it is law. Treat a sales pitch that relies on these changes as a forecast, not a fact.

Nominee companies are not a workaround. Holding land through a Thai company whose Thai shareholders only lend their names is illegal, and you can lose the property. Enforcement tightened in 2026: company registrations face new checks on nominee signatories, and a Prime Minister’s Office regulation published in August 2026 lists nominee arrangements as grounds for referring foreigners for deportation.

Check the company, not the brand

The name on the brochure is rarely the name on your contract. Find out which company you are paying, and which company promises you anything: a yield, a buy-back, a completion date. Then check each one.

  • Take the full company name and 13-digit registration number from the contract, and look the company up in the Department of Business Development’s DataWarehouse: registration date, capital, directors, shareholders and filed financial statements.
  • Read the accounts. Years of losses, liabilities larger than assets, or large loans to other parties are warning signs. A company that cannot pay its own debts cannot guarantee your returns.
  • Search the company and its directors in the Royal Gazette and in the Legal Execution Department’s bankruptcy records.
  • Ask what the developer has completed before, and visit those buildings. Talk to the owners there, not to the sales team.
  • If a hotel brand is involved, ask the brand in writing what it guarantees. Usually it licenses its name and manages the hotel, and guarantees nothing about your investment. Our Wyndham Grand Nai Harn case file shows what that means in practice.
  • Developers listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand publish audited accounts and must disclose major problems. That is no guarantee, but it is more than a private company tells you.

Check the land and the permits

  • The title deed. A Chanote (Nor Sor 4 Jor) is full, surveyed title. Nor Sor 3 Gor is a lesser certificate, and Sor Kor 1 and similar papers record possession rights only. Ask the Land Office, not the seller.
  • Mortgages. Developers often mortgage the land to a bank to pay for construction. Ask how and when your unit will be released from the mortgage.
  • Permits. Ask for the building permit and, for larger projects and many coastal sites, the approved environmental impact assessment (EIA).
  • Road access and zoning. In July 2023 the Supreme Administrative Court ruled that the construction permit of Ashton Asoke, a finished 50-storey condominium in Bangkok, had been issued unlawfully because of its access to the main road. By then 668 units had been transferred to buyers.
  • Condominium registration. A unit can be transferred only after the building is registered as a condominium. Until then you hold a contract, not a title.
  • Location. The Department of Lands’ LandsMaps shows where the plot on a title deed really is.

Read the money terms

  • Off-plan payments. Avoid paying most of the price before the building exists. Tie each payment to a construction stage you can check.
  • Escrow. Thailand has had an Escrow Act since 2008. Few developers use it, but asking costs nothing, and the answer tells you something.
  • Guaranteed yields and buy-backs are only as good as the company that promises them. Ask who pays, from what income, and whether a bank guarantee stands behind the promise. A post-dated cheque is not security.
  • “Shares” of a room or fractional ownership. Ask exactly what will be registered in your name at the Land Office. If nothing will be, you are lending money to the seller.
  • Rental programmes. Get the operator’s name, the split of income and costs, and the last two years of real occupancy figures.

The contract

  • Have it reviewed by your own licensed Thai lawyer, not one introduced by the seller. Check the licence with the Lawyers Council of Thailand.
  • Check which language prevails, which law applies and where disputes go.
  • Look for the penalty if the developer is late, and what happens to your money if the project is cancelled.
  • Don’t rely on promises made in person or in chat. If it matters, it goes in the contract.

At the transfer, and after

  • Register the unit, or the lease, at the Land Office in your own name. A condominium title deed is called an Or Chor 2.
  • Agree in writing who pays the transfer fee, taxes and stamp duty.
  • Keep everything: brochures, adverts (screenshots with dates), chat messages, receipts and FET forms. If things go wrong, they are your evidence.

Next: the red flags in sales pitches, and what to do if things go wrong.