A long lease is the most common way a foreigner ends up with a home in Thailand when full ownership is out of reach. It is known as leasehold, and until recently it was sold as a 90-year arrangement: a 30-year contract plus two promised renewals of the same length. The scheme went by the name "30+30+30", and marketing material presented it as ownership for the best part of a century. In March 2025 the Supreme Court of Thailand held those renewals to be void, and the 90 years disappeared from the buyer's calculations. Contracts using that wording are still being offered, and a good deal of material online still describes the arrangement as though it worked.
This article sets out what a 30-year contract gives you today, what became of the promise to renew it, how the right passes to heirs and what to look for in the wording before signing. The purchase process as a whole and every form of ownership open to a foreigner are covered in our guide on how a foreigner buys property in Thailand. Here we deal only with the lease: when a buyer chooses it deliberately, and when they end up with it by default.
Content:
- What a registered leasehold actually gives you
- What the court decided in March 2025
- What a renewal clause is worth in a contract today
- What happens when the building changes hands
- How a leasehold passes to heirs
- How to exit a leasehold before the term ends
- Who leasehold does not suit
- The 99-year leasehold: what is known about the bill
- Frequently asked questions
What a registered leasehold actually gives you
A lease running longer than three years is registered at the Land Office, and the entry is recorded on the reverse of the Chanote, the title document for the property. That entry is what turns a private arrangement between two people into a right the rest of the world has to respect. An unregistered contract is enforceable in court for three years only, whatever number of years the text may state.
The longest term the Land Office will register in one go is 30 years. Registration costs 1% of the total rent payable over the term, plus stamp duty of 0.1%, so 1.1% in all. Both are calculated on the total under the contract rather than on the annual payment, which makes the figure noticeable when the whole term is paid up front. Which side pays is for the parties to agree, and the point is worth settling before signature.
Take a unit at 4,500,000 baht ($125,000) with the full term paid in one go:
- registration fee at 1% — 45,000 baht ($1,250);
- stamp duty at 0.1% — 4,500 baht ($125);
- payable on signature — 49,500 baht ($1,375).
Where payments are spread across the years, the fee is calculated on the sum of all payments over 30 years rather than on the first instalment. At 15,000 baht ($415) a month the total comes to 5,400,000 baht over the term, and the Land Office collects 59,400 baht ($1,650). The payment schedule, in other words, affects the final fee as much as the price does.
A tenant under such a lease may use the property, let it out, transfer the right to another person and leave it to heirs — but none of that works on its own. Each of these depends on wording in the contract.
| What the tenant wants | What the contract needs to say |
|---|---|
| To let the property out | express permission to sublet, otherwise the owner's consent is required |
| To sell the right before the term ends | a clause allowing free transfer of the right to a third party |
| To leave it to heirs | a separate clause passing the right to named heirs |
| To carry out structural alterations | the owner's written consent to changes |
| To be protected if the property is sold | registration of the lease at the Land Office |
What the court decided in March 2025
On 18 March 2025 the Supreme Court of Thailand ruled on a property in Phuket (judgment No. 4655/2566). The tenant had signed a 30-year contract together with two renewal agreements, paying the full 90 years in a single sum in advance. The court held the renewal agreements void, ordered the tenant to vacate and set damages at 30,000 baht ($830) for every month until they did so.
The reasoning is simple: the law caps a lease at 30 years, and any construction that extends the contract past that ceiling in advance circumvents the cap. It makes no difference how the renewal is dressed up — as a separate agreement, as a clause in the main contract, or as a bundle of contracts signed ahead of time. Nor does it matter that both parties agreed and that the money has already changed hands.
The practical conclusion follows. Anything sold as 60 or 90 years should be treated as 30 years and priced on that basis. Paying extra up front for the "additional" 60 years means paying for a right the courts will not enforce.
What a renewal clause is worth in a contract today
Renewal clauses have not disappeared from contracts. Since the ruling they are worded differently: the owner undertakes to enter into a new lease when the current one expires. That is no longer the tenant's right to a second 30-year term; it is a personal obligation of one particular owner.
The difference shows in three situations. The owner dies — their heirs are under no obligation to honour the promise. The property is sold — the new owner need not honour a promise made by the previous one. The owner simply changes their mind — the tenant may claim damages, but not the renewal itself.
The clause still has value: it gives grounds for a monetary claim and keeps an honest owner to their word. What it cannot support is a family plan or a yield calculation stretching 60 years ahead.
"Clients still come to us asking where to buy a 90-year leasehold, because they have seen it advertised. We explain that only one term now counts, 30 years, and that everything else has to be reflected in the price. After that conversation some buyers go back to condominium units in buildings that still have room in the foreign quota," says a sales specialist for Thailand.
