By Priya Mehrotra · Asia Pacific Properties, Bangkok · September 2026
What a foreigner can actually own
Structure
What you hold
Standing in 2026
Condominium, foreign quota
Freehold title in your own name, within the 49% of saleable area a building may sell to foreigners
Secure. Unchanged law, unaffected by the nominee enforcement
Leasehold
A registered lease, conventionally 30 years with promised renewals
The first 30 years is enforceable. The renewals are not property rights
Thai company holding land
Shares in a company that owns the land
Under active investigation where the Thai shareholders are nominees
The 49% quota remains the law. Proposals to raise it, or to extend lease terms, have been discussed repeatedly and none had been enacted as of early 2026. Buy on the law as it is, not on the reform a sales office expects.
The renewal clause is a promise, not a right
This publication once ran a headline saying Phuket land leases were “likely to be extended”. That was 2011. It has not happened, and the legal position has hardened in the opposite direction.
Work through what that means. If the lessor sells the land, dies, is wound up, or simply declines, your claim at year thirty is against a counterparty — a contractual claim, in Thai courts, possibly against someone with no assets — not a right that binds whoever holds the title. A ninety-year villa sold on a thirty-year lease is a depreciating asset with an optimistic marketing deck.
That is not an argument against leasehold. It is an argument for pricing a thirty-year lease as a thirty-year lease, and for reading the renewal clause as an intention rather than a guarantee.
The nominee enforcement, and why Phuket specifically
Following a Thai Cabinet review in June 2025, authorities began the most significant enforcement wave since the Foreign Business Act came into force in 1999. Tens of thousands of companies have been identified for investigation of nominee shareholding — Thai shareholders holding shares on behalf of foreigners to put land beyond the reach of the ownership restrictions.
In Phuket, more than 600 companies are under special regulatory review, with the Department of Special Investigation and the Ministry of Commerce examining ownership structures tied to landholding. From early 2026 the Department of Business Development has required proof of genuine source of funds and signed investment confirmation letters on company incorporations and amendments — which is to say the structure is now harder to create as well as riskier to hold.
Anyone who owns a Phuket villa through a Thai company with passive local shareholders should take Thai legal advice on their own position now, rather than when a letter arrives.
What we are not telling you
We are not listing new developments with “verified freehold status”. Confirming that a specific project has foreign-quota capacity remaining, and that the quota is unencumbered, requires seeing that building’s juristic-person records — not a brochure and not a sales office’s assurance. We have not done that for any project, so we are not publishing a list.
What to ask instead, in writing, before you pay a deposit:
What percentage of this building’s saleable area is already sold under the foreign quota, and how much remains?
Will the quota certificate be available at transfer, and what happens to my deposit if it is not?
Is the unit I am buying inside the foreign quota, or is it being sold to me on a lease from a Thai-quota unit?
If leasehold: who owns the land, what is their corporate structure, and what security do I have at year thirty?
For the Foreign Exchange Transaction Form: is my purchase funded in foreign currency remitted into Thailand, as freehold condominium registration requires?
Sources
Condominium Act foreign ownership quota, unamended as at early 2026.
Thai legal analysis of 30+30+30 lease renewal enforceability and the status of automatic renewal clauses.
Thai Cabinet review of nominee shareholding, June 2025; Department of Special Investigation and Ministry of Commerce review of Phuket landholding structures; Department of Business Development source-of-funds requirements from 2026.
This is journalism, not legal advice. Thai property law treats foreign ownership restrictively and enforcement is currently active. Instruct an independent Thai lawyer — not one introduced by the seller or the developer — before committing funds.
