Banyan Tree Lake Residences Yara and Lakelands Waterfront Villas are two rows of single-storey pool villas by Banyan Group at Laguna Phuket, both sold to a foreign buyer as a freehold house on land held by a 30-year lease. The difference is who runs the house. Yara’s three-bedroom villas, on the Banyan Tree Lagoon beside the Banyan Tree Phuket resort, are hotel residences: only the hotel may let them. Waterfront Villas, on a lake at Laguna Lakelands, are private houses. On the term sheets today, Yara has 1 villa open, 1 run by the hotel, and Waterfront Villas has 6 villas.
Banyan Tree Lake Residences Yara1 home listedfrom ฿96.8M0 freeholdSee every home →
Lakelands Waterfront Villas6 homes listedfrom ฿74.2M0 freeholdSee every home →Every listed home on one price line
| Item | Banyan Tree Lake Residences Yara | Lakelands Waterfront Villas |
|---|---|---|
| Homes listed here | 1 | 6 |
| Price range | ฿96.8M | ฿74.2M to ฿88.6M |
| Freehold homes | 0 | 0 |
| Bedrooms | 3 | 4 |
| Interior sizes | 414 sqm | 556 sqm |
| Newest term sheet | 23 July 2026 | 28 August 2026 |
Two kinds of Banyan villa
Banyan Group sells its Laguna villas in two kinds, and the kind decides who lets the house and who pays for what. Yara holds both kinds. Waterfront Villas holds only the private one.
The kind of villa decides who runs it
Hotel villa
Yara villas 1 to 5, three bedrooms. Run and let by Banyan Tree Phuket
Private villa
Yara villas 6 to 12 and all 14 Waterfront Villas. Run by you
| Item | Yara hotel villa | Yara private villa | Waterfront Villa |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bedrooms and size | 3 bedrooms, 414 sqm, 248 inside | 4 bedrooms, 604 sqm; 5 bedrooms, 938 sqm | 4 bedrooms, 556 sqm, 329 inside; 3 bedrooms, 436 sqm |
| How a foreigner owns it | House freehold, land on a 30-year lease | House freehold, land on a 30-year lease | House freehold, land on a 30-year lease |
| Who may let it | Only the hotel | 6 months or less through the developer; longer by you | 6 months or less through the developer; longer by you |
| In the price | Furnished, with the hotel’s furniture package | Fitted; loose furniture extra | Fixtures and equipment; loose furniture extra |
| Structure warranty | 1 year | 1 year | 1 year |
| Club memberships | Laguna Phuket Golf Club and a Sanctuary Club card | The same, plus 3 years of Banyan Tree Private Collection | Laguna Phuket Golf Club |
From Banyan Group’s buyer FAQs of 31 January 2025, which the developer says are not part of any contract, checked against each project’s term sheets, side letters and sample contracts. The contract decides.
Who lets it, and who uses it
At a Yara hotel villa the hotel is the only letting agent and its services are compulsory. At a private villa you decide: live in it, let it yourself for more than six months, or let shorter stays through Banyan’s programme.
Yara hotel villa
Banyan Tree Phuket manages it, every let goes through the hotel, and the hotel's services are compulsory. How many days a year the owner may stay is not stated in the papers we hold: ask for it in writing before you reserve.
Waterfront Villa
Lets of six consecutive months or less go only through the developer's designated rental programme, and short stays may not be advertised. Longer lets are yours, with notice of the tenant to the estate manager.
Read the letting terms in full
Yara’s hotel villas are sold on their own versions of the sale agreement and land lease, titled “under hotel operation program”. The buyer signs the agreements the seller requires for the hotel operation and lets the seller’s companies manage the villa. Banyan Group’s buyer FAQ is plain: every rental goes through the hotel and no one else. A standard hotel furniture package is required, and it is in the price. Yara’s private villas follow the same letting rule as Waterfront Villas.
At Waterfront Villas, the reservation form lets a buyer tick no rental service at all. The pack’s letting agreement, with Banyan Living, runs 120 months and renews itself unless you give 120 days’ notice, makes Banyan Living the only letting agent for the home, and binds a later buyer to sign the same agreement. Disputes under it go to arbitration in Singapore. We publish no rental figure for either project.
