Guide to Building a Home in Phuket
Phuket is a mesmerizing island; it is thrived with tourists all along the year. With the booming real estate industry Phuket has become the eminent destination for real estate investment. When building a home in Phuket it needs to be regulated by the Thailand Building Control Act and Town and City Planning Act, both of these were revised extensively in the year 1992. While the Building Control Act provides the governmental control of virtually all types of real estate construction by means of various enhanced applications and court punishment in case of building violations, the Town and City Planning Act deals with all the legal usage of land in different areas and zones.
While Building a home in Phuket one needs to take care of several restrictions which basically relate to the maximum size of the building, distance of the property to the land border, height and the design of the building and the most important and the crucial one the distance of the building from the beach. One must take all the necessary precautions keeping in mind the building laws of Thailand.
Foreign land ownership restrictions are limited to land only in Thailand, and not to the building on the particular land or when it has been condominium registered under the Condominium Act. The Thai land and any structure on that land can be owned independently by different individuals. Foreigners who want to build a home in Thailand can simply lease the land, and can then own the house as a personal property. In any of the land leasehold structures it is widely recommended to obtain the legal ownership over the house, but the actual ownership over the land would always remain the higher absolute right holder. The right to own the home on another person’s land has to always follow the legal term of the land lease or the superficies agreement and cannot exceed the maximum term of 30 years after which the old lease and the superficies must be renewed.