On 2/10/2026 at 6:13 AM, khunJam said:

Marry a Thai and buy some land and put it in her name. Then build a house and put the house in your name and lease the property from her.

And then get told to f×ck off when she moves her brother ( husband ) Mamma, Poppa, aunties, uncles, kids, chickens, goats and buffalo in. 🤣😂🤣

The riskiest way to own land is not freehold or leasehold but wifehold

On 2/10/2026 at 11:56 AM, BritManToo said:

In my moobaan a 3 bed detached house is 8k/month ....... you'll need to put in your own pool though. Or you can use the public pool in the next Soi for 50bht a go.

Moobaan

Public pool

8k? where is that ? I pay way more for my shoebox and would love to move to a house that cheap

On 2/10/2026 at 11:56 AM, BritManToo said:

In my moobaan a 3 bed detached house is 8k/month ....... you'll need to put in your own pool though. Or you can use the public pool in the next Soi for 50bht a go.

Moobaan

Public pool

Yep, bargains everywhere. Got to take the time to shop around. Living with your choices is much easier.

Locally, there was a 3 bedroom townhouse (15k), surfside with our beautiful local bay view right off the balconies. But ... didn't take dogs. If they had, we might not have even bothered building a house. Could have been waking up to this every day, and vendors just out the door.

1 hour ago, Jimbolkb said:

8k? where is that ? I pay way more for my shoebox and would love to move to a house that cheap

12km north of the moat in Chiang Mai.

They also do quite large condos for 2k5/month.

On 2/9/2026 at 11:46 PM, scubascuba3 said:

You can get big condos for 5m baht with a pool you won't need to worry about. Pools are a PITA when there's a problem. Then no worrying about legality of a house

Swimming pools are like women. Expensive and very high maintenance when you consider the amount of time you actually spend inside them.

On 2/9/2026 at 11:30 PM, parafareno said:

i am 50 yo and if i buy a house i can stay in it for 30 years till the lease is gone...but what happens after...if they dont want to renew the lease? They just keep your house? or they buy it from you? did anybody have any experience like that?

i am from EU.

Lets say house it 5 million bth and do you need to pay extra for lease? or is the seller who owns the land so lease is included in the price?

There are several ways to "own" a house in Thailand – and yes, a foreigner can own a house, but normally not the land under it – "normally", because if you enter on an "investor visa", then you are allowed to own up to one rai of land; however, according to news articles less than 10 people have used that possibility.

When a lease period – which can be up to 30 years – ends, then that is it. If the lease is for both land and buildings, they are the owner’s property. If the lease is only for the land, the lease-agreement might stipulate whether the land shall be cleared and returned as when the lease began, or if any constructions shall be handed over to the owner. You will anyway need a permission from the owner to raise any new buildings on the land; i.e., a so-called superficies.

So, if you buy a house for 5 million baht, then it can be a house of a leased or rented land, where the remaining lease period is already paid for and included in the seller's price, or an ongoing rent shall be paid at agreed terms. You might also find a house in a so-called "project" – often a gated small community – where you pay an annual maintenance and service fee. Calculating on a "5-million-baht investment" in property, you shall look at it as a rent for that period a lease is running, or the remaining period if bought second-hand, and compare it to a monthly rent. If the 5 million baht is for 30 years, it equals a monthly rent around 15,000 baht – interest calculations not included – while, if it's a second-hand house with only for example 15 years left of the original lease-period, then the monthly rent is more like in the range up to 30,000 baht per month.

A possibility is to let a Thai wife – or partner – own the land and register a usufruct agreement, or a habitation right, on the title deed at the land office. Both servitudes can run for an agreed period of time up to 30 years or for life. You shall – and I'm sorry to mention it – consider the risk of perhaps being worth more dead than alive. My real estate lawyer mentioned a possible way to secure one's investment – and life – by register a loan, equalizing the invested capital, as a mortgage on the title deed in the land office; with such a structure the land/property cannot be sold or transferred without the loan is paid in full, included eventual agreed interest.

Another way, often used earlier, is to let a Thai company limited own the house. However, that possibility has become more difficult the later years. You might also find houses for sale owned by foreigners through aThai company limited-method. In that case you don't buy house and land, you simply just buy the company, or rather 49% of the shares and enough voting rights to control the company. Be aware that a company needs accountant and file annual tax reports; so, having a company limited as house owner is not without ongoing expenses, and might legally be in a grey zone.

A lot is said by Khun Per.