Where each one sits
Yara is on the Banyan Tree Lagoon beside the Banyan Tree Phuket resort, inside Laguna Phuket; the developer says the beach is “just moments away” and gives no distance. Waterfront Villas is on the north shore of a lake at Laguna Lakelands, the inland end of the estate, and reaches the sea through the RAVA Beach Club. Yara is not part of Laguna Lakelands, and neither is beachfront.
Read the site plans
On Yara’s site plan of February 2025, villas 1 to 5 run along the west edge of the lagoon and villas 6 to 12 along the south edge towards the resort. A plot marked “Future Development” faces villas 1 to 5 across the private road, and villa 1 is the end villa nearest it.
On the Waterfront Villas plan of September 2025, the fourteen villas are drawn as seven pairs with nothing between plot and water, a private road behind and the six Waterside blocks beyond, near the Laguna Park 2 entrance. Every picture of both projects is a render; neither pack holds a photograph of a built villa.
What it costs to hold
Both estates charge by the land, not the house, and Yara’s rate is more than twice Waterfront Villas’. Both are the developer’s estimates and may change.
- ฿1,400
- Yara common fee per sq wah of land a yearestimate, February 2025
- ฿585
- Waterfront Villas common fee per sq wah of land a yearestimate
- ฿100
- sinking fund per sq wah of land a yearthe same at both
- 1 year
- warranty on the structurethe same at both
The developer’s own examples: about THB 196,000 a year for 560 sqm of land at Yara, and about THB 102,000 for 700 sqm at Waterfront Villas. A square wah is 4 sqm. The cost of Yara’s compulsory hotel services is not stated.
What you own
For a foreign buyer, the same at both: the house freehold, and the land on a 30-year lease registered at the Land Office, with three further 30-year options written into the lease. The lessor at both is Laguna Grande Limited, a Banyan Group company.
Read the lease and contract terms
Each lease gives the lessee an “absolute right” to three further 30-year terms, a promise in the contract rather than a registered right, with the renewal taxes and fees on the lessee. If the law blocks one of those renewals, the lessor repays three quarters, a half or a quarter of the rent and price. Once the land is subdivided, an eligible buyer may buy it for the rent already paid plus a fee of 10 per cent of the rent. Waterfront Villas’ lease adds that the villa passes to the lessor without payment if the lease ends unrenewed.
A Thai buyer may buy a Waterfront Villa’s land freehold once it is subdivided, by its term sheet. For Yara’s hotel villas the documents disagree: the term sheet says the same, the hotel FAQ says leasehold only, so ask in writing. Yara’s sample contracts date from 28 March 2024, under an older name; Waterfront Villas’ were written for the project. At both, an uncured breach after transfer lets the seller buy the villa back for 5 per cent of the price, and outside agents need the lessor’s written approval to enter.
This is general information, not legal advice: have an independent Thai lawyer read both contracts before money moves.
Which one suits whom
Banyan Tree Lake Residences Yara
For a villa beside the Banyan Tree Phuket resort that the hotel runs for you. 1 villa open on the sheet (1 hotel, 0 private), from ฿96.8M.
Lakelands Waterfront Villas
For a private house on a lake at Laguna Lakelands, lived in or let your way. 6 villas open on the sheet, from ฿74.2M, at a lower estate fee.
The same on both
The same payment plans and the same build promise. Neither project states a completion date: each villa contract gives 18 months from a start the seller notifies in writing, and both sets of sample contracts list the construction permit as being applied for.
Read the shared terms in full
Both sell on two plans: 20 per cent at contract and the rest in four construction stages, or half paid during construction and half after completion over one, three or five years, with interest. Ask for the rates in writing, with whether they are flat or on the reducing balance. The term sheets set the reservation fee by price band, while the reservation forms give a flat THB 100,000: ask which applies.
A delay past the 18 months costs the seller 0.5 per cent of the price a month. An assignment before transfer needs the seller’s consent, and the lease charges THB 75,000, adjusted for inflation. The golf memberships carry activation fees the owner pays, amounts not stated. Pets are allowed at the private villas if they cause no nuisance; for Yara’s hotel villas it is not stated. The villa seller is Laguna Banyan Tree Limited at Yara and Bangtao Grande Limited at Waterfront Villas.
Every open villa is listed on each project page with its size, land and price: Banyan Tree Lake Residences Yara and Lakelands Waterfront Villas. For how buying at Laguna works end to end, read How to buy at Laguna Phuket.
