Can a Foreigner Own Land in Thailand? How BOI Land Rights Work

Foreigners can’t own land in Thailand. That’s the blunt version, and for most people it’s true. But there are a few legal exceptions, and if you’re setting up a business here, one of them runs straight through the BOI. Here’s who can actually own land in their own name, what a BOI company can and can’t buy, and the alternatives worth knowing before you sink money into a plot you might not be allowed to keep.

We get this question a lot from founders who plan to build a factory, a warehouse, or an office in Thailand. They’ve usually heard two contradictory things: that foreigners are banned from owning land, and that a BOI company can own land freely.

Both are half-right. The ban is real, and the BOI exception is real, but the exception is narrower and more conditional than the sales pitch suggests. Let’s walk through exactly what the law allows.

The Default Rule: No Foreign Land Ownership

Start with the wall everyone hits. Section 86 of the Land Code says a foreigner may acquire land only if a treaty allows it. There’s no such treaty in force right now. So for nearly everyone, buying a plot in your own name simply isn’t possible, no matter how much money you bring.

People often assume the US Treaty of Amity is the workaround, since it lets Americans own up to 100% of most Thai businesses. It isn’t. The treaty specifically excludes land, so even a fully American-owned company can’t use it to hold land.

Ownership of a business and ownership of land are two separate questions in Thai law, and land is the harder one.

Don’t try the nominee route: The most common “solution” you’ll be offered is to put land in the name of a Thai spouse, friend, or a company where Thais hold 51% on paper while you hold the money and control. That’s a nominee arrangement, and it’s illegal. Enforcement has tightened sharply, with the authorities screening tens of thousands of companies for nominee structures. We cover how this gets caught, and the penalties, in our nominee shareholding guide.

The Rich-Individual Exception

There is one way for an individual foreigner to own land outright, and it’s built for a very specific person. Section 96bis of the Land Code lets a foreigner own up to 1 rai (that’s 1,600 square meters) of land for use as a residence, on two conditions:

• you invest at least THB40,000,000 in assets that benefit the Thai economy and
• you get approval from the Minister of the Interior.

In practice, almost nobody uses this.

The investment is large, it has to stay in place, the approval is discretionary, and it buys you a single rai for a home, not a business site. If you have THB40,000,000 to park in Thai bonds or an approved investment and you want a house on your own land, it exists. For most founders, it’s a footnote, not a plan.

The BOI Route: Land for Your Promoted Activity

Section 27 of the Investment Promotion Act lets a BOI-promoted company own land for its promoted activity, even though the company is foreign-owned. It’s one of the BOI’s non-tax incentives, sitting alongside the rights to bring in foreign experts and to remit money abroad in foreign currency.

Once the Board grants promotion for your activity, it can also grant the company the right to own land needed for that activity.

You get to hold the land freehold, in the company’s name, for as long as the promotion runs. For a manufacturer that wants to build its own plant rather than rent, that’s the difference between a real asset and a lease you never fully control.

It isn’t automatic, though. The land right comes with the promotion, and the promotion attaches to a specific activity, not to your company as a whole.

What It Covers, and What It Doesn’t

The BOI land right is scoped to your promoted activity. That’s the whole logic of it. The Board grants land ownership because your project needs a place to operate, so what it covers follows from what your project actually does.

• What it covers: land for the promoted business itself. A factory site, a warehouse, an office for the activity, and reasonable associated land such as space for staff facilities where the project justifies it.
• What it doesn’t: a personal home unconnected to the business, land for speculation, or a landholding you keep after the activity stops. The right exists to house the promoted operation, nothing more.

The amount of land isn’t unlimited either.

The Board approves what it considers reasonable for your project, so a light software company that needs a small office won’t be granted the same footprint as a factory. If your business is digital and asset-light, land ownership may not even be the incentive you care about; the tax holiday and 100% ownership will matter more.

You can see how the incentives stack up in our BOI incentives guide.

The one-year clock: The land right is tied to the promoted activity. If your promotion ends, whether it lapses, is withdrawn, or you wind the activity down, the company has to dispose of the land within one year. Plan for that. The land you own under BOI is business land for the activity, not a permanent personal holding you can sit on forever.

The Alternatives for Foreigners

If BOI land ownership doesn’t fit, either because you don’t have a promoted activity or because what you actually want is a home, two legal routes cover most people.

Condominium Freehold

A foreigner can own a condo unit outright, freehold, in their own name. That’s the cleanest form of real property ownership open to foreigners in Thailand. The catch is the quota: under the Condominium Act, foreigners can collectively own up to 49% of the total floor area of any given building. The other 51% must stay in Thai hands.

Once a building’s foreign quota is full, no more units there can be sold freehold to foreigners.

The quota is measured per building, by floor area, not by unit count. So before you commit to a unit, you confirm the building still has foreign quota available. This is the go-to for a foreigner who wants a home they truly own, but it only works for condos, not houses on land.

30-Year Registered Lease

For land or a house, the common legal structure is a long lease. You can register a lease of up to 30 years at the Land Department, which gives you a registered, enforceable right to use the land or property for that term. Leases are sometimes written with renewal options, though renewals aren’t guaranteed the same protection as the initial registered term, so treat the 30 years as the reliable part.

A registered lease is how a lot of foreigners hold a house or a plot legally without owning it. It’s also the honest alternative to a nominee company. You don’t own the land, but you have a real, registered right you can stand behind.

Which One Fits

Route	What you get	Best for	Main limit
BOI company (Section 27)	Freehold land, company name	Factories, warehouses, offices for a promoted activity	Tied to the activity; sell within 1 year if it ends
Section 96bis	Up to 1 rai, freehold, personal	A wealthy individual wanting a home on owned land	THB40,000,000 investment + Ministerial approval
Condominium freehold	Full ownership of a condo unit	A foreigner who wants a home they own	49% foreign quota per building; condos only
30-year registered lease	Registered right to use land or a house	Living in a house or on land legally	You don’t own it; term caps at 30 years

The rule of thumb:

• if you need land for a business, BOI is the route, and it comes bundled with the ownership and tax benefits that make promotion worth pursuing anyway.
• If you want a place to live, a condo or a registered lease is your answer, and neither requires BOI at all.

The two goals are different, and mixing them up is where people get talked into structures they shouldn’t touch. If you’re weighing full foreign ownership more broadly, our guide on the legal routes to 100% foreign ownership lays out how these pieces fit together.