A lease is max 30 years in Thai law, after that it MUST be renewed. Again for 30 years or whatever.

Then even a third time it can/must be renewed. After 3 times stops, says Thai law.

No clue what would happen then.

But then you could be 90 years further.

BUT if owner says no, then it is the end and you have to bring back land in original state as it was from day one.

No possibility in a lease to include more time. 30 years , end, Thai law.

Couldnt tell if it is possible to hand over your house to owner land and put that in contract. with or without compensation for house. Same with your pool. Fact is lease ends, bring back in beginning state.

Only with a usufruct it can be set "for life". Then you could be on lease for as long as you live.

Also read consequences of leasing and what you need to pay or do !

But stops when you die. All returning to owner then. Dont know if you are responsible for costs of breaking down house & pool. You cant have an heir taking it over, contract is only in your name.

If you somehow get married, that person will not be able to stay after you die, unless it is the owner.

Thai company to hold house was done in past, but rules are way more strickter then before.

Your company REALLY needs to work. You will have a lot of additional demands.

You have modular houses, container homes, I saw even in Thailand companies.

Of course they dont give prices. But you can have ideas from Alibaba of those houses

For example https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Prefab-Luxury-Villa-Tiny-Modern-House_1601567892658.html?spm=a2700.prosearch.normal_offer.d_image.1c8767afNqivcI&priceId=320fd8c55a9d4ce9b331e667564f5ad5

If the cranes are steady enough, they could deliver such a house in no time.

Maybe asking for house which can be moved easily to other place, however if it stands longer time, it could break down. And with rebuilding, you could have problems.

On tv, saw in Australia, they move houses completely ! Incredible how they do it. Was flabbergasted.

However you are in Thailand.

You can make to whatever you want, size, materials and so on. And also easy way to break it down.

Though a pool of concrete will take some time to break down.

Do some checking on "Siam Legal" it makes you wiser. But always be critical on what you read.

Read the little lines and obligations.

23 hours ago, Jimbolkb said:

my 50 satang

you need to buy the land / house, only, with your girlfriend

you take a USUFRUCT for life, added to the chanote

you can live in it all your life

if you do this during marriage, it can be void by DIVORCE

what does it mean? if you die she gets the house and land....what if you break up? after 1 year what usually happens

On 2/10/2026 at 6:09 AM, parafareno said:

only way i can do it is though company? or can i just buy a house and pay to lease the land? so after 30 years can you force the owner of the land to extend for anohter 30 years....if I would be the owner i would say no and keep the house....i just dont get this...maybe i will live to 90 yo who knows...

The owner has the cards in their hands always. You can't force anything here. Always need a lawyer if there's a disagreement. After 30 years, you'll be 80, and you could always rent from that point on if the owner is against an extension. When it hits 28 years, if you'rre worried get a lawyer, but the contract will always be for those first 30 years.

15 hours ago, xtrnuno41 said:

You have modular houses, container homes, I saw even in Thailand companies.

Thanks for your comments to my reply to OP.

"Modular houses" was common in older Thailand – just as renting the land under the house. Many of the old wooden Thai house were constructed to be easily taken apart and moved to another plot of land. lots of Bangkok lis built on leased land, including places like Siam Paragon and Central World shopping malls and major hotels; 1,300 hectares of Bangkok with circa 17,000 lease agreements is owned the Crown.

To my knowledge you are free to include clauses about compensation in a rental or lease agreement – the Thai law (in English translation) only mention rent, where often the division is that if the agreement is shorter than a fixed period of 3 years then it's rent, and if it's longer, up to 30 years, then it's lease – The major question is, if the owner accepts it. Ask yourself, if you as land owner would agree to pay millions of baht in compensation when a lease end for some buildings that might be in such a bad maintenance state that they are not only worthless, but furthermore a cost to get removed.

The 3 years dividing point is registration on title deed and tax. Any rental agreement of land for more than 3 years shall be registered at the land office and tax paid of the agreed rent for the whole agreed rental period.

A lease (long term rental) agreement can include clauses for sale of the rental-agreement with its remaining period to third party, sub-lease, or transfer to heir, if lessee dies.

Renewal of land-lease is possible, but it cannot be included in the agreement. The law clearly states that any period agreed longer than 30 years will terminate after 30 years from starting date of the rent. So, a renewal agreement – if someone try to sell 2 x 30-years or 3 x 30-years lease – is an agreement between the lessee and the land owner. If the land is sold or transferred to a new owner during the lease, there is no such agreement with the new owner, as only the initial 30-year lease is registered on the title deed. You can take legal actions against the former owner and claim compensation, but that does not give you further access to the land – and your eventual dream house on that plot of land – and what do you do, if the former owner is broke or dead?

