Thai land comes in several grades of paperwork, and not all of them can be transferred. What each document grants, how they differ, and which ones are a reason to walk away.
First-time buyers often assume that "there is paperwork" means "it can be bought". It does not. Thai land documents come in several grades, from full ownership down to a farming right that cannot legally be sold at all. The difference decides the price, the risk, and whether a bank will lend against it.
Full title, surveyed by the Land Department, with marked boundary posts. It can be sold, mortgaged, transferred and encumbered normally.
This is the document to look for. Waterfront land held on a Chanote resells more easily, and banks will take it as security.
A certificate of use, surveyed from aerial photography rather than walked on the ground. It can be transferred and mortgaged, but the boundaries are frequently out.
If you buy a Nor Sor 3 Gor plot, budget time and money for the survey that upgrades it to a Chanote. The area on the ground may be smaller than the document states.
Older and rougher than Nor Sor 3 Gor. A transfer must be publicly announced 30 days in advance, and the boundaries are less certain still.
A right to farm land distributed under agricultural land reform. It cannot be sold. It passes only by inheritance to an heir who will farm it, and it cannot be used for anything but agriculture.
If someone offers to sell you Sor Por Kor land, that is an agreement the courts will not enforce, whatever contract is signed.
Por Bor Tor 5 is a local tax receipt, not a title. It proves somebody has been paying tax on a plot. It does not prove who owns it.
Sor Kor 1 is a notification of possession filed back in 1955. No new ones are issued.
Land offered under either is usually unusually cheap, which reflects a genuine risk rather than a bargain.
Take a copy of the title and check it yourself at the local Land Office. The reverse of the deed records every encumbrance: mortgages, injunctions, usufructs, rights of way.
The copy an owner hands you may not be the current one. A few hours at the Land Office answers the question that matters most — whether the thing being sold exists as described.
Waterfront land carries building restrictions ordinary land does not: setbacks from the water, Marine Department permits, and zoning. What to establish before paying for a design.
Two riverside plots of identical area can be worth very different amounts, because of how much of each touches the water. Why that is, and how to compare them properly.
A single plot carries at least two prices. The Land Department's assessed value sets the taxes; the market price is what it changes hands for. Knowing which is which keeps the sums right.
