BOI Land Ownership in Thailand: What a Promoted Company Can Own

What BOI Land Ownership in Thailand Means

BOI land ownership is the permission granted under section 27 of the Investment Promotion Act B.E. 2520. It lets a promoted person hold freehold title to land in order to carry on the promoted activity. The Board fixes the amount. That amount may exceed the limits other laws impose on foreigners.

The starting position sits in the Land Code. Section 86 permits an alien to acquire land only by virtue of a treaty conferring the right to own immovable property. Thailand’s last such reciprocity treaty ended in 1970. Section 94 then supplies the enforcement mechanism. Where a foreigner acquires land unlawfully or without permission, the Director-General of the Land Department fixes a period for disposal. That period runs for no less than 180 days and no more than one year. On expiry the Director-General may dispose of the land.

Section 27 of the Investment Promotion Act B.E. 2520 cuts through that prohibition, but it does so conditionally. The right attaches to the promoted activity rather than to the company, and it lasts only as long as that activity does. So the land is a licensed asset rather than an ordinary freehold investment. That distinction drives most of what follows.

Two Permissions, Not One: Project Land and Ancillary Land

The Board regulates land on a use-case basis. Land for the promoted activity itself flows from section 27 and the promotion certificate. That covers the plant, the production facility and the operational footprint. A separate set of criteria governs land for an office or for worker housing. Those criteria carry their own capital floor and their own area caps.

The two permissions carry different financial conditions. A THB 50 million paid-up capital requirement applies to office and residential land. That figure does not appear in the text of section 27 at all. A project company below that figure may still hold its production site. It cannot own a separate head office.

Section 20 of the Act explains why the Board has this latitude. It lets the Board stipulate conditions in the promotion certificate across twenty listed areas. Those include the amount and source of capital, the nationality and number of shareholders, the size of the activity, and the location of the factory. Section 40 then bars the promoted person from moving the factory to any locality other than the one named in the certificate. The Board sets that period at between five and fifteen years, unless it grants permission under section 41.

Land, capital, shareholding and site are therefore a single package in the certificate. They are not four independent variables. Changing one is a certificate-amendment question for the Board under section 23.

How BOI Land Ownership Works for the Promoted Activity

For project land the enabling words are short. Section 27 permits the promoted person to own land to carry on the promoted activity “to such an extent as the Board deems appropriate”. The Act sets no acreage cap and no capital threshold here. Scope is therefore set project by project when the Board considers the application.

Because the Act fixes no ceiling, the ceiling comes from the project itself. Three things set it: the activity category, the approved investment, and the operational footprint the Board accepts. A manufacturer seeking a site larger than its production plan supports must justify the difference. Section 18 already requires the Board to weigh production capacity against demand estimates before granting promotion.

Two further points follow from the statute rather than from practice commentary. First, section 43 provides that the State shall not nationalise the activity of a promoted person. That guarantee sits behind a long-lived industrial land holding. Second, section 37 permits a promoted person, or an offshore investor, to remit abroad investment capital and returns in foreign currency. The same section reserves a temporary balance-of-payments power to the Bank of Thailand. Together those provisions answer the two questions a foreign board asks before committing capital to Thai real property.

BOI land ownership sits inside a wider promotion application. Anyone weighing this route against a joint venture should read our guide to BOI investment promotion in Thailand, which covers eligibility and the filing.

Offices and Worker Housing Under Notification No. 16/2567

Notification of the Board of Investment No. 16/2567 governs ancillary land. The Board issued it on 1 November 2024 and the Government Gazette carried it on 9 December 2024. A subordinate instrument, Notification of the Office of the Board of Investment No. Por. 8/2567, followed on 4 November 2024. Both set criteria for office and residential land.

The capital condition and the area caps

A foreign juristic person receiving investment promotion needs paid-up registered capital of at least THB 50 million. That capital must stay in place throughout the period of ownership. An office of the promoted business may sit on no more than 5 rai, or 8,000 square metres. Residences for operational-level workers may occupy up to 20 rai, or 32,000 square metres.

The conditions attached to worker housing

Residential land carries specific conditions. The company must provide common facilities such as parking, a first-aid room and a kitchen, as the Board approves. Where the housing sits away from the plant, it must lie within 10 kilometres of the place of business operation. The number of rooms must correspond to the number of operational-level workers employed.

Notification No. 16/2567 also removed an earlier allowance. That allowance let a promoted company hold up to 10 rai for residences of executives and experts. Housing rights now reach operational-level workers only. A company must therefore lease, not own, accommodation for expatriate management.

What Changed in 2026 for BOI Land Ownership Applications

Notification of the Office of the Board of Investment No. Por. 9/2568 carries the date 18 July 2025, and the Government Gazette published it on 6 January 2026. It amends the criteria for office and worker-residence land. It reaches applications filed from the date of the notification itself.

The change investors notice first is procedural. Applications now go through the BOI e-Land system rather than over the counter. The Office of the Board of Investment publishes the current notifications on its own land rights and benefits pages. Where a filing is incomplete, the Board issues an itemised request. A seven-business-day electronic correction window then runs. A filing that misses that window falls away. The Board then issues its final decision as a hard-copy letter by post.

