Compare
Sap-Ing-Sith vs a 30-Year Lease in Thailand
They feel identical while you live in the villa.
They stop being identical the day you want to sell it, leave it to your children, or borrow against it.
Send us the lease you have been offered.
We will read the three clauses that matter
In one sentence
Sap-Ing-Sith or a 30-year lease: what is the difference?
A 30-year lease is a personal contract with the landowner under sections 537 to 571 of the Civil and Commercial Code, while a Sap-Ing-Sith right is a property right registered on the deed that you can sell, leave to your heirs and mortgage without the landowner’s consent.
Key facts
- Both feel the same while you live in the villa; they differ when you sell, inherit or borrow.
- A lease transfer usually needs the landlord’s consent; a Sap-Ing-Sith transfer does not.
- Both run for up to 30 years; neither has an automatic renewal.
- United Grace registers either one, at your choice, in about 30 days.
The short version
A lease under sections 537–571 of the Civil and Commercial Code is a personal right.
It binds the landlord and only the landlord.
Leases over three years are annotated at the Land Office, but the instrument remains a contract between two parties.
Sap-Ing-Sith, created by the Property-Based Right Act B.E. 2562 (2019), is a real right inscribed on the Chanote next to the freehold owner.
It attaches to the land, not to the person who granted it, and it is open to any natural or legal person, Thai or foreign, in their own name.
The statute is set out on our legal page.
Neither is freehold.
Under the Land Code a foreign individual cannot hold freehold title to land in Thailand.
The comparison
The same questions, asked of both
| Buyer question | 30-year lease | Sap-Ing-Sith |
|---|---|---|
| Sell without asking anyone? | Landlord's consent | Yes, freely transferable |
| Inherited by my children? | Contested | Yes, by statute |
| Borrow against it? | No | Mortgageable by law |
| If the landowner sells? | Contract with the old owner | Right stays on the title |
| How long? | 30 years registrable | Up to 30 years |
| Renewal? | Promise only | No mechanism in the Act |
| On the Land Office record? | An annotation | Your name, as right holder |
| The building at the end? | Reverts | Reverts unless registered |
| Government cost to register? | Transfer fee, stamp duty, fixed fee | Broadly the same |
On Tracks A and B, the client pays the taxes and government fees for both stages: the property sale to United Grace and the grant or transfer of the right.
On Track C, United Grace funds the purchase and pays these taxes and fees for both stages.
Run your own numbers on the cost calculator.
Read your contract
Three clauses decide whether your lease is an asset
1. Assignment
"With the prior written consent of the Lessor" means you cannot sell without permission.
Consent can be refused, delayed, or priced at a percentage of the sale.
2. Succession
Silence is the danger.
Where the contract does not say the lease passes to your heirs, Thai courts have generally treated it as ending with the lessee.
3. Renewal
"The Lessor shall grant a further term of 30 years" is a promise by one company to a future buyer.
It is unenforceable against a new landowner.
Only the first 30-year term is registrable.
Anyone selling you 90 years is selling one registered term and two promises.
The exit
What happens when a leaseholder sells
The buyer's lawyer opens the lease
He finds the consent clause.
The deal now has three parties.
The landlord is asked
He may say no, take weeks to answer, or name a price.
The buyer does the arithmetic
Today's market price for a contract with nineteen years left, no enforceable renewal, and no bank willing to fund it.
The deal drifts
Six months on the market, two price reductions, a cash buyer at a discount.
A Sap-Ing-Sith right removes the first two steps.
It transfers without consent, and the buyer's lawyer reads a registered entry on the Chanote rather than a contract with a third party attached.
The owners' network matches buyers and sellers directly.
When a lease is the right choice
If you intend to use the villa for a few years and then walk away, a lease is cheap, familiar and simple.
You are not planning to resell, so the consent clause never bites.
You are not planning to borrow, so the absence of security costs nothing.
The lease becomes expensive when your plan changes.
