Property News
October 21, 2026 · 6 min read · By Siam Keyholder Editorial
On October 19, 2026, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul ordered a nationwide crackdown on illegal nominee land holdings, instructing the Department of Lands and every provincial governor to conclude investigations into high-risk cases by December 2026. For anyone weighing foreign property ownership in Thailand, the announcement is less a warning than a clarification: it targets a specific illegal workaround, not the legal routes foreigners already use to buy condominiums and lease villas.
Speaking at Government House in Bangkok, Anutin laid out a three-part plan: finish investigating high-risk cases by December, enforce compulsory sales of land found to be illegally held while screening new buyers so the land cannot simply pass to another nominee, and tighten monitoring of new corporate structures to prevent the same scheme recurring (Nation Thailand). "This investigation must dig deeper to identify the true controlling figures, behind-the-scenes decision-makers, and ultimate beneficial owners," Anutin said, adding that a successful round of forced sales "could bring tens of billions of baht back into circulation" (Nation Thailand; The Star).
The drive sits alongside a separate, related push on foreign business licensing: the Department of Business Development reported 971 new foreign-business approvals between January and September 2026, worth 271.18 billion baht in investment, a 26% increase on the same period a year earlier, with officials stressing that legitimate foreign investment is welcome even as illegal structures are rooted out (The Thaiger).
Thailand's Department of Lands has so far identified 2,360 land plots, covering 5,467 rai (roughly 875 hectares), worth a combined 14.01 billion baht (about US$417 million), held through 1,397 Thai nominees on behalf of foreign beneficiaries (Emerhub; The Star). Phuket has been named as one of the hotspot provinces under review, and an earlier case in Krabi's Ko Pho area, uncovered in July, involved 22 plots covering about 126 rai worth roughly 2.15 billion baht on its own (Emerhub).
A **nominee arrangement** is when a Thai individual or Thai-registered company holds land on paper while a foreign national actually funds and controls it — a workaround for the Land Code's general bar on foreign land ownership (Tilleke & Gibbins). That structure is what is being dismantled; it was never the normal way foreigners buy property in Thailand.
The two routes that are legal, and unaffected by this enforcement drive, are:
Under Land Code Sections 94 and 96, a provincial Director-General of Lands who confirms an illegal nominee holding can order the land sold within 180 days to one year; if the nominee doesn't sell, the Director-General can dispose of it directly. Both the foreign buyer and the Thai nominee face criminal exposure — up to two years in prison and a 20,000 baht fine — on top of losing the land (Emerhub).
None of this changes how a foreign buyer legitimately owns property here. A freehold condo within the 49% quota, bought with properly documented FET funds, is untouched. A leasehold villa capped honestly at 30 years, without a disguised "permanent ownership" promise, is untouched. What the crackdown removes is the shortcut some agents and developers have quietly offered: a Thai company set up on paper to "hold" land for a foreign buyer who actually controls and funds it.
The practical lesson is to treat ownership structure as a due-diligence question, not an afterthought — ask exactly how a property is titled, who the legal owner of record is, and whether a lease is genuinely capped at 30 years before signing anything. Browse verified listings structured the legal way, or get in touch if you want a second opinion on an ownership structure you've been offered.
**Can foreigners legally own land in Thailand?** Generally no — the Land Code bars foreign nationals and foreign-controlled companies from owning land outright, with narrow exceptions requiring Board of Investment approval. This is exactly the rule the current nominee crackdown is enforcing (Tilleke & Gibbins).
**Does the nominee crackdown affect my condominium purchase?** No. Condominium freehold ownership within the 49% foreign quota, funded through a properly documented FET transfer, is a separate, fully legal ownership route under the Condominium Act and is not what this enforcement drive targets (terms.law).
**Is a 30-year leasehold villa still safe to buy?** A straightforward 30-year lease remains legal. Be cautious of any agreement that promises automatic multi-term renewals as a substitute for ownership — a March 2025 Supreme Court ruling closed that workaround, so a lease should be evaluated on its actual 30-year term, not on promised extensions (terms.law).