I mentioned to be aware of so-called "projects" – often in a gated area – where they "sell" you land or house-and-land on lease terms. We had a sad case on Samui – where I live – where numerous people leased land in a gated project and build houses. Apart from they were forced to buy water and electricity at double price from the lessor's company limited, the worst thing was, that the lessor – a foreigner – didn't own the land, but his company had leased it from a Thai owner; and this lease term ended several years before the end term in the contracts he had sold. The buyers had prepaid for their individual whole 30-yers lease terms. The Thai owner didn't want to grant a new lease and therefore closed access to area. Do I need to mention that the foreigner disappeared and the house owners lost everything?

The good old saying, "don't invest more in Thailand than you can afford to lose", is worth having in mind.

If you use the company limited-method – with a company having other activities than just owning a plot of land rented out to a director and major shareholder – and if you are in control of the company's voting rights, you can in principle just make an ongoing rental agreement. Such an agreement will run until it is terminated by either party with a notice agreed in the contract and within the legal notice stated in the law.

17 hours ago, xtrnuno41 said:

A lot is said by Khun Per.

A lease is max 30 years in Thai law, after that it MUST be renewed.

The owner doesn't have to renew the lease.

7 hours ago, khunPer said:

Thanks for your commen to my reply to OP

Khun Per, thanks for more info.

I see, you gave a situation of as I would call it, a scam.

You are telling, always you have to be sure and check if the land IS from a real original owner.

You must know if land is already leased out, otherwise leases dont add up.

Yeah, is possible, didnt think about that, but you showed in real situation. A thing you easily could overlook.

In this case, the land was already leased out, so you have a middle man (company), and they dont care.

I also understood in the lease contracts, any additional "agreements" are nothing worth.

Like a next renewal of land, it is said, those are intentions, but could be broken.

So if such "agreements" can be broken, then more complicated ones, as housing could be the same?!

Fact is after lease period, the contract is not valid anymore. You need to renegotiate way before ending of lease contract, red once 5 years before end. And yes, why woud a landowner step into such an "agreement"?

Only if a 5 million house, would maybe cost him 1 million after lease period depending "agreement".

Your info showed, you really have to be careful, doing such things and otherwise be aware you loose all.

It is logical, by Thai law, those situations can occur, you have to think about it first, such situations are there in Thailand.

Thai law is always for foreigners to punish and not for Thai.

Btw how is garbage disposal in Koh Samui now? As that was a matter Thai law for Thai governor.

Once red it had to be cleared, but never saw a follow up. All the tons of garbage gone?

Should be as he had 6 months time, I believe. and that time has already gone.

6 hours ago, FritsSikkink said:

The owner doesn't have to renew the lease.

On 2/11/2026 at 1:14 PM, xtrnuno41 said:

BUT if owner says no, then it is the end and you have to bring back land in original state as it was from day one.

5 hours ago, xtrnuno41 said:

11 hours ago, FritsSikkink said:

On 2/11/2026 at 7:14 PM, xtrnuno41 said:

BUT if owner says no, then it is the end and you have to bring back land in original state as it was from day one.

No, you can't touch the house.

15 hours ago, xtrnuno41 said:

Btw how is garbage disposal in Koh Samui now? As that was a matter Thai law for Thai governor.

Once red it had to be cleared, but never saw a follow up. All the tons of garbage gone?

Should be as he had 6 months time, I believe. and that time has already gone.

Thanks for your comments about lease.

I don't know if the incinerators have been fixed – one of the two were partly working on about half capacity – we don't hear much locally, if not in major news, we don't have a local newsmedia since Samui Times closed. The local Thai language newsgroups in Facebook don't share much about boring subjects like garbage incineration – it's something you cannot see. It seems like they are still sending most of collected garbage to the mainland, but I have no reliable present update.

Otherwise, garbage collection works quite well on the main roads. People living in sois (side streets) might still need to bring their stuff to collection points at the main roads – however, some Thai still just burn their litter themselves – but I've noticed garbage trucks begin to visit side roads; perhaps it's a question about paying for collection. I have my garbage collected – at the moment every second day – for 500 baht per month; worth the cost.

The sign says: "Private land ... Do not leave garbage along the route ... Violators will be fined 3,000 baht." After a while it did work, now only the sign is there...