Buying a Condo in Thailand in the Thai Quota

Kanokpich Ukritdutsadee
1 day ago
7 min read

A clear legal warning on the 49/51 rule, nominee companies and the active investigation foreign buyers must understand before they sign.

Kanokpich Ukritdutsadee (Lawyer Pook) Lawyers for Expats Thailand

LEGAL REPORT · 2026 EDITION

Professional Thailand property law consultation explaining foreign quota condo ownership rules for expats

Executive Summary

Every condominium project in Thailand is divided by law into two parts. Forty-nine percent of the saleable floor area may be held in freehold by foreigners. Fifty-one percent is reserved, as a matter of national policy, for Thai nationals. This is not a developer preference. It is statutory law under Section 19 of the Condominium Act B.E. 2522 (1979).

Foreign buyers are increasingly being asked to incorporate Thai limited companies, with Thai nominee shareholders, in order to take units that sit inside the Thai quota. This is illegal circumvention of the Condominium Act, the Land Code and the Foreign Business Act. The Department of Business Development, the Central Investigation Bureau and the Land Office are presently investigating these structures and the courts have already voided sales and ordered the cancellation of titles.

The position of Lawyers for Expats Thailand is unambiguous. Buy freehold in the foreign quota, or do not buy at all. Any circumnavigation of the 49/51 rule is dangerous and illegal.

“Foreign quota condos are premium priced, as this is what everyone wants.”

— a Thai developer, in conversation with the author.

1. The Law in Plain Terms

Section 19 of the Condominium Act B.E. 2522 (1979) provides:

“Aliens or juristic persons qualified under Section 19 may own units in a condominium provided that the ratio of the aggregate floor space of units owned by aliens and such juristic persons shall not exceed forty-nine percent of the total floor space of all units in such condominium at the time of registration of ownership.”

From that single provision, four practical rules follow:

• The 49% ceiling is measured by floor area, not by number of units.• Compliance is tested at the moment of registration of ownership at the Land Office.• A Thai company with more than 49% of its shares held by non-Thais is itself treated as foreign for the purposes of the quota.• The remaining 51% is reserved for Thai nationals. It is not available to foreigners as freehold, by any device or any structure.

2. History and Reasoning — Why the Thai Quota Exists

Thailand has, for more than a century, maintained the sovereign principle that land in the Kingdom belongs to Thais. The Land Code B.E. 2497 (1954) prohibits foreign land ownership almost entirely. As high-rise living developed, the legislature faced a question: how could foreigners be permitted to participate in the property market without compromising that founding principle?

The Condominium Act of 1979 answered that question by a deliberate compromise. Foreigners could own a slice of a building — the airspace, the structure and a proportionate interest in common property — but not the land beneath it. That slice was capped, by design, at forty-nine percent.

The fifty-one percent that remained was not a leftover. It was — and is — the heart of the statute. It is the part of every condominium building in Thailand that the legislature expressly reserved for Thai citizens, so that ordinary Thai families could still buy homes in their own country, so that Thai capital would remain anchored in Thai real estate, and so that foreign demand could never wholly displace domestic ownership.

Understood this way, the Thai quota is not a technicality to be engineered around. It is an act of national protection, embedded in primary legislation, and it must be respected by any buyer who wishes to hold property in Thailand securely.

3. The Dangerous Offer — “Just Set Up a Thai Company”

Foreign quota in desirable buildings sells out quickly and at a premium. That is precisely the point made to the author by a developer in the conversation quoted above. Once the foreign quota is exhausted, foreign buyers are routinely offered an alternative that is dressed up to sound routine:

“No problem. We will set up a Thai company for you. The company is Thai, so it can purchase in the Thai quota.”

This is illegal circumvention of the law. The structure typically introduces Thai shareholders to hold fifty-one percent of the shares on paper, even though they contribute no capital, exercise no real control and take no real benefit. The foreigner funds the company, runs it and uses it to acquire property that the foreigner could not lawfully own in his or her own name.

Buyers must grasp the central point: a Thai company with nominee shareholders could be treated as a foreign entity. The fifty-one percent Thai shareholding on the share register is no longer a shield in itself.

The Land Office, the Department of Business Development and the courts look past the paper and ask who actually paid for the shares, who actually controls the company, and who actually benefits from it.

Where those answers point to a foreigner, the company can be recharacterised as foreign for the purposes of the Condominium Act, the Land Code and the Foreign Business Act — and the Thai-quota unit it purported to acquire then falls outside the law. The sale can be voided, the title can be cancelled, and the directors and shareholders can face criminal exposure.

