Could Your Thai Property Be Caught in a Nominee Crackdown, and How Do You Check?

A crackdown in Prachuap Khiri Khan is targeting company-held land. This article explains what the officials found and which ownership routes a foreign buyer can use.

Hua Hin Today reports that the latest checks in Prachuap Khiri Khan focus on 92 land plots held by 71 legal entities. Of those, 70 are being told to sell within a legally prescribed period of between 180 days and one year.

What did the Prachuap checks actually find?

Hua Hin Today, in its report of 22 October 2026, says the latest checks focus on 92 land plots held by 71 legal entities whose ownership structures breached landholding rules. The report says these plots cover 76 rai and 12.2 square wah. The provincial land office and its branches placed the entities under Sections 97 and 98 of the Land Code, because foreigners held more than 49 per cent of their shares or made up more than half of their shareholders.

What happens to a company that is found in breach?

Hua Hin Today quotes officials saying that failure to sell within the prescribed period would lead to enforcement action and sale by public auction. The Department of Lands director-general sets the disposal period, and it must fall between 180 days and one year. The report also says one entity has already sold a plot in Hua Hin measuring 30.1 square wah and valued at more than 300,000 baht; it does not say when that sale took place relative to the crackdown. The report describes the situation in Prachuap Khiri Khan only, and says nothing about other provinces.

Which ownership routes are legal for a foreign buyer?

Thaiger Legal's 2026 guide says buying property as a foreigner is legal and common, with one big carve-out: you cannot own land. A condo can be owned freehold in your own name, provided foreigners hold no more than 49% of the building's saleable floor area. A house needs a registered lease of up to 30 years, a usufruct (use for life, ending at your death) or a superficies (you own the building, and it is inheritable). The same guide says a Thai company with nominee shareholders is illegal, and that, under a Department of Business Development order, enforcement tightened from 1 January 2026; that is the scope the guide gives for the tightening, and it should not be read as a wider rule.

Where does this advice stop?

The Hua Hin Today report covers one province and does not describe how the 71 entities were set up beyond the share and shareholder thresholds. Thaiger Legal's guide is general information, not advice on your own deed. Two points in it carry their own limits. A March 2025 Supreme Court ruling killed the old "30+30+30 equals 90 years" pitch, because that ruling held pre-agreed automatic renewal clauses void; the guide ties this to that specific ruling rather than presenting it as a universal rule, and renewal of a lease takes a fresh registration if the landowner still agrees. And the stimulus cut of the transfer fee to 0.01% is real and runs to 30 June 2027, but only for buyers who are Thai natural persons, on properties at or under 7,000,000 THB, so a foreign buyer pays the full 2% of official appraised value, split by negotiation.

What should you check before you commit?

Start with whose name sits on the title and how the money travels, which Thaiger Legal calls the two decisions that carry nearly all the risk. Ask for written confirmation of the structure from your own lawyer, and keep every bank copy. For a condo, ask the juristic person office for written quota confirmation before paying any deposit.

Hush Villas offers four turnkey private-pool villas on Koh Phangan from $135,000, with handover in Q1 2027. What is registered and guaranteed at signing is the 30-year lease; later terms depend on agreement at renewal, and under the lease agreement the lease passes to the buyer's heirs on its existing terms.