Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing basically property title, real estate title options for foreigners in Thailand, and the big two if you will.

So as I have discussed in other videos, there's a big crackdown right now on nominee corporations and we are talking about corporations. That's a different thing from - a usufruct is outlined in Thai Law and so are Leases for that matter. Many, many, many clients of ours have - especially spouses - where they will buy the underlying land with their spouse that basically they will gift the money to their spouse; and by the way, there is no gifting between spouses under sort of Thai marital estate concepts, but whatever, it is sort of one pot. That being said, again maybe the foreigner brings the money in, puts the title, underlying property title in a Thai's name - specifically it is usually involving their spouse - and then they lease it back or get a usufruct on it in order for the foreigner to secure some level of usage rights in the property. 

Now the reason for this video is to delineate the difference between leases and usufructs. Usufructs are basically the equivalent of what we would call a Life Estate in the American Real Estate system. It's kind of an old school concept but yeah basically it's just lifetime right of use. Meanwhile, leases are for a defined term; here in Thailand, it caps out at 30 years. A couple of years back there was actually a Supreme Court case involving, essentially the overruling of the idea that you could have an automatically renewing lease as well; what we call 30 + 30 + 30 leases where there was an automatic extension clause in the initial lease that then kicks in. The Supreme Court came down and said, no, that violates the spirit of the laws pertaining to foreign ownership of land in Thailand; 30-year leases are where it caps out. 

So again, that's the difference. A usufruct allows for the lifetime usage of property; during one's lifetime they can continue to use it. Meanwhile, a lease has a defined term limit regarding usage of property here in the Kingdom of Thailand.