Thailand Property for Foreigners: The 49% Condo Quota and Why Land Isn't for Sale

The Thai market is built around one rule that has no way around it: land isn't sold to foreigners. Everything else — the condo quota, long leases, companies, usufruct — is a way of living with that rule, not a way around it. A buyer who hasn't grasped that usually finds out not at purchase, but at sale.

Condominium unit: full ownership within the quota

The Condominium Act lets a foreigner own a unit on the same footing as a Thai citizen, recorded on the chanote (title deed) in their own name. There's one restriction, and it's a hard one: the total floor area held by foreigners can't exceed 49% of a building's saleable area. The remaining 51% belongs to Thai citizens or Thai legal entities.

• The quota is counted per building, not per country or per project. It can be full in one block and open in the one next door.
• The “foreign quota” and the “Thai quota” are two different products. The same unit priced lower in the Thai quota isn't a discount — it's a different form of ownership.
• Quota availability is checked in writing with the building's management, before the deposit — not taken on the seller's word.

The money has to arrive from abroad

To register a unit in the foreign quota, you need to prove the funds entered Thailand from abroad in foreign currency and were converted inside the country. The bank issues a supporting foreign-exchange transaction document, and without it the Land Department won't process the transfer.

• Paying cash locally, or from a Thai account topped up domestically, means the quota can't be registered.
• The transfer purpose should state property purchase — this isn't a formality; the document is issued based on the stated purpose.
• It's best to transfer in your own name. Money arriving from a third party complicates the registration.

Land: leases, usufruct, and the scheme that doesn't work

A villa with land isn't available to a foreigner as outright ownership. The legal workarounds are time-limited rights, not ownership.

• A 30-year lease is registered with the Land Department and protected. A promise of “plus 30 and another 30” is a contractual term, not a guaranteed right: renewal depends on the will of the owner or their heirs at that future point.
• Usufruct and right of habitation are lifetime rights of use — they're registrable, but they can't be sold or inherited like ownership.
• A Thai company to hold a villa is a common and risky scheme. A company set up purely so nominal Thai shareholders hold land on a foreigner's behalf is a nominee structure banned by law; if it's investigated, the land can be seized and the participants held liable.

The difference between these options shows up not at purchase but at exit: a unit in the foreign quota sells freely to the next foreign buyer, a lease sells at a discount for its remaining term, and a stake in a nominee company often doesn't sell at all.

What to check before the deposit

• The chanote and its type. Thai land carries several kinds of title document, and not every one grants full rights — this comes up regularly at resorts.
• Whether the foreign quota is available in the building. In writing, from the management company.
• Outstanding fees from the previous owner. Without a clearance certificate, the transfer won't be registered.
• Sinking fund and monthly fee. On resort projects this is a meaningful sum, and it's due whether or not you're living there.

Based on Thailand's Condominium Act, the Land Code, and Land Department registration practice.