Answered
Can you build a villa above 80 metres on a Phuket hillside?
Almost never. Under Phuket's 2024 environmental notice, in force from 14 December 2024, land more than 80 metres above sea level is a no‑build zone. The one private exception is a single house of at most 6 metres and 90 square metres on land held before the 2017 notice; above 140 metres there is none.
The Phuket villa guide, where tenure and land questions are set out estate by estate
- Building allowed, up to 8 metres high
- No building, with one exception
- Footprint as building‑control law allows
- The exception: one house, 6 metres, 90 sqm footprint, on land held before the 2017 notice
- Half the required open space permeable, half of that planted
- 70 per cent of the plot open, half of that planted
- On a slope: one house, 6 metres, 90 sqm
- On a slope: the same, whatever the title date
- Applies to 13 December 2029
- Above 140 metres: no exception at all
Clauses 4, 6(6), 6(7) and 7(1) of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment's Phuket notice, B.E. 2024, Gazette 13 December 2024.
The notice sorts the island into eight zones by distance from the sea and height above it (clause 4). Zone 5 is land between 40 and 80 metres above mean sea level; zone 6 is everything higher, split at 140 metres. In zone 5 a building may be no taller than 8 metres, half of its required open space must let rainwater through, and half of that must be planted (clause 6(6)). In zone 6, building, altering or changing the use of any building is prohibited (clause 6(7)), apart from state security, telecoms and public‑utility works and conservation use of protected forest.
Read the rest of the answer
The one private exception is clause 6(7)(ง): on land a private person owned or lawfully possessed before the 2017 notice came into force, a single detached house or single building of at most 6 metres in height and 90 square metres of ground footprint, with at least 70 per cent of the plot left open and half of that open area planted. The clause states that it does not apply to zone 6(2), the land above 140 metres. Newspaper reports of December 2024 read this as the 80‑metre limit being lifted to 140; the text does the opposite, confirming the ban and allowing one small house on old title. On hillside slopes in zones 1, 5 and 6 the same 6‑metre, 90‑square‑metre rule applies whatever the title date, with a 70‑square‑metre footprint on plots under 100 square wah (clause 7(1)).
What this means when a hillside villa is offered: ask for the plot's height above mean sea level on a surveyor's plan, the date the title was first issued, and the building permit itself, because a villa of 400 square metres cannot lawfully stand above 80 metres under this notice, whatever the brochure says. The notice runs for five years to 13 December 2029 and replaces the 2017 notice and its 2020 amendment. This is general information as the notice stood on 10 October 2026, read from the Gazette text; it is not legal advice, and a Thai lawyer should read the permit and the title with you before any money moves.
How we know this
Notice of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment on the designation of environmentally protected areas and measures in Phuket province, B.E. 2024, Royal Gazette Vol. 141, Special Section 342 Ng, 13 December 2024, clauses 4, 6 and 7, read in the Gazette text on 10 October 2026. General information, not legal advice.
