Nominee Crackdown Reaches Phuket Villa Deals
Police seized B1.05bn in land across Phuket, Phang Nga and Krabi in June 2026. What the nominee enforcement wave means for foreign villa buyers.
More than 500 officers carried out simultaneous raids in Phuket, Phang Nga and Krabi on 20 June 2026, executing 55 warrants and arresting 48 people, 27 Thai nationals and 21 foreign nationals, according to Khaosod English and Bangkok Post reports. Land valued at 1.05 billion baht was seized. The operation is the southern phase of a national campaign against nominee shareholding, where a Thai national holds shares on paper so that a company appears to satisfy the majority-Thai ownership requirement while a foreigner controls it in practice.
What Was Actually Targeted
The target is the structure, not the property. Foreigners cannot hold freehold land in Thailand, so a foreign buyer who wants a villa on its own plot has historically used one of two routes: a registered lease, or a Thai company that owns the land. The company route works only when the Thai shareholders are genuine investors with their own money at risk. Where the Thai shareholders are dummies holding shares for a fee, the arrangement breaches the Foreign Business Act, and that is what officers are prosecuting.
The scale of the review is set out in Department of Business Development figures reported by Bangkok Post and syndicated by the South China Morning Post on 21 June 2026. The DBD flagged 11,426 companies on Koh Phangan and Koh Samui with foreign shareholders, close to 68% of every registered firm on those two islands, and identified more than 7,000 businesses nationally as suspected nominee structures, concentrated in real estate, tourism and hospitality.
The Effect on the Villa Market
The same reporting described prospective buyers postponing luxury villa purchases in Phuket and Koh Samui while the legal position settles. Bangkok Post put roughly three in five Phuket villa transactions as involving a foreign buyer or lessee, an estimate attributed to property market sources rather than to a registry, so treat it as an order of magnitude rather than a precise share.
A pause of this kind is uncomfortable for sellers and useful for buyers who were going to do proper legal work anyway. Deals that were structured correctly are unaffected. Deals that relied on a shareholder who never contributed capital were always exposed, and the enforcement wave has moved that exposure from theoretical to immediate.
Not sure which structure your villa deal actually uses?
We review the ownership structure before you pay a reservation fee, in plain language, and tell you when the answer is that you should walk away.
The Lease Route Has Its Own Limits
Buyers moving from company structures to leases should understand what a Thai lease is and is not. Thai law registers land leases for a maximum of thirty years at a time. Contracts are frequently written as 30+30+30, with renewal rights promised for a further two terms, but a renewal is a contractual promise rather than a registered right for the later terms.
Supreme Court Decision No. 4655/2566, cited in the June reporting, held that pre-paid automatic renewal clauses designed to bypass the thirty-year statutory limit are void. That does not make leasehold unsafe. It means the honest description of a Phuket leasehold villa is thirty registered years with contractual renewal rights whose enforceability depends on the counterparty still existing and cooperating, and buyers should price it that way.
What Is Not Affected
Condominium freehold is a separate legal route and is untouched by this campaign. Non-Thai nationals may hold freehold title in registered condominiums within the 49% foreign quota measured by total floor area of the building, not by unit count, under the Condominium Act B.E. 2522 (1979). The remaining 51% must be Thai-owned. That title is registered in the buyer’s own name at the Land Department, with no company and no nominee involved, which is exactly why it is not part of the enforcement story.
For a foreign buyer whose priority is a title they can hold, resell and pass on without structural risk, the quota condominium remains the cleanest instrument in the Thai market. Buyers who specifically want land under their feet should go in understanding the trade-off rather than being sold around it.
What to Check Before You Sign
Ask who the Thai shareholders are and whether they can evidence their own capital contribution. Ask to see the lease as it would be registered at the Land Office, not the marketing summary. Confirm the foreign quota position of a condominium in writing from the juristic person before paying anything. Use a Thai lawyer who is instructed by you rather than introduced by the seller, and read our company ownership guide and freehold versus leasehold comparison before the first meeting.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Condominium freehold inside the 49% foreign quota, measured by total floor area of the building under the Condominium Act B.E. 2522, registers title directly in the foreign buyer's name with no company involved. The enforcement campaign targets Thai companies whose Thai shareholders are nominees holding shares on someone else's behalf, which is a different structure entirely.
A Thai company can own land, and foreign minority participation is lawful. What is unlawful is using Thai shareholders who hold shares on a foreigner's behalf without contributing their own capital. The distinction is whether the Thai shareholders are genuine investors. Since 1 January 2026 the Department of Business Development has required documentary proof of source of funds for newly incorporated companies, which makes that distinction much harder to blur.
More than 500 officers conducted simultaneous raids in Phuket, Phang Nga and Krabi, executing 55 warrants and arresting 48 people, of whom 27 were Thai nationals and 21 were foreign nationals, with land valued at 1.05 billion baht seized. The figures were reported by Khaosod English and Bangkok Post.
It depends on what you are buying. A quota condominium purchase involves none of the structures under investigation and there is no structural reason to wait. A villa on land bought through a company structure deserves proper legal review before you commit, and if the seller resists that review, the review has already told you what you needed to know.
A registered thirty-year lease is a recognised and lawful structure, and it is what most foreign villa buyers in Phuket use. The caution is on renewals: Supreme Court Decision No. 4655/2566 held that pre-paid automatic renewal clauses designed to circumvent the thirty-year limit are void, so treat years 31 to 90 as contractual expectations rather than registered rights when you price the deal.
Read Also:
MORE Group Editorial
Phuket Real Estate Experts
The MORE Group team has helped 500+ European and American buyers purchase property in Thailand. We provide legal support, 0% commission, and on-the-ground expertise with 8 years in the Phuket market.
About MORE Group →Get Your Phuket Property Shortlist
Tell us your budget and goals. Our expert sends a shortlist within 2 hours.
