Transferring & gifting property

Moving Thai property to someone else does not always happen through a sale. Property can be gifted or otherwise transferred during your lifetime — to a family member, a partner, or someone else — and this is a distinct process from both a normal sale and from inheritance planning, with its own registration steps and tax considerations.

Gifting still goes through the Land Office

A gift of Thai property is not simply a private arrangement between the giver and the recipient — like a sale, it needs to be registered at the Land Office to actually transfer legal ownership (or the registered right, for a lease or usufruct being gifted). The registration process is broadly similar to a sale in terms of the documents and attendance required, even though no purchase price changes hands. An unregistered promise to give someone property is not, by itself, a legally effective transfer.

Gifting a condo unit

A freehold condo unit can be gifted, but if the recipient is themselves a foreigner, the same foreign-quota and ownership-eligibility rules that apply to a purchase generally apply to a gift as well — the building’s foreign quota still needs to accommodate the transfer, and the recipient generally still needs to meet whatever conditions apply to a foreign owner. Gifting to a Thai national recipient does not raise the same quota issue, since the unit simply moves within the Thai-ownership portion of the building’s quota calculation.

Gifting land, or an interest in land

A foreigner cannot receive a gift of land outright any more than they can buy it — the same Land Code restriction applies regardless of whether money changes hands. What can be gifted to or between family members, subject to the same registration requirements as any other transfer, includes a registered lease, a usufruct, or land itself where the recipient is a Thai national (for example, a Thai parent gifting land to a Thai child, entirely separate from any foreign-ownership question). If a foreign spouse or family member is meant to benefit from land being gifted to a Thai relative, a usufruct or similar registered right in their favour needs to be set up separately — see buying through a Thai spouse for how this works in the marital context specifically.

Tax considerations on a gift

Thai tax law addresses gifts of property, generally with different treatment depending on the relationship between the giver and recipient (for example, gifts between parents and children are often treated differently from gifts between unrelated parties), and gifts above certain thresholds can attract tax even though no sale price was paid. Because the specific thresholds, exemptions and rates are exactly the kind of figures that change over time and depend on the relationship and circumstances involved, get a current calculation from a lawyer or accountant before proceeding with a gift, rather than assuming a gift is automatically tax-free because no money changed hands. See taxes & fees and capital gains & resale tax for the related categories that can apply to a transfer even where it is structured as a gift rather than a sale.

Gifting versus inheritance planning

Gifting property during your lifetime and passing it on through inheritance after death are different tools with different tax treatment, different timing, and different levels of control — a lifetime gift is generally irrevocable once completed, while a will can be updated at any time before death. Which is more appropriate depends on your personal circumstances, your relationship with the intended recipient, and your own need to retain use of the property. This is worth discussing as part of broader estate planning rather than deciding in isolation — see inheritance of Thai property for how a Thai will and succession work, and how it compares to gifting during your lifetime.

Transferring at less than full value

Some transfers are structured as a sale at a nominal or below-market price rather than a formal gift, sometimes to simplify family arrangements. This does not necessarily avoid the tax and registration considerations above — the Land Office and Revenue Department generally have reference values they use for calculating transfer taxes regardless of the stated contract price, and an artificially low price can itself raise questions. Get advice on the most appropriate structure for what you are actually trying to achieve, rather than assuming a nominal sale price is a simple workaround.

Transferring between joint foreign owners

Where a condo unit is jointly owned by two or more foreigners — co-investors, siblings, or a couple who are not married under Thai law — and one wants to transfer their share to the other, the transaction still needs to be registered at the Land Office and still sits within the same foreign-quota and eligibility framework as any other transfer to a foreigner. Joint ownership arrangements are worth documenting clearly from the outset — what happens if one owner wants to sell their share, how a buyout is valued, and what happens if the co-owners disagree — rather than left as an informal understanding between people who trusted each other at the time of purchase. See property disputes & resolution for how disagreements between co-owners are generally resolved if an informal understanding breaks down.

Before you transfer or gift property

• Confirm the recipient is actually eligible to receive what you intend to give them — the same ownership eligibility rules that apply to a purchase generally apply here.
• Get a current tax calculation for the specific gift or transfer before proceeding.
• Register the transfer properly at the Land Office — an unregistered gift is not a completed legal transfer.
• Consider whether a lifetime gift or a provision in your will better achieves what you actually want, given the different control and reversibility each offers.