Foreign property ownership in Asia (Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia) and your will

A will can only pass on what you legally own, and across much of Asia foreigners can't own land. So before you think about who inherits your place in Thailand, the Philippines or Indonesia, you have to know what you actually hold: a condo you own outright, a lease, a right to use, or company shares. Each behaves differently on death, and some can't be inherited at all. Get that wrong and your family can lose the asset entirely. Here's how the three countries compare, and what it means for your will.

The common thread

All three countries restrict, or outright ban, foreign ownership of land, to protect national control over it. They each offer legal alternatives, condos, long leases, rights of use, company structures, but those alternatives carry different inheritance consequences. And all three treat nominee arrangements, where a local holds title on your behalf, as illegal and increasingly risky. A will sits on top of all this: it can direct what you lawfully hold, but it cannot turn restricted land into something your heirs can keep.

Thailand

Foreigners generally can't own land in Thailand. The clean exception is a condominium: you can own a unit outright, provided foreign owners hold no more than 49 per cent of the building's floor space and you brought the purchase money in as foreign currency. A foreign heir can inherit the unit, but they must qualify in their own right; if they don't, they have to sell it within a year.

Beyond condos, you're into rights short of ownership. A registered lease runs up to 30 years, with renewals that aren't guaranteed, and crucially, a Thai lease does not automatically pass to your heirs. Unless the lease contract specifically allows it, it ends on your death. A right of superficies (owning the building on someone else's land) can be inherited if drafted properly; a usufruct (a right to use) generally dies with you. And holding land through a Thai company set up only to sidestep the ban is a nominee structure, illegal, and the subject of an intensifying crackdown.

The Philippines

The restriction here is constitutional, and it's strict. Foreigners cannot own land, full stop, and using a Filipino "dummy" to get around it is a criminal offence under the Anti-Dummy Law, with forfeiture and prosecution on the table. As in Thailand, a condominium is the main route to direct ownership, capped at 40 per cent foreign ownership of the building.

The succession twist is unusual and worth knowing. A foreigner can inherit Philippine land only by intestate succession, that is, only where there's no will. The Supreme Court has held that leaving land to a foreigner by will is unconstitutional. So a UK will cannot be used to pass Philippine land to a foreign heir. Leases can generally be inherited; for a foreign individual they run for up to 25 years, renewable once for a further 25, while registered foreign investors can now lease for longer. And where land is held in a Filipino spouse's name, the foreign spouse has no direct ownership claim, only, potentially, a limited interest on the spouse's death.

Indonesia, and the Bali villa question

In Indonesia, full freehold (Hak Milik) is reserved for citizens. A foreigner who somehow acquires freehold, by inheritance or marriage, must give it up within a year or it reverts to the state. So "owning a villa in Bali" almost never means owning the land.

What foreigners can hold is a right of use (Hak Pakai), which can run up to around 80 years and can be inherited by an eligible heir, but it depends on holding a valid Indonesian stay permit. The other common route is leasehold (Hak Sewa), a contractual lease, typically 25 to 30 years, that's only as strong as the agreement behind it because it isn't registered as a full title. A foreign-owned company (a PT PMA) can hold a right to build for genuine commercial use. As in Thailand and the Philippines, nominee arrangements, an Indonesian holding the land for you under a side agreement, are void and unenforceable.

What this means for what you can leave

The pattern across all three is the same: what passes on death depends entirely on the right you hold. A condo can usually be inherited if the heir qualifies. A lease may or may not pass, depending on the contract and the country. A right of use can pass to an eligible heir who meets the local conditions. A personal right to use often can't be inherited at all. And restricted land generally can't be left to a foreign heir by will. The first job of estate planning here isn't writing the will, it's knowing precisely what you own.

The will angle

Relying on a single UK will to cover your Asian property is the common, and costly, mistake. Local land laws can override a foreign will, local probate can be slow and demanding, and a UK will has to be translated and put through a local process before it does anything. The better structure is a local will for your local assets, drafted by a local professional in the local language, alongside a UK will for your UK assets.

The trap with more than one will is accidental revocation. A standard will revokes all earlier wills, so a new local will can wipe out your UK one unless each is limited to its own country with a carefully drafted clause. Each should say plainly which country's assets it covers and revoke only those.

Don't forget the UK side

Your Asian property restrictions don't change your UK tax position. Anything you own in the UK stays within UK inheritance tax wherever you live. And since 6 April 2025, whether your worldwide assets are caught turns on long-term residence: broadly, if you were UK resident for at least 10 of the last 20 tax years, your worldwide estate is in scope, with a tail of years after you leave. The nil-rate band remains £325,000, with a residence nil-rate band of up to £175,000 where a home passes to direct descendants.

Two cautionary tales

A British expat bought a Phuket villa on a 30-year lease and left "all his assets including the Thai villa" to his children in his UK will. The lease had no inheritance clause. Under Thai law it ended on his death, the landowner was free to walk away, and his children lost both the remaining years and the value. A single clause, properly drafted at the outset, would have changed the outcome.

Another bought land in the Philippines through a Filipino friend who held the title under a private agreement. Years later the friend claimed the land outright. The courts declared the nominee arrangement illegal, voided her claim, and she lost the property, with legal exposure of her own. The "everyone does it" workaround offered her no protection at all.

Where this leaves you

Across Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia, the order of operations is the same: first establish exactly what you legally own, then plan the will around it, locally and in the UK, and never lean on a nominee structure. A coordinated pair of wills, one for the local assets and one for your UK estate, drafted so neither cancels the other, is what gets your property to the people you intend.

A clear, valid UK will is the anchor for the UK side of that plan. That's what Expat Legacy provides: a properly drafted UK will for British expats, in plain English, ready to sit alongside your local arrangements.

Sources

• Thailand Condominium Act B.E. 2522, sections 19 to 19/7 (English translation, thailandlawonline.com)
• 1987 Constitution of the Philippines, Article XII, section 7 (Lawphil)
• Commonwealth Act No. 108, the Anti-Dummy Law (Lawphil)
• Condominium Act, Republic Act No. 4726, section 5 (Lawphil)
• Ramirez v Vda de Ramirez, G.R. No. L-27952, Supreme Court of the Philippines, 1982 (Lawphil)
• Land rights under Law No. 5 of 1960 (Basic Agrarian Law), Indonesian Ministry of Finance
• Inheritance Tax if you're a long-term UK resident (GOV.UK)
• Inheritance Tax (GOV.UK)

This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Ownership and succession rules in each country are detailed and changing, and your UK position depends on your own circumstances, so it's worth getting advice tailored to you, in each country involved, before you act.