Legal issues in Thailand - Straightforward but complexed Below we have put together some juridical basic facts about "Land", "House" and "Apartment" in Thailand, for you to get an insight in the Thai property law. It's in the reality quite clearly written but often there are other conceptions about what is right and wrong. For your safety as a prospective buyer it's important to be aware of that ERA Oakfield Thailand always follows current legislation. This may seem obvious but many native and foreign actors follows established practice instead of the property legislation. This you will notice if you are in touch with other brokers, property leaders, lawyers etc. Land Foreign private persons can't own land in Thailand except for very a limited number of exceptions. But as a foreigner you can lease land. The lease will be registered at the authorities "Land Office" and runs in periods for a maximum of 30 years. The owner of the leased land has during this time the right to sell, give away or draw up a will to give this land to a third part. This under the condition that the agreement between the land owner and the lease holder allows this and that the agreement text is correctly formulated. All drawn up lease agreements where ERA Oakfield Thailand is a liable broker have these and further rights. A common way to go around the above mentioned legislation is to launch a company. The arrangement in short is that you, with Thais as partners, buy the land of interest. To use a company with foreign partners only to own land is however illegal if the company is not operational. It's still recommended by foreign and local players involved in the property market though. We strictly advise against this. The leased land is, as earlier mentioned, registered at the authorities local Land Office and the lease holder is completely protected during the running period. If the lease agreement is formulated wrongly there's still a certain risk and that risk is with the broker. If the juridical person that enters the lease agreement have gone into bankruptcy, deceased, been sold or in any other way ceased on the day that the lease agreement was supposed to be prolonged this prolonging is at risk. All lease agreements made by ERA Oakfield Thailand eliminates that. All leased land that is intermediated by ERA Oakfield Thailand are legal, everything to maximize the safety for the lease holder. Different from Sweden, far from all land in Thailand is measured exactly or have determined owner conditions. In Bangkok and parts of other city - and tourist areas the entry into the land register is similar to the Swedish. The quality of the information varies consequently and because of that reason all sites are divided into different classes. House A lot of the information under the headline "Land" is also applied for houses. The big difference is that it's allowed for foreigners to own a house. This makes it also possible and totally legal for a foreigner to own a house with an own entry into the land register and at the same time lease the land. Condominium Generally a foreign ownership of condominiums is practiced. One aspect to be aware of is the "tenant's owner's society" owner dividing. In many parts of the country and in the most apartment buildings a maximum of 49 % of the total apartment area is allowed to be owned by foreigners. Another part of the process with buying an apartment is about the transferring of the purchase price. The whole amount must come from a foreign source and this must be proved at the registration of the documents of owner's possession. The process with the collection of the documentation and registration and necessary check-up is done by us. In most cases with buyers back in their home countries.