The 30-year lease, explained for foreign nationals.

Why lease

The route most foreign owners actually use.

Buyers from Europe, Australia, the Gulf, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Japan and North America have been coming to southern Thailand for forty years. Very few of them own the land under their villa. Thai law (Land Code section 86) reserves land ownership for Thai nationals and Thai-majority companies, and the nominee company structures sold in the 1990s and 2000s have been progressively unwound by the authorities.

What foreigners can do, without any workaround, is hold a registered lease of up to 30 years. The lease is written onto the back of the Chanote title deed at the Land Office. From that moment it is a real right: it binds anyone who buys the land, it can be inherited if the lease says so, it can be assigned or sub-let where the lease permits, and the landlord cannot cancel it because they have changed their mind.

A lease longer than three years that is not registered is enforceable for only three years. This is the single most common mistake made by foreign buyers in Thailand, usually because a seller offered a cheaper "private contract". Never accept it.

What you get, in practice

Term

Up to 30 years, registered on the title deed. Rent can be paid annually, in tranches, or partly up front.

Your buildings

A registered right of superficies lets you own the villa or hotel you build, separately from the land, for the term of the lease. It is registered alongside the lease and we recommend it for anyone who builds.

Registration cost

Land Office fee of 1% of total rent plus 0.1% stamp duty, normally shared. Lawyer's fees for drafting and registration typically EUR 2,000–6,000.

If the land is sold

Your lease continues unchanged. The buyer becomes your landlord (Civil and Commercial Code section 569).

Succession

A lease can be drafted to pass to your heirs on death. Ask for this clause; it is standard.

Maximum term

Thirty years is the longest registered lease Thai law allows. We offer up to 30 years at Sichon and 10 years at Natai; we do not market anything beyond the legal maximum.

Thirty years is the maximum, and that is what we offer

You may see Thai properties advertised with terms far longer than thirty years. Thai law does not register them. A land lease is registered for a maximum of thirty years; anything beyond that is a promise for the future rather than a right on the title deed. We keep to what can be registered.

So the honest position is this. You underwrite thirty years. A further lease can be discussed and registered near expiry, on terms agreed then. What makes that likely is a landlord that intends to keep the land and a tenant that has looked after it. Both of our sites are held by a family with no exit date, which would rather keep a good tenant than find a new one.

Protecting a 30-year position

Getting here: the practicalities

Phuket International Airport has direct flights from Europe, the Gulf, India, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea and Australia and is about 25 minutes from our Natai site. Sichon is served by Nakhon Si Thammarat and Surat Thani airports, an hour from Bangkok. The Andaman coast's dry season runs November to April; the Gulf coast at Sichon is at its best from January to September, so the two sites are, usefully, out of phase.

Long-stay visas have become simpler. Thailand's Long-Term Resident visa, the Destination Thailand Visa and the Privilege (Elite) programmes all allow multi-year stays without border runs; a business on the land can also sponsor a work permit for its owner. Healthcare in Phuket and Surat Thani is of international standard at a fraction of Western cost.

Questions foreign buyers ask us

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