Thai Property Law in 2026: What Is Law, and What Is Still a Press Release

Sales conversations in Hua Hin run in the future tense. The 99-year lease is coming. The foreign quota is going up. Everyone here does 30+30+30. None of it is invented. Each began as a real news story. But a proposal reported in a newspaper and a rule printed in the Royal Gazette are different objects, and only one of them binds the officer at the Land Office who registers your name.

Below is where each claim stands, checked on 3 August 2026.

The 99-year lease: not law

What was announced. During 2024 the then government pushed a plan to extend the maximum lease term available to foreigners from 30 years to 99. It was widely reported as being fast-tracked. It drew heavy criticism, largely on the grounds that it amounted to land ownership by another name.

What actually happened. On 16 September 2025, The Nation reported that the incoming administration had shelved it. A Bhumjaithai deputy leader, Siripong Angkhasakulkiat, was quoted saying the government had a limited mandate and would not push legislation that was still under study. The reporting framed it as parked, not killed.

Position today. Not law. No bill amending the 30-year cap has been passed, and we could find no evidence of one in active consideration before parliament as of early August 2026. The maximum registrable lease of immovable property in Thailand is 30 years, and has been throughout.

If someone tells you the 99-year lease is imminent, ask them to name the bill. Then ask what happens to your money if it never arrives.

The 75% foreign condo quota: not law

What was announced. In 2024 the cabinet approved a feasibility study into raising the foreign ownership ceiling in condominiums from 49% to 75%, with the Ministry of Interior to review it. Bloomberg reported the backlash in June 2024. The then prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, said publicly that foreign voting rights at co-owner meetings would stay capped at 49% regardless.

What actually happened. A study, a public row, and then nothing. No amendment bill has passed parliament. Reporting in mid-2026 suggests the political mood has moved the other way, towards tighter enforcement of existing rules rather than looser ones.

Position today. The Condominium Act quota is unchanged. Foreigners may collectively hold up to 49% of the total floor area of all units in a registered condominium. Not 49% of the units — floor area across the whole building. A developer who has sold out the foreign quota cannot create more of it by wanting to.

“30+30+30”: the underlying law was always 30 years

This is the one that costs people real money, because it is presented as a structure rather than a claim.

The statute. Section 540 of the Civil and Commercial Code caps a lease of immovable property at 30 years. A term longer than that is reduced to 30. Renewal is permitted, but a renewal may not exceed 30 years from the date it is made. Separately, a lease over three years must be registered at the Land Office to bind beyond three years. None of this is new or in dispute.

The ruling. Legal commentary widely reports a Supreme Court decision, Case No. 4655/2566, holding that pre-agreed stacked renewals designed to run past 30 years are void. The facts, as described by the firms writing about it: a lease signed in 1990 for 30 years, two further 30-year renewals promised, all 90 years of rent paid up front. When the first term expired in 2020 the landowner demanded possession, and the court declined to enforce the renewals as an attempt to bypass Section 540.

Two honest caveats. First, we have not read the Thai judgment itself, only English-language summaries from law firms, and the dating in those summaries conflicts. The case number carries the Buddhist year 2566, which is 2023, and at least one international firm describes it as decided in 2023. Others date it 18 March 2025, and another describes it as circulated in 2025 and applied by lower courts from 2026. Treat “the March 2025 ruling” as reported rather than settled. Second, Thailand is a civil law jurisdiction, so Supreme Court decisions are persuasive rather than binding precedent in the way an English or American lawyer would expect. Commentators disagree about how far this one reaches — some read it as voiding all pre-agreed renewals, others only those locking in identical original terms.

Position today. The practical point is beyond argument, and was true before the ruling. Only the first 30 years is a registered right attached to the land. A renewal promise is a personal contract right against a particular landlord. It is worth what that landlord is worth. If the land is sold, if the owner dies and the estate is split, if the developer’s company is wound up, you are holding a claim against someone who is no longer there. “90 years” on a brochure is a sales figure. Thirty years is the number on the deed.

