Property Due Diligence in Phuket: What a Lawyer Checks Before You Buy (2026)

This guide shows the actual checklist we work through — not the reasons to hire a lawyer, but what the lawyer does. It also gives the real numbers: what each check looks for, what the total transaction costs on a ฿10 million purchase are, and what your options are when a check fails.

What does property due diligence in Phuket actually include?

A proper due diligence engagement covers three layers: the property itself, the seller, and the transaction structure. Here is the 16-point checklist we run for a Phuket purchase:

The property

1. Title deed verification at the Phuket Provincial Land Office — confirming the deed is genuine, current, and matches the land being sold.
2. Encumbrance check — reading the back page of the title deed for registered mortgages, leases, usufructs, servitudes and seizure orders.
3. Ownership history (title lineage) — tracing how the title reached the current owner, looking for defective transfers or a title upgraded from weak documentation.
4. Boundary and survey check — matching the deed's survey data against the physical plot; commissioning a re-survey where boundaries are unclear.
5. Legal access — confirming the land connects to a public road directly or through a registered servitude, not an informal arrangement with a neighbour.
6. Zoning and land-use restrictions — Phuket's town planning zones, environmental protection zones, and elevation and slope restrictions that limit or prohibit construction.
7. Building permit and construction legality — verifying the villa or building was permitted, matches the permit, and (for newer projects) that any required environmental approval exists.
8. Utilities and common areas — for developments: who owns the roads, water system and common land, and what your legal rights to them are.
9. Unpaid land and building tax — confirming with the local administrative organisation (the municipality or subdistrict administrative organisation where the property sits, which collects Thailand's annual land and building tax) that no arrears are attached to the property.

The seller

10. Corporate check (if the seller is a company) — the company exists, is active, the signatory has authority, and the sale is properly authorised.
11. Litigation and bankruptcy search — court cases, bankruptcy proceedings or debt enforcement against the seller that could unwind the sale.
12. For developers: track record and project status — licences, prior projects, and whether the project land itself is mortgaged to a bank.

The transaction

13. Contract review — the sale and purchase agreement, deposit terms, payment schedule, and what happens on default (see our contract review service).
14. Structure check — whether the proposed ownership structure (freehold condo, leasehold, superficies, sap-ing-sith, Thai company) is legal and suits your situation.
15. Foreign quota confirmation — for condos: written confirmation from the juristic person that the building's 49% foreign quota has space for your unit.
16. Funds and FET compliance — for foreign buyers: routing the purchase funds so the bank can issue the Foreign Exchange Transaction evidence the Land Office requires.

Each of these produces a finding in the due diligence report: clear, conditional, or a red flag with a recommendation.

How do we verify a Chanote title deed — and what red flags do we find?

The title deed check is the core of the exercise, and it cannot be done from a photocopy the seller sends you. The lawyer attends the Phuket Land Office (or searches through its systems) and pulls the current registered record.

What we look at:

• The face of the deed: title type and number, the registered owner's name (it must exactly match the seller), the plot's survey coordinates and area.
• The back of the deed: every registered transaction in the property's life — mortgages, leases of over three years, usufructs, servitudes, and court seizure orders are all registered here. A "clean" copy shown by a seller means nothing; only the Land Office record is real.
• The lineage: how the current owner acquired the title. A title that was upgraded from a possessory claim, transferred through a questionable inheritance, or issued over land that was once forest reserve can be challenged — and in Thailand, a successfully challenged title can be revoked entirely, even against an innocent buyer.

Red flags we regularly find in Phuket: an undisclosed mortgage securing the seller's business loan; a registered 30-year lease to a third party the seller "forgot"; land whose only access crosses a neighbour's plot with no registered servitude; a villa built larger than its permit; and land inside a protected elevation zone where the existing house could never be rebuilt.

What is the difference between Chanote, Nor Sor 3 Gor and lower titles?

Not all Thai "title deeds" are equal. The type determines how safe the purchase is:

For a straightforward purchase, insist on Chanote or Nor Sor 3 Gor. Anything lower is a project, not a purchase — and the price should reflect that.

Freehold, leasehold or Thai company — which structure fits your purchase?

As a general rule, foreigners cannot own land in Thailand (the statutory exceptions — such as the ฿40 million investment route under the Land Code, or BOI-promoted entities — apply to very few buyers), so nearly every Phuket purchase involves a structure decision:

• Freehold condo — the clean option. Foreigners can own a condo unit outright within the building's 49% foreign quota (measured by total floor area, not unit count). Due diligence confirms quota space in writing before you commit. More detail in our guide to the condo foreign quota.
• Registered leasehold (30 years) — the standard structure for villas and land. The lease must be registered on the title deed to bind anyone beyond three years. Renewal promises beyond the first 30 years are contractual only — they bind the person who made them, not a future owner of the land, which is why the drafting quality of the lease matters far more than the brochure's "30+30+30" language.
• Superficies or usufruct — registered rights that can separate ownership of a house from the land beneath it, often combined with a lease to strengthen the buyer's position.
• Sap-ing-sith — the newest of these rights, and the one that answers a lease's three weaknesses. The Sap-Ing-Sith Act B.E. 2562 (2019) created a registrable right over immovable property whose holder has, under section 11, the rights, duties and liabilities of an owner for the registered term. It can be created only over land held under a Chanote title deed or a condominium unit, and where the property is already mortgaged the mortgagee's written consent is required. Under section 12 it can be transferred, it can be mortgaged, and it passes to the holder's heirs for the remainder of the term. The Act sets no nationality condition, so a foreigner may hold one in their own name. What it does not change is the ceiling: 30 years from registration, the same limit as a lease, and under section 15 the property goes back to the owner in the condition it is then in — so a villa the holder built stays with the land. Price it on 30 years, as you would a lease.
• Thai company ownership — a Thai company can own land, but a company created only to hold property for a foreigner, with Thai shareholders who are shareholders in name only, is a nominee structure. The Department of Business Development has been actively investigating these since 2025–2026, with new shareholder verification measures now in force. If this structure has been suggested to you, read our analysis of nominee structures in Thailand before proceeding.

