THAILAND Trends and Developments Contributed by: Shunsuke Minowa, Yosuke Konno, Poonyisa Sornchangwat and Natthapa Jirathawong, Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu
Residential building leasing business as a contract-controlled business Purpose of amendment Since 2018, leasing of residential buildings, excluding dormitories and hotels, had been classified as a con - tract-controlled business under the regulations issued by Thailand’s Consumer Protection Board to protect consumers, whereby the contract must strictly comply with standard forms or certain conditions and criteria. In May 2025, a new regulation (“2025 Notification”) was announced to repeal the previous notification issued in 2019 and to standardise lease practices and enhance protections for lessees. Key amendments Operators subject to the 2025 Notification One of the key revisions made under the 2025 Notifi - cation is the amendment to the criteria of the opera - tors who are obligated to comply with the contract conditions and criteria. Formerly, the law targeted lessors who have five or more properties for leas - ing; however, the number of properties was reduced to three or more properties in the 2025 Notification. Notably, this requirement also applies even if the oper - ator for a residential lease is a foreigner or consists of foreign investors. Lease classifications and standardisation Under the 2025 Notification, leases are classified into: • short-term leases (up to three years); and • long-term leases (exceeding three years but not more than 30 years). In light of these classifications, specific regulatory requirements that appropriately correspond to each type of lease are applicable. These approaches allow for the standardisation of contractual agreements and consumer protections.
lowing the amendment, developers are required to maintain them in normal operating conditions, which refers to a standard that is not lower than their original condition or an equivalent standard. Accordingly, the amendment offers developers more flexibility to reasonably modify public utilities and ser - vices (eg, to accommodate technological advance - ments by replacing a damaged manual gate with an automatic gate offering better functionality). Overall, this represents a significant step in improving legal requirements to enhance the effective manage - ment of public utilities and services, reduce disputes and strengthen project governance for the long-term asset management of housing projects. Streamlined formation of housing estate juristic per - sons In principle, in order for a developer’s obligation to oversee a project to cease, a housing estate juris - tic person must be established. Consequently, all responsibilities, including the management of public utilities and services, will be transferred to the housing estate juristic person. Formerly, a housing estate juristic person could be established only with the approval of at least half of the actual total number of subdivided plots under the allocation plan. Under the amendment to the LAA, the process for establishing a housing estate juristic person has been streamlined, enabling purchasers of at least half of the subdivided plots sold to initiate the process directly if the developer fails to do so or fails to maintain public utilities and services. If the number of purchasers does not meet the required threshold, a majority of land pur - chasers attending the meeting may still be sufficient to initiate the process. This provision is particularly useful if a land purchaser cannot be located due to the length of time that has passed after the completion of land allocation project.
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