What is actually law, and does not apply to you

There is genuine 2026 stimulus, worth understanding precisely because it gets quoted at foreign buyers who cannot use it.

Cabinet approved a further round of property fee cuts on 30 June 2026, reported as published in the Royal Gazette in early July and running to 30 June 2027. The transfer fee drops from 2% to 0.01% and the mortgage registration fee from 1% to 0.01%, on houses, townhouses, commercial buildings with land and condominium units where the price, the appraised value and the mortgage each sit at or below ฿7 million.

The condition that matters: the buyer must be an individual of Thai nationality. The previous round, from 22 April 2025 to 30 June 2026, carried the same restriction.

So if an agent hands you a costing sheet with a 0.01% transfer fee, it is wrong for you. Budget the standard 2% of appraised value, settle in writing who pays what share of it, and confirm the current figures at the Land Office before you sign, not after.

The land and building tax cut: not law

In September 2025 the property and construction sector asked for a 50% cut to land and building tax for 2026, and the new government said it was considering it. As of early 2026 no royal decree granting a general reduction for the 2026 tax year had been enacted, and full statutory rates apply. Foreign owners do pay this tax on condominium units and buildings they own.

One nuance to raise with your own lawyer. The main-residence exemption — the first ฿50 million for land plus building, or the first ฿10 million where you own only the building — requires your name in the household registration for that address on 1 January. Most foreign residents cannot be entered in the standard Thai book and go into the separate register kept for non-Thais. Whether that satisfies the condition appears genuinely unsettled. Ask your district office for the answer in writing.

The nominee company, which nobody volunteers

If you are being shown a villa on land, at some point a Thai limited company will enter the conversation, usually described as normal, standard, or what everybody does here.

Through 2025 and 2026 there has been a sustained enforcement drive against nominee shareholding, run across the Department of Special Investigation, the Department of Business Development, the Department of Lands and the Anti-Money Laundering Office, matching company registrations against land transactions. Phuket, Samui and Koh Phangan have taken the visible cases; a Koh Phangan operation reported in May 2026 involved seizures of over ฿200 million. Under Section 94 of the Land Code, land found to be held unlawfully by a foreigner can be ordered disposed of within a set period, failing which the state can force a sale.

Note what has and has not changed. Nominee holding was already unlawful under the Land Code and the Foreign Business Act. No new statute created the offence. What changed is that it is now being looked for. “Everyone does it here” is a statement about how common something is, not about whether it is legal.

A smaller point. To register a condominium unit in foreign quota, the funds must arrive from abroad in foreign currency and be converted by the receiving Thai bank. For remittances of USD 50,000 or more the bank issues a Foreign Exchange Transaction form, once called a Thor Tor 3; below that, a credit advice or bank letter is normally used. Sending baht rather than foreign currency is a common and avoidable way to stall your own transfer on the day.

How to check any claim yourself

You do not need Thai to do most of this. You need to be willing to be the person who asks.

• Ask for the section number. Not “the law says” — which Act, which section. Anyone who deals with this daily can answer in a sentence.
• Ask whether it is in force or proposed, and if in force, when it was published in the Royal Gazette — the official record, online at ratchakitcha.soc.go.th.
• Ask whether it applies to foreigners. Several real 2026 measures do not.
• Take the title deed number to the Hua Hin Land Office and check what is registered against the plot: owner, lease, mortgage, term.
• Then say: show me where that is written. If the answer is a brochure, a WhatsApp message or a phrase like “the government has confirmed”, you have your answer.

Everything above is our reading of public reporting and published law on 3 August 2026, not legal advice. Reporting on Thai property policy is frequently wrong, and the political position can change with a government.

Where we come in

We walk people through the Hua Hin market before they commit to anything, which mostly means slowing the conversation down and separating what a seller is promising from what will be registered. We are not lawyers and we do not act as your lawyer — you need your own Thai property lawyer, instructed by you and paid by you, not one introduced by the person selling you the house. We will happily sit in the room while you ask them the awkward questions.