If room in the quota can be found, the form of ownership will be a different one. How to check the remaining share and why it is examined on registration day, we cover in our guide to when a foreigner cannot register a Thai condo as freehold.
What happens when the building changes hands
An owner is free to sell the house or the land without asking the tenant, and in practice this happens. It does not alter the terms of the lease: the buyer takes the property together with the entry on the Chanote and steps into the previous owner's shoes. Until the term expires the tenant carries on under the same conditions as before. The new owner cannot evict them or raise the rent unilaterally.
An unregistered contract offers little protection here. The court will uphold it for three years; after that the tenant is left with a monetary claim against the former owner while the property sits with the new one. Registration is therefore not something to postpone, even where the developer suggests signing now and visiting the Land Office later.
Construction-stage insolvency of a developer is a separate story. Until the building is completed and the Chanote issued there is nothing to register, and the tenant is left holding a contract and payment receipts. How the order of claims works at that point and which documents are needed, we cover in our guide to how a transfer of ownership works at the Land Office.
How a leasehold passes to heirs
The right under a lease is not inherited automatically. By default the contract ends when the tenant dies, and the family is left with nothing even where the whole term was paid in advance. To avoid that, a separate clause passing the right to heirs is written into the contract, and it is better to name them.
Heirs receive the remainder of the term, not a fresh 30 years. A contract signed in 2026 expires in 2056 no matter how many times the right has changed hands through inheritance. For a buyer acquiring a home for their children, that is the figure that matters: by the time grandchildren use the property, the term will have run out.
Probate goes through the courts: the heirs establish their rights and then register the transfer at the Land Office. A Thai will covering local assets simplifies the procedure and saves time.
How to exit a leasehold before the term ends
The right under a lease can be sold, provided the contract expressly allows it. The buyer takes over the remaining term: the fewer years are left, the lower the price, and the decline is not even — the final ten years sell markedly less well. Marketing periods and the seller's costs are covered in our guide to selling property in Thailand and the taxes and fees involved.
The second route is to agree termination with the owner and recover part of what was paid. Those terms are also set out in advance; otherwise the decision rests entirely with the other side.
"We ask for the transfer clause to be included every time, even when the buyer is certain the home is for their own use. Plans change for most people within seven to ten years, and the clause cannot be added later — that needs the owner's consent, and by then consent comes at a price," says a sales specialist for Thailand.
Fees and taxes on a transfer of the right are covered separately, in our guide to property taxes in Thailand and which side pays what.
Who leasehold does not suit
The form works, but it does not fit every purpose.
- Anyone buying for children and grandchildren. The term is finite and does not renew automatically, and 30 years is short for a family horizon.
- Anyone counting on selling the right mid-term at a profit. The remaining term shrinks every year, and growth in the value of the property does not always offset it.
- Anyone waiting for the 99-year law. Existing contracts would not be extended automatically if such a law were passed.
- Anyone who wants a free hand with the property. Subletting, alterations and transfer of the right all come back to the contract wording and the owner's position.
Sometimes leasehold is the more sensible choice: it is cheaper at entry, it does not require money to be sent from abroad, and it is available in buildings where the foreign quota has been used up. Registering the property to a Thai company looks more attractive than either option, but such structures have been investigated at scale since 2025. Before agreeing, read the signs by which a Thai company is treated as a nominee arrangement.
The 99-year leasehold: what is known about the bill
A bill raising the maximum lease term from 30 to 99 years has been under discussion since late 2024. It passed its readings in the autumn of 2025, but there is still no royal assent and no publication in the Royal Gazette, and without those it is not in force.
What that means for a buyer today:
- The Land Office will not register a lease longer than 30 years.
- A developer's promise to "re-register it for 99 years once the law passes" has no legal weight.
- The proposal to raise the foreign quota in condominiums to 75% is at the same stage — it has not become law.
Frequently asked questions
Can a lease in Thailand run for 90 years?
No. Thirty years can be registered, and renewals agreed in advance are treated by the courts as void.
What does a renewal clause give me?
The right to require the owner to enter into a new contract, and to claim damages if they refuse. It does not extend the term automatically.
Does a leasehold pass by inheritance?
Only where the contract says so expressly. Heirs take the remainder of the term, not a fresh 30 years.
What if the building is sold to a new owner?
A registered lease binds the new owner until the term ends. An unregistered one protects the tenant for three years only.
What does registering a lease cost?
One per cent of the total payments over the term, plus stamp duty of 0.1%. Which side pays is agreed in the contract.
Can the right under a lease be sold before the term ends?
Yes, where the contract permits a transfer. The buyer takes over the remaining term.