Can Foreigners Buy Land in Thailand? The Law, and the Routes That Work

Révisé par ThaiLawOnline, un cabinet d'avocats thaïlandais agréé exerçant en Thaïlande depuis 2006. Avocate thaïlandaise en charge du dossier : Wichuda Atthamethakon, LL.M., licence du barreau thaïlandais 3149/2556.

Last updated on août 26, 2026

The short answer is no. Section 86 of the Land Code prohibits a foreigner from owning land in Thailand. There is one statutory exception, section 96 bis, and in practice it is almost never granted. Everything else you will read about, a Thai spouse buying in her own name, a registered lease, a usufruct, a superficies, sap ing sith, a company, is not foreign land ownership. It is a way of holding a right over land that someone else owns.

Before anything else, read the law it turns on: Chapter 8 of the Thai Land Code, sections 86 to 96, on foreigners’ rights in land.

Land is the hardest case in our guide to l'immobilier en Thaïlande for foreign buyers.

The one statutory exception: section 96 bis

Section 96 bis of the Land Code allows a foreigner to hold up to one rai (1,600 square metres) of residential land, on an investment of at least 40 million baht in qualifying Thai assets, held for at least three years, and with the approval of the Minister of Interior. The land must be in a permitted zone, and the right can be revoked if the investment is not maintained.

It is a real provision and it has been on the books since a ministerial regulation of 2002. It is also, in our experience acting for foreign clients in Thailand since 2006, one we have never seen applied to an ordinary buyer. Treat it as a theoretical route rather than a plan.

The 2022 LTR announcement, and why it does not help you

In October 2022 the Cabinet approved a draft ministerial regulation that would have let holders of a Long-Term Resident visa buy up to one rai on a 40 million baht investment, in Bangkok, Pattaya and other designated municipal and residential zones, for a five year window. It was widely reported at the time as Thailand opening land to foreigners.

It was a draft, and a Cabinet approval is not law. The regulation had to be published in the Royal Gazette to take effect. We have found no Royal Gazette publication and no evidence that it was ever brought into force; reporting at the time had it still under review by the Council of State. Holding an visa LTR is valuable for other reasons, but on its own it confers no right to own land.

If you have read that an LTR visa lets you buy land, that is this 2022 draft being described as though it had passed. Plan on section 86 and section 96 bis, which are the law today.

What foreigners actually do instead

Each of these is a genuine, registrable route. Each is covered in depth on its own page.

• Buy a condominium unit outright. This is the one thing a foreigner can own freehold, subject to the 49 per cent foreign quota in the building. See how the condo route works and what it costs.
• Buy through a Thai spouse. The land is registered in her name and you both sign a declaration at the Land Office about the source of the money. What that declaration does, and the much larger question of what it does pas do, is set out in buying land in Thailand through a Thai spouse. The related question of what counts as marital property is covered under marital property in Thai law.
• Register a right over the land instead of owning it. A Usufruit gives you use of the land for life, a superficie lets you own the building on someone else’s land, and sève ing sith is a newer registrable right of up to 30 years.
• Take land by inheritance. A foreign heir can inherit but generally cannot keep the land. See whether a foreigner can inherit land in Thailand, which explains the disposal obligation under section 94.
• Put land in a Thai child’s name. Legitimate where the child is genuinely the owner, and not where it is a device. See transfert de terres à un enfant thaïlandais.
• The Thai company route, with a warning. A 51/49 company holding land for a foreigner is a nominee arrangement. It is illegal, it carries imprisonment and fines under the Foreign Business Act, and it is being actively enforced. Read the 2026 nominee crackdown before anyone offers you this structure. If you already hold land through one, the lawful ways out are set out in restructuring a 51/49 property company.

Other exceptions exist for promoted investment under the Board of Investment and under the Petroleum Act. Those attach to a company and a promotion certificate, not to an individual buyer.

What the land office now checks

The company route is not only illegal on paper. Since May 2026 it is being screened for at the counter.

On 15 May 2026 the Department of Lands sent circular MT 0515.2/W 10722 to every provincial land office, followed by two further circulars marked most urgent on 21 and 25 May. They create no new law. They tell land officers how to apply the law that already exists, and they tell them to look past the shareholder list: the shareholding chain including indirect layers, whether each Thai shareholder had the money they subscribed and where it came from, capital increases and share transfers, who actually uses the land, and who the ultimate beneficial owner is. Section 97 of the Land Code is arithmetic, foreigners holding more than 49 per cent of registered capital or outnumbering Thai shareholders by headcount. The circulars tell officers to look for real control on top of the arithmetic. A 51/49 split satisfies the arithmetic and settles nothing.

The screening is backed by data sharing. The Department of Lands and the Department of Business Development exchange data under a memorandum and coordinate daily on files the land office doubts, and companies with foreign shareholders are reviewed quarterly. On 29 April 2026 twenty-one agencies, including both departments, the Revenue Department, the Royal Thai Police, AMLO and the DSI, signed a data-sharing memorandum at Government House. Against Department of Lands records covering 144,706 juristic persons holding land, the DBD has identified 36,277 with foreign shareholders, 31,516 of them at 49 per cent or below, and 35,154 of them concentrated in sixteen provinces.

If a nominee holding is established, the outcome is not that the sale is quietly unwound. The registration can be annulled under section 61 of the Land Code, after a committee of enquiry and a thirty day objection period. Separately, and more commonly, the Director-General orders the land disposed of within 180 days to one year under section 94 and sells it himself if you do not. Section 96 applies that machinery where the land was held in place of a foreigner, and section 100 catches a company that acquired land lawfully and later fell within sections 97 or 98. Criminal liability under the Land Code and the Foreign Business Act runs alongside, and the arrangement is void under section 150 of the Civil and Commercial Code, so there is nothing to enforce against the nominee.

The Department of Lands is separately studying an amendment to section 94 that would forfeit unlawfully held land to the State with no proceeds to the holder. The Cabinet acknowledged the proposal on 24 February 2026. It is not law. If it passes, the downside stops being a forced sale at market value and becomes a total loss.

Incorporation tightened too. Since 1 August 2026, Order 2/2569 requires every Thai shareholder to prove the subscribed capital was genuinely their own money. See enregistrer une société en Thaïlande ET the 2026 nominee crackdown.

Where to go next

For the full treatment, including title deed types, the comparison between lease, usufruct, superficies and sap ing sith, the nominee penalties and the transfer taxes, read our detailed guide to land ownership restrictions in Thailand. Before you commit to any of these, due diligence on the title is the step that prevents most of the problems we are later asked to fix.