Thailand's crackdown on a loophole that effectively bypasses its restrictions on land ownership by foreigners is causing prospective buyers to delay purchase decisions on luxury villas in resort destinations such as Phuket and Koh Samui, according to agents.
The Department of Business Development (DBD) has flagged 11,426 companies on Koh Phangan and Koh Samui where foreigners hold stakes, accounting for nearly 68% of all registered firms on the two islands.
The DBD has also identified more than 7,000 businesses suspected of using illegal nominee structures, mainly in the real estate, tourism and hospitality sectors.
The crackdown aims to find entities that used a Thai national as a dummy shareholder to comply with the law restricting foreign shareholding to a maximum of 49%. Under such arrangements, the Thai shareholders would claim property ownership on paper but had no tax history to back up the claim.
Although there is a lack of official data on the number of luxury properties held under a nominee structure, property tech group Juwai IQI estimated that in Phuket about three in five transactions in the villa segment involved a foreign buyer or lessee, while in Koh Samui and Koh Phangan, nine in 10 villa buyers were foreigners. This would be the equivalent of 2,400 to 3,000 villas both in Phuket and Koh Samui.
Property agency List Sotheby's International Realty Thailand said that while data on ownership of landed villas was not publicly available, "international buyers account for the overwhelming majority of activity in the high-end villa market in Phuket and Koh Samui".
"We are seeing more buyer hesitancy, particularly among buyers who were still evaluating their options," said Felix Desjardins, a real estate adviser at the agency. "The result has been slower decision-making and, in some cases, a temporary shift towards condominiums, where the ownership framework is generally more straightforward for foreign buyers."
In 2025, Chinese nationals remained the largest group of foreign investors in Thai residential property, although the data available was for condominiums. Chinese buyers bought 4,940 units in Thailand with a total value of 18.5 billion baht.
To avoid potential pitfalls, those looking to buy landed properties in Phuket, Koh Samui and other areas in Thailand should consult a "good agent and lawyer", said Juwai IQI.
