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

Reviewed by ThaiLawOnline, a licensed Thai law firm practising in Thailand since 2006. Thai lawyer of record: Wichuda Atthamethakon, LL.M., Thai Bar Licence 3149/2556.

Last updated on 25 September 2026

The short answer is no. Section 86 of the Land Code lets a foreigner acquire land only under a treaty that grants that right, with the permission of the Minister of Interior, and no such treaty is in operation. So in practice a foreigner cannot own land in Thailand. The one statutory route that does not depend on a treaty is 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 property in Thailand for foreign buyers.

The one statutory exception: section 96 bis

Section 96 bis of the Land Code allows a foreigner to acquire up to one rai (1,600 square metres) of land for use as a residence, on an investment of at least 40 million baht in a type of business set by ministerial regulation, maintained for at least three years, and with the permission of the Minister of Interior. The land must be in Bangkok, Pattaya City, a municipality, or an area zoned residential under the town planning law. Under section 96 ter, if the conditions are breached, or the land is not used as a residence within two years of registration, the Director-General can force a sale.

It is a real provision, added to the Code by the Land Code Amendment Act (No. 8) of 1999. 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 LTR visa 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 not 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 usufruct gives you use of the land for life, a superficies lets you own the building on someone else’s land, and sap 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 transferring land to a Thai child.
• 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 promoted or concession-holding business, 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 the second of them (MT 0515.2/W 11266) tells them to look past the shareholder list: directors and authorised signatories, capital increases and changes in shareholding, where the money came from, who actually uses the land and who actually benefits from it, with indirect shareholding and shares that have changed hands many times flagged as risk factors. 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 first circular also sets two triggers for a closer look under section 74 of the Land Code: a purchase paid in cash of 2 million baht or more, or land whose government appraised value for registration fees is 5 million baht or more. Transfers by inheritance to statutory heirs are excepted. The land officer may then question the parties about the source of the money, their income, financial standing and occupation. Where it appears the purchase is for a foreigner’s benefit, the file goes to the Minister of Interior, and under section 74 the Minister’s order is final.

On 25 August 2026 the Ministry of Interior itself, in a letter signed by the Permanent Secretary (MT 0515.2/W 19097), went further. Each province’s fact-finding committee now includes investigating agencies, starting with the local police superintendent, and its tasks include tax checks. Where a company is found to be a foreigner in law, the provincial Governor fixes the period for disposing of the land. Where it was set up to hold land for a foreigner, the land officer files a criminal complaint and follows the case to final judgment.

The screening is backed by data sharing. Land offices must check the juristic persons in their area that have foreign shareholders or directors every month and report to the Department of Lands every quarter (W 10722, restated in W 11266), and the Department of Lands has passed its records of juristic persons holding land to the Department of Business Development. 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 Ombudsman has recommended amending the Land Code so that land a nominee holds for a foreigner is forfeited to the State, instead of being sold under section 94 with the proceeds going to the holder. The Cabinet noted that recommendation on 24 June 2025 and, on 24 February 2026, a Ministry of Commerce progress report that lists the Land Code among the laws under review. No amending bill has been published. 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, DBD Order 2/2569 requires a company or partnership with a foreign shareholder or partner below 50 per cent, or with a foreign authorised director, to file bank statements showing that each Thai shareholder paid their subscribed capital from their own account, with a signed explanation of the investment. See registering a company in Thailand and the 2026 nominee crackdown.

Last reviewed: 25 September 2026, in two passes (18 and 25 September). Land Code sections 61, 74, 86, 87, 93, 94, 96, 96 bis, 96 ter, 97, 98, 100, 111 and 113 were read in the consolidated Thai text on the government’s central law register; Department of Lands circulars MT 0515.2/W 10722, W 11266 and W 11493 and Ministry of Interior letter MT 0515.2/W 19097 in their signed copies; Department of Business Development Order 2/2569; and section 150 of the Civil and Commercial Code. The company figures are the Department of Business Development Director-General’s as reported in the Thai press, and the parties to the 29 April 2026 memorandum and the Cabinet items on the section 94 proposal were checked against Thai press and government news reports, not against the documents themselves.

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.