Thai law caps a lease of property at 30 years. Most foreigners who buy a house here hold
the land this way. It is lawful, normal, and works — if you understand what you’re buying.
Register it
Any lease over three years must be registered at the Land Office to be enforceable for
its full term. Unregistered, it is good for three years whatever the paper says.
A registered lease survives a sale of the land — the buyer takes it subject to your
lease. That alone is why registration matters.
“30 + 30” — read carefully
You will be offered leases with renewal options. A renewal option is a personal promise from the current landowner. Thai courts have generally not treated it as binding on a
successor, so if the land is sold or inherited, the new owner may not be obliged to honour it.
Not a reason to avoid leasehold. A reason to:
- Price the first 30 years and treat renewals as a possibility, not an asset
- Register the lease — always
- Consider a usufruct or superficies alongside it, which can be more durable
Owning the house, leasing the land
A sensible and common structure: register a lease of the land, and own the building in
your own name. Buildings can be foreign-owned; land cannot.
Before you sign
Check the lease is registered, the title matches the person signing, there is no prior
mortgage that could outrank you, and that you may sublet, transfer and bequeath it. That
last one is not automatic and matters more than people expect.