Thailand

Registering Property in

Thailand

Listed below is a detailed summary of the steps, time and cost involved in registering property, assuming a standardized case of an entrepreneur who wants to purchase land and a building that is already registered and free of title dispute.

The information appearing on this page was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 183 economies. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2011.

  • Standard Property Transfer

  • Property Value: THB 7,093,556.73
  • City: Bangkok

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Obtain certified copies of companies’ documents from the Ministry of Commerce

Parties obtain from the Ministry of Commerce the following documents:
1. Companies' Affidavits confirming the name, address, the amount of registered capital, names of directors and the authorized signatories. (THB 100)
2. Certified copies of the Memorandum and Articles of Association of each party (THB 50 per page, cost of certification)
3. List of shareholders of the company from the Ministry of Commerce to prove their nationality.
On average, the Memorandum of Association (MoA) has 2 pages and the Articles of Association (AoA) about 5 pages.



Agency: Ministry of Commerce 		1 day THB 200 (Affidavits) + THB 700 (MoA, AoA)
2 Parties submit application for registration at the Land Office

The seller and the buyer, or their representatives, must go to the Land Office where the land is located, and submit an application to register the sale of the land and the buildings thereon.

The Land Officer checks all the documents (from both the seller and the buyer) submitted with the application. He will also compare the original title deed with the original copy kept at the Land Office. All information in both original title deeds must be the same. If everything is consistent, he will proceed with the registration of the transfer of ownership. An official sales agreement is prepared and signed by the authorized representatives of the seller and buyer. The officer then records the sales transaction at the back of the original land title deeds (both the land owner's and the Land Office's copies).

The Land Officer calculates all the registration fees and expenses and asks the parties to pay and submit to him the receipts.

The registration fee is 2% of the appraised value calculated by the Central Valuation Authority (CVA) and announced by the Land Department every 4 years (Government Appraised Value (GAV)).

The seller has to pay a 1% withholding tax on sale price or CVA - whichever is higher. (Seller may apply this as a credit towards their corporate income tax on any capital gain). As the seller is a company, withholding tax is calculated on the greater of the appraised value and the sale price.

The seller has to pay stamp duty, which is 0.5% of the appraisal value if holding period for the individual is more than 5 years. If not, the transfer will be subject to the Specific Business Tax (SBT). This SBT implies that the Seller has to pay 3.3% of the appraisal value or the sales price, whichever is higher. The 3.3% SBT includes a 0.3% municipality tax.

The SBT is imposed on persons who sell their property for trade or a profit-seeking purpose. Companies who sell real property in Thailand are deemed to be selling for trade or profit and are subject to specific business tax. Even if a company sells property in order simply to move to a new place, it is still deemed to have sold for a trade or profit seeking purpose.

Accordingly, the company who is the seller in this example will be subject to SBT.

The registration fee, withholding tax and SBT are collected by the Land Office. The cheques for the taxes are payable to the Ministry of Finance but collected by the Land Office.

The Land Officer then attaches the receipts to the application, and submits all documents to the Chief in charge who is authorized to approve the registration of the transfer. Once the reigistration is approved, it is deemed completed. The seller will receive one copy of the registered sale agreement. The buyer will receive another copy of the registered sale agreement and the original Land Title Deed.

As the Seller owns both the land and the buildings upon the land, the transfer of the building occurs in the same process at the same registry as for the transfer of the land. The Seller will need to produce the construction permit and household registration of the building to transfer the building.
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NOTE: the registration cost for the registered property has been increased (and become expensive) since 2008 due to the jump in Appraisal Value. On average, at least 20% increase in Bangkok Metropolitan Area but in prime area the increase may as high as 100% plus. However in some remote area such as Tak province, the appraisal value decreased (which is rare.)


Agency: Land Office 		1 day THB 10 (title search) + 2% of appraised value (registration fee) + 1% of sale price or appraised value, whichever is higher (withholding tax) + 3.3% of sale price or appraised value, whichever is higher (Specific Business Tax)
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