Due diligence includes stress-testing whichever structure the seller or agent has proposed — it is common for the structure, not the property, to be the biggest risk in the deal.

What does due diligence cost — and what are the total transaction costs?

Legal due diligence on a Phuket property is a fixed-scope engagement; contact us for a quotation for your specific property. The larger numbers are the government transaction costs, which many buyers first hear about at the Land Office counter. Here is a worked example for a ฿10,000,000 purchase from a company seller (using appraised value = sale price for simplicity):

The example is a company seller. An individual seller is taxed on a different basis: specific business tax of 3.3% only where the property was held for less than five years, stamp duty of 0.5% instead of it after that, and withholding tax on a progressive formula that depends on the years of ownership — so an individual sale does not reduce to a single figure.

For a registered 30-year lease, the Land Office charges a 1% registration fee plus 0.1% stamp duty on the total rent over the term — ฿110,000 where the total rent over 30 years is ฿10 million.

Three notes on the table. The totals are the transaction's combined government costs, not the buyer's bill: withholding tax and SBT are legally the seller's taxes, while the transfer fee is commonly split — and whatever split is agreed belongs in the sale contract, not in a conversation on transfer day. The government's reduced 0.01% transfer and mortgage fee (extended to 30 June 2027) applies only to properties at or under ฿7 million and is generally limited to Thai individual buyers, so most foreign purchases in Phuket do not benefit.

How long does due diligence take in Phuket?

Realistic timelines, assuming documents are provided promptly:

Build this into your deposit terms: the reservation agreement should give you a due diligence period with the deposit refundable if material problems surface. Signing a non-refundable deposit before due diligence is the most common — and most avoidable — mistake we see. For the wider set of traps, see the real risks facing property investors in Thailand.

What extra checks apply to off-plan and villa projects?

Buying off-plan adds a layer of developer risk on top of property risk:

• Project land: is the land the project sits on mortgaged to the developer's bank? If so, what is the agreed mechanism for releasing your unit or plot from the mortgage at transfer?
• Permits before payments: does the project hold its building permit and any required environmental approval now — not "expected next quarter"?
• Payment schedule vs construction milestones: instalments should follow verifiable construction progress, and the contract should say what happens to your money if the developer defaults. Thailand has no mandatory escrow for most private sales, so contractual protection is all the protection there is.
• The developer: litigation history, previous projects delivered, and whether the selling entity is the same company that owns the land (frequently it is not).

What Phuket-specific rules catch buyers out?

Phuket has its own layer of restrictions on top of national law, and they are the most common source of "the villa can never be rebuilt" findings:

• Hillside construction limits. Phuket's environmental planning rules restrict construction above certain elevations and on steep slopes. A sea-view plot high on a hill may carry an existing house lawfully built years ago that could not be permitted today — which matters enormously the day it burns down, and for its resale value. Due diligence checks the plot's elevation and slope against the current rules, not against what is already standing on it.
• Coastal zones. Land near the beach sits in graduated protection zones with setback and height limits. The zone boundaries determine what can be built, at what height, and how close to the water — and they are not visible from the title deed.
• Short-term rental legality. Many Phuket buyers plan to rent daily on Airbnb-style platforms. Daily rental is hotel business under the Hotel Act and generally requires a hotel licence; the exemptions are narrow. If the investment case depends on nightly rental income, the licensing position of the specific property belongs in due diligence — not discovered after the first complaint to the authorities.
• Condominium vs "condotel" vs unlicensed apartment. Only a building registered under the Condominium Act gives foreigners freehold title and a foreign quota. Some Phuket projects marketed as "condos" are legally apartments or hotel rooms with contractual rights, which is a different — and much weaker — thing to own.

What happens if due diligence finds a problem?

A red flag is not always the end of the deal — it is negotiating power. Typical outcomes:

• Cured before closing: an undisclosed mortgage is paid off and discharged at the Land Office on transfer day, from the sale proceeds, before the balance reaches the seller.
• Repriced: a boundary shortfall or an unbuildable portion of the plot becomes a price reduction.
• Restructured: a risky proposed structure is replaced — a nominee company plan becomes a registered lease plus superficies, or a sap-ing-sith where the land is Chanote-titled, for example.
• Walked away: when the title lineage is defective or access does not legally exist, the correct advice is to walk away — losing a week of legal work, not the purchase price (and, with a properly drafted due diligence condition, not the deposit either). In our experience roughly one deal in ten dies at due diligence — which is precisely the point of doing it.

The due diligence report ends with a clear recommendation: proceed, proceed with conditions (and exactly which conditions to put in the contract), or do not proceed.

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This article is general guidance — not legal or tax advice. If you'd like a scoped opinion on how it applies to your specific situation, contact our team.