Thailand

The Thai rule is simple and hard: a foreigner cannot own land. What can be owned is a unit in a condominium, freehold and in your own name — subject to the caveat that decides any particular transaction: no more than forty-nine per cent of the aggregate floor area of the units in a building may be in foreign hands.

That quota is not a line in a statute so much as a remaining balance that either exists or has run out. In a building where the foreign share is taken, the same apartment will be sold to you on a lease rather than freehold, and that is a fundamentally different asset. The question is not "is there a quota" but "how much of it is left", with written confirmation from the juristic person.

For a unit to fall inside the foreign quota, the money must arrive in the country from abroad in foreign currency and be converted into baht inside Thailand; the bank issues a foreign exchange transaction form, without which the Land Department will not register freehold. Paying in cash locally or by a domestic transfer closes that route — and it cannot be reconstructed after the fact.

Villas are sold on a different structure: the land is leased for thirty years and the building is registered to the buyer. Renewal is written into the contract, but it cannot be treated as guaranteed in advance — it is the lessor’s obligation, not a right the law protects automatically. Nominee-company structures used to hold land are illegal, and enforcement surfaces them periodically.

The purchase confers no status: Thailand has long-stay visas, but none of them is tied to property. This is precisely the market sold on a way of life rather than on a document, and confusing the two is expensive.

The caveat: The 49% quota is a remaining balance, not a guarantee: once taken, the same apartment is sold on a lease dressed up as ownership.