The substantive amendments tighten the residential limb. Worker accommodation must take the form of purpose-built buildings. Land-subdivision projects, condominium units, detached houses and shophouses do not qualify. The company-wide caps of 5 rai for offices and 20 rai for worker housing remain.

Two consequences matter for a live project. First, a certified corporate document from an overseas parent rarely arrives inside seven business days. The evidentiary file therefore wants to be complete at first filing. Second, the caps are company-wide rather than per-project. A promoted company with several projects draws on one allowance, so BOI land ownership becomes a portfolio question. For land held inside an IEAT estate rather than under the Investment Promotion Act, see our guide to the industrial estate in Thailand and its section 44 exit clock.

Which Activities Can No Longer Obtain Land Rights

Notification of the Board of Investment No. Sor. 7/2568 restricts the land-ownership privilege for foreign-majority-owned companies in six promoted activity categories. It took effect on 1 September 2025. The Government Gazette carried it on 30 December 2025. It reaches applications filed from 1 September 2025 onward.

An exemption survives for established investors. The restriction does not reach a juristic person holding promotion for at least three projects granted within the past fifteen years. Those projects must carry a combined approved investment of not less than THB 5 billion, excluding the cost of land and working capital.

The same notification adds a shareholding condition for certain designated activities. Thai natural persons must hold at least 51 per cent of registered capital. That condition falls away where the promoted activity sits in a special border economic zone designated by the Board. Sector eligibility and land eligibility are therefore separate tests. A project can clear the first and fail the second.

Three Statutory Routes to Corporate Land Compared

Investment promotion is not the only statutory gateway to foreign land holding. A second route runs through the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand Act B.E. 2522. The Land Code itself offers a narrow third. These three regimes differ on who qualifies, where the land may sit, and how long a forced sale takes.

Why the disposal column matters

One factory building, on one road, carries a one-year forced-sale clock on a promoted site outside an estate. The same building carries a three-year clock inside an industrial estate under section 44. A company weighing a greenfield plot against an estate plot is therefore choosing between two exit timetables. It makes that choice years before anyone contemplates an exit.

For an estate plot the licensing analysis runs alongside the BOI land ownership analysis. Our guide to the factory licence in Thailand covers the permitting side of the same decision.

What Happens to BOI Land Ownership When Promotion Ends

Section 27 paragraph two is explicit. A promoted person who counts as a foreign national under the Land Code may dissolve or transfer the promoted activity. That person must then dispose of the land within one year. Otherwise the Director-General of the Land Department may dispose of it under the Land Code.

Read section 27 together with section 56 and a timing gap appears. Section 56 keeps the promotion certificate valid for not more than three months from the date of dissolution, merger or transfer. An operator taking over the activity must file its own promotion application within that period. If the Board grants promotion, the successor receives the rights that would have remained to the original promoted person. If it does not, all rights and benefits fall away.

So the certificate can lapse at three months while the land disposal obligation still has nine months to run. On an asset sale or a group reorganisation that sequence sets the order of work. Counsel must prepare the successor’s promotion application before completion rather than after it. The three-month window starts on the transfer, not on the day the parties file.

Withdrawal of Rights and the Tax Consequences

Land is one privilege inside a package, and the Act attaches consequences to the package as a whole. Section 54 empowers the Board to withdraw the rights and benefits granted to a promoted person, in whole or in part. The trigger is a violation of, or a failure to comply with, the conditions the Board stipulated. The Board also fixes the duration of the withdrawal.

Where the Board considers the failure unintentional, section 54 paragraph two allows a softer first step. The Office serves a written warning requiring remedy within a prescribed period. If the promoted person does not comply without justification once that period expires, the Board proceeds to withdrawal.

Import duties on machinery and materials

Under section 55, a total withdrawal of import and export duty benefits takes effect as if the Board had never granted it. Customs then computes duty on the condition and price of the items. The rate is the one in force on the date of import or export. The promoted person must apply to the Customs Department within one month of learning of the order. Payment falls due within one month of learning the amount. Late payment attracts a surcharge of one per cent per month, not compounded. That surcharge runs for no more than three months. After that, the law on customs treats the import as an evasion of duty.

Corporate income tax

Section 55/1 deals separately with juristic person income tax. The Board may withdraw the exemption retroactively to the financial year of the breach. The Revenue Code then applies to the tax the company had escaped. Dividends already paid out of the promoted activity before the date of the withdrawal order are not caught.

A land condition and a tax holiday hang off the same certificate. So a breach found on the land side can reach the tax position too. Treat the continuing conditions as a compliance programme rather than as a filing that ended on approval. Those conditions are capital maintenance, site location and workforce numbers. Companies holding land through a Thai-majority vehicle should read our analysis of nominee land ownership in Thailand instead.

Frequently Asked Questions About BOI Land Ownership

More questions on BOI land ownership

The Commercial Read

Both 2026 instruments move in the same direction. BOI land ownership is narrower, the filing is more formal, and eligibility is tested twice. One test covers the activity and one covers the land. For a manufacturer choosing a Thai site, the land question is part of the promotion strategy rather than a conveyancing step that follows it.

Several of these decisions are difficult to reverse once taken. Five choices decide whether the company may own the land at all, and on what exit timetable. They are the applying entity, its capital, the site, the activity category and the shareholding. None of them unwind easily once the Board issues the certificate and section 40 fixes the site.