The relevant prohibitions and offences include:

• Section 86, Land Code — prohibiting foreign acquisition of land, including indirect acquisition.• Section 150, Civil and Commercial Code — voiding juristic acts expressly prohibited by law or contrary to public order.• Sections 36 and 37, Foreign Business Act B.E. 2542 (1999) — criminalising the use of Thai nominees to hold shares for foreigners in restricted activities, and the conduct of restricted business by foreigners without permission.

Supreme Court decisions, including 17923/2557 (2014) and 5457/2560 (2017), have repeatedly confirmed the position. Where Thai shareholders are nominees and the true acquirer is foreign, the structure is treated as void, the title can be cancelled and criminal liability follows.

4. Active Investigation — This Is Not Theoretical

In late 2025 and into 2026, the Department of Business Development (DBD), in coordination with the Central Investigation Bureau and the Land Office, moved decisively from general warnings to targeted investigation of nominee structures.

Public statements have made it clear that the authorities no longer ask only what the shareholder register says. They ask who actually paid, who actually controls, and who actually benefits.

Where the answers point to a foreign individual, the company is recharacterised as foreign, the property acquisition is treated as unlawful, and the arrangement is unwound.

Exposure under the Foreign Business Act includes imprisonment of up to three years, fines of THB 100,000 to THB 1,000,000, continuing daily fines, forced disposal of the property, deportation and blacklisting.

There is also a clear legislative direction of travel towards treating nominee conduct within Thailand’s anti-money laundering framework, with asset confiscation as a likely consequence.

The historical assumption that nominee structures would, at worst, be quietly unwound is no longer safe.

5. The Developer’s Dilemma — and the Lawful Answers

The developer’s comment quoted at the head of this report describes a genuine commercial dilemma. If the foreign quota of a building is sold quickly to international buyers at a premium, who, in foreigner-dominated resort markets, buys the remaining fifty-one percent that the law reserves for Thais?

That is the developer’s problem.

It is not, however, a problem that a foreign buyer may lawfully be asked to solve by entering into a sham company.

The lawful answers — and the only acceptable answers — include:

• Pricing Thai-quota units to match genuine Thai-market demand.• Active marketing to Thai purchasers and Thai investors.• Properly registered long-term leasehold structures for foreign buyers on Thai-quota units, with full disclosure of risk and within the parameters the Land Department accepts.• Mixed-use or rental-pool models that do not require foreign freehold over Thai-quota inventory.

What the lawful answers never include is the use of a Thai limited company with nominee shareholders to disguise foreign ownership of a Thai-quota unit.

That is not a workaround.

It is a trap, and the foreign buyer is the person standing in it.

6. The Position of Lawyers for Expats Thailand

1. The Thai quota is for Thais.

The fifty-one percent reservation is the law and policy of the Kingdom of Thailand. It is not available to foreigners as freehold, by any structure.

2. Any circumnavigation is dangerous and illegal.

Nominee companies, layered loan agreements, silent shareholders and friend-of-a-friend arrangements all carry criminal exposure, civil voidance and the loss of the property.

3. Enforcement is active and escalating.

The DBD, the Central Investigation Bureau and the Land Office are investigating nominee structures now. Yesterday’s tolerance is not today’s protection.

4. Buy freehold, or do not buy at all.

Foreign buyers should hold freehold within the 49% foreign quota of a properly compliant building, with funds remitted from abroad and registered correctly at the Land Office.

5. Where freehold is unavailable, we advise lawful alternatives.

Properly registered long-term leasehold, usufruct or superficies on landed property, or a genuine Board of Investment route for real business operations — never a sham company designed to disguise foreign ownership.

7. Practical Checklist Before You Sign

☐ Written confirmation from the developer or juristic person of the current foreign quota status of the specific building (not the project — the building).

☐ Written confirmation that your unit will be registered in the foreign quota at the Land Office.

☐ Evidence that purchase funds will be remitted from abroad in foreign currency, with a Foreign Exchange Transaction Form to be issued.

☐ Independent legal due diligence on the developer, the land title, the construction permit, the juristic person and the unit itself.

☐ Independent review of the sale and purchase agreement — never sign the developer’s standard contract without amendment.

☐ A clear refusal of any proposal to use a Thai limited company or nominee structure to access Thai-quota inventory.

If anyone — developer, agent, consultant or friend — pushes you towards a Thai company to access Thai-quota inventory, stop the process immediately and contact us.

Closing Words

The rule is not complicated.

The Thai quota is for Thais.

The foreign quota is for foreigners.

Stay on your side of that line and you will own real freehold property in Thailand with confidence.

Step across it through a nominee company and, sooner or later, you will lose the property, the capital and quite possibly your right to remain in the Kingdom.

Be safe. Be legal. Have Lawyers for Expats Thailand by your side.

Buy freehold, or do not buy at all. It really is that simple.