@David *********

it is not illegal in Thailand for a company to hold land as its sole business purpose. The question is whether the company structure is legitimate or not.

@Jarek ***********

you are correct. The same goes for renewable 30-year leases. While they are not illegal they are not enforceable under Thai law. I used to be very involved with this and I had a direct meeting with the head of the Phuket land office through our legal team to once and for all interpret the exact Thai wording and its translation. And what emerged from this was very clear. You have the option to renew a 30 year lease but not the right even if you have made another lease for the future backed up by a contract and some money, if the landowner doesn't want to renew the lease regardless of any other agreement, it is his right not to renew. End of story.

@Todd ********

it's a neat solution but technically it's smoke and mirrors.

@Todd ********

I have set up structures like this for projects where the majority shareholder is a Thai nominee of the land owning company and a BVI company as one foreign juristic entity is the minority shareholder. The owners of the properties in the gated community are shareholders of the BVI company and it is this BVI company which has a 30-year lease with the landowning company. The way to get around the 51% majority Thai shareholder having control is to issue ordinary and preference shares which gives the BVI company majority voting rights thereby ensuring they would never veto their right to renew the 30 year lease upon expiry. In effect this means that the lessee's have a lease with themselves as the lessor.

@Neil *******

nope. A rolling lease is not enforceable under Thai law.

@Todd ********

the problem is the Thai nominee as the majority shareholder.

@Paul *******

there is no such thing as a 30x30 lease in Thai land law.

@Nikolai ***

not really. It's the Thai baht going down against the Aussie dollar which has given the Aussie more value as it has against the pound, euro and dollar.

@Will ***********

that makes no difference. You can use Revolut in the UK and worldwide. However given the choice I would recommend Wise if we are talking about fintech companies rather than traditional banks.

You can register a foreign address with Nationwide but you will have to open it first with a UK address and then change it later to your address in Thailand.