In Thailand the contract you sign matters less than the title deed behind it — and the title is something only the Land Office record can prove.

Our first step on any purchase is to obtain a certified copy of the title from the Land Office in the district where the property sits and to read its history. That single document shows the type of title, the exact registered area, the registered owner, every mortgage and every encumbrance, and the chain of previous transfers. A Chanote title is fully surveyed and transferable; weaker instruments such as Nor Sor 3 Gor or possessory documents carry survey and transfer risk that no contract clause can cure.

For a condominium the search widens to the juristic person: the registered foreign ownership percentage, whether this unit can be transferred to a foreign name at all, the debt-free certificate confirming no outstanding common area fees, the sinking fund position and the minutes of recent owner meetings. Buyers who skip the last two inherit both a special assessment and a dispute.

For land and houses we also check access and use. A plot with no registered right of way is landlocked in law however good the dirt road looks, and building setbacks, environmental zoning near beaches and hillsides, and construction permits attached to the plot all decide whether what you intend to build is lawful. Where a building already stands, we confirm the construction permit and the house registration match the structure on the ground.

Condominium ownership in your own name is the cleanest route, subject to the building's quota and to purchase funds remitted into Thailand in a foreign currency, evidenced by the bank's foreign exchange transaction record — that document is required at transfer and cannot be produced retrospectively. We tell clients to remit the purchase price correctly before the deposit, because reconstructing the paper trail after the money has moved through a personal Thai account is frequently impossible.

For land the honest options are a registered lease of up to thirty years with a properly drafted renewal mechanism, a usufruct or superficies right registered on the title giving the holder use or ownership of the structure, or ownership by a Thai company that genuinely operates and is genuinely funded. What does not work, however commonly it is sold, is a shell company with unfunded Thai shareholders formed only to hold a villa. That structure is challengeable and it makes the property difficult to resell or mortgage.

Buying off-plan from a developer is a different exercise again. Here the value is in the contract: the payment schedule tied to construction milestones rather than dates, the specification annexed and enforceable, penalties for late completion that are actually collectible, the developer's land title checked for mortgages granted to fund construction, and a clear position on what happens to your money if the project stalls.

Thai property changes hands at the Land Office, in person or through a registered power of attorney, with the money exchanged at the counter against the registration. Transfer costs comprise the transfer fee, then either specific business tax or stamp duty, decided by the length of the seller's holding period, and withholding tax computed differently for individual and corporate sellers. Together they are typically six to seven per cent of the assessed price, and who pays what is negotiable — it belongs in the contract, not in a conversation on the day.

We attend the transfer, check the deed against the certified copy obtained during due diligence, confirm the removal of any mortgage entry, verify the identity and authority of whoever signs for the seller, and hold or release funds against the registration rather than before it. Where a client cannot travel we act under a power of attorney prepared and legalised in advance.

Because the same office handles the accounting side, we also set up what comes after: rental income declared correctly if the property is let, withholding obligations if a Thai company owns it, annual land and building tax, and the record of acquisition cost that will decide the tax position when you eventually sell.