Thai Land Laws – Right of Superficies in Thailand

Civil Code Sections 1410–1416 Governing Rights of Superficies


The Right of Superficies (สิทธิเหนือพื้นดิน) is a registrable real right under Thai property law that separates ownership of land from ownership of buildings, structures, or plantations situated on or under the land.

Under a superficies structure, one person owns the land itself while another person may legally own buildings, structures, or plantations on the land without acquiring ownership rights in the land itself. Because foreigners generally cannot own land in Thailand, the right of superficies is commonly used in long-term residential and investment structures involving foreign ownership of houses or buildings located on Thai-owned land.

In comparative civil-law systems, the Thai right of superficies is conceptually similar to the French droit de superficie, the German Erbbaurecht, and the Dutch recht van opstal.

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