Can anyone explain the intricacies of long term leasing of land, and building a house. Term of lease, payment, end of term conditions etc. I have often seen this leasing mentioned, but never yet been able to get a reasonable explanation. I have asked lots of associates, but i think most of my answers were guesses by "lower deck lawyers"

Moving to Real Estate section.

Intricacies, no, but I will give a bit of advice. In any business arrangement, both sides must have an almost equal amount to gain, and an equal amount to lose. Problem here, especially in/near westerner havens, is the Thai want it all, i.e., pay the lease X years in advance, in full. Develop land, build house. Now, what do they have to gain after that? Nothing. No monies or benefits are coming their way for another 20 or 30 years when you turn it over to them. Long time. Tempting for them to do things to accelerate possession. Contracts are paper, and mean nothing, no matter how many lawyers you had. It will cost you money to fight. I know of one instance where the leaser started shooting major league fireworks all night, to get the lessee out. When that did not work, he put a karaoke bar fifty feet away. Guy gave up and left. You might want to include something about that kind of thing in the contract. (Yes, he got a lawyer to sue and stop it, cost hundreds of thousands of baht and went nowhere.)

So, bottom line, leaser must have something to gain over the period of the lease. Offer to pay say, three years up front, build the house, then pay three years at a time for the duration. I've seen it done, and keeps the less scrupulous at bay.

Lastly, build in wood, something that can be disassembled and moved, should problems arise. Labor and truck to do so is cheap.

Contracts anywhere are good to prevent misunderstandings but worthless to enforce agreements.

Good luck. Oh, yeah. I had a deal with a guy where I paid nothing down, just developed the land and built the house. If everything was good in three years, I'd start paying three years at a time. I had to back out for family reasons, but there are leasers out there that will do this. Walk away if it's all one sided.