Limits
What Sap-Ing-Sith does not do
- There is no renewal mechanism in the Act. Continuation beyond the term requires a fresh grant from the landowner and a fresh registration.
We will never write 60 or 90 years on a document. - The statutory maximum is 30 years, and the value declines as the remaining term shortens.
- Buildings revert to the landowner at expiry unless separately registered.
- Compensation promises are personal obligations. They do not bind third parties unless registered.
- Land Offices have registered relatively few of these since 2019. Some are unfamiliar with the entry.
One project was delayed about two months until Bangkok authorities intervened.
The honest summary: Sap-Ing-Sith does not give a foreigner land ownership.
It gives a foreigner a registered, sellable, inheritable, mortgageable right over land for up to 30 years, in their own name.
How we work
United Grace, in one paragraph
United Grace Co., Ltd. is 100% Thai-owned and is the legal and beneficial owner of its land.
Not in trust, not as a nominee.
The customer holds a separate statutory right registered in their own name on the Chanote.
Registration normally completes in about 30 days from signing.
- At signing
- The purchase price
- Annual payment
- 3% of the purchase price
- At signing
- The purchase price + a service fee of 20%
Minimum service fee: ฿700,000 - Annual payment
- Nothing
- At signing
- Nothing: we fund the purchase
- Annual payment
- 6% of the purchase price
All three produce the identical registered right and the track can be changed later.
Track A carries no separate one-time service fee; on Track C United Grace funds the acquisition and the taxes and government fees for both initial transaction stages.
See the registrations or compare with the 51/49 company structure.
Bring us the lease you have been offered
Send it on WhatsApp.
We will tell you what the assignment, succession and renewal clauses actually say, whether or not you become a customer.
This page is general information, not legal advice.
The Property-Based Right Act B.E. 2562 is recent and Land Office practice varies.
Confirm your own position with independent Thai counsel before you sign anything.
Questions owners ask.
Is a 30-year lease safe in Thailand?
The risk is not that it is illegal.
It is that a lease is a personal right, so selling it usually needs the landlord's written consent, inheritance is contested, and no bank will lend against it.
Does 30+30+30 give me 90 years?
Only the first 30-year term is registrable.
The later terms are contractual promises, and the Thai Supreme Court has declined to enforce them more than once.
Treat a 30+30+30 lease as a 30-year lease with a hope attached.
Can a foreigner own land freehold in Thailand?
Under the Land Code a foreign individual cannot hold freehold title to land.
Foreigners can hold freehold title to a condominium unit while foreign ownership of the building stays within 49% of saleable area.
Can I sell a Sap-Ing-Sith right without the landowner's permission?
Sap-Ing-Sith is a registrable real right under the Property-Based Right Act B.E. 2562 and is freely transferable without the landowner's consent.
A lease with a standard consent clause is not.
Do my children inherit a lease?
Thai courts have repeatedly treated lease rights as personal and terminating on the lessee's death, and many contracts are silent on succession.
Sap-Ing-Sith is inheritable by statute for the remainder of its term.
Can Sap-Ing-Sith be renewed for another 30 years?
Continuation beyond the term requires a fresh grant from the landowner and a fresh registration.
Nobody can lawfully promise you 60 or 90 years.
What does registering a Sap-Ing-Sith right cost?
Track A, the preferred track: the purchase price at signing, then 3% of the purchase price per year, with no separate one-time service fee.
Track B: the purchase price plus 20% once, minimum 700,000 baht, and nothing annual.
Track C: nothing at signing and 6% of the purchase price per year, with United Grace funding the acquisition.
On Tracks A and B, the client pays the taxes and government fees for both stages: the property sale to United Grace and the grant or transfer of the right.
On Track C, United Grace funds the purchase and pays these taxes and fees for both stages.
What happens to the villa at the end of the term?
Any compensation promise is a personal obligation and does not bind a third party unless it is registered.