How to buy a condo in Thailand as a foreigner

A condo is the one home a foreigner can own outright in Thailand, freehold and in their own name. Do it the clean way: money sent from abroad in foreign currency, a building with room left in its foreign quota, and the paperwork checked before you pay a baht of deposit. Budget roughly 2–3% of the price on top for fees and building charges.

Who this is for: anyone who has lived here long enough to know the area they want, and plans to stay for years.

Who should skip it: anyone in their first year. Renting is cheaper while you learn the city, resale prices move slowly, and many buildings struggle to resell. Bangkok rents from real tours shows what the same money rents.

What a foreigner can and can’t own

The condo right comes from sections 19 and 19 bis of the Condominium Act. Foreign ownership in each building is capped at 49% of the total saleable floor area, counted in square metres, not units. Once a building hits the cap, the next foreign buyer can’t register a unit, even after paying for it.

You’ll see proposals to raise the cap to 75% in resort areas, or to allow 99-year leases. Neither is law. Buy on the rules as they stand.

Step 1: get the money in the right way

This is where foreign buyers go wrong most often, and it can’t be fixed afterwards.

1. Send foreign currency from abroad, from an account in your name. Baht sent from an overseas account can fail the test, and money borrowed inside Thailand doesn’t count.
2. State the purpose on the transfer: “Purchase of condominium”, with the building name and unit number.
3. Let the Thai bank convert it to baht. For each transfer of US$50,000 or more, the receiving bank issues a Foreign Exchange Transaction form (FET, once called the Thor Thor 3). For smaller transfers, ask the bank for a letter, usually called a credit advice, confirming the foreign-currency origin and purpose.
4. Keep every original. The Land Office needs them on transfer day. You’ll need them again to send the sale money out of Thailand when you sell.

Foreigners with Thai permanent residence can pay in baht without the FET; everyone else needs it.

Step 2: check the building and the unit

Do all of this before you sign a reservation or pay a deposit.

1. The title deed. A condo unit has its own title, the Or Chor 2. Check the seller’s name matches their passport or ID card and that there’s no mortgage, or that it will be cleared at transfer. A Land Office search confirms both.
2. The foreign quota, in writing. Ask the juristic person (the building’s management office) for a letter stating the foreign share and the square metres still available. Quota can be used up between your check and transfer day, so check again just before.
3. The debt-free letter. The juristic person must issue a certificate that the unit has no unpaid fees before the Land Office will register a transfer. Ask the seller to request it early; arrears can hold up the whole sale.
4. Common fees and the sinking fund. Bangkok buildings charge from about 20 baht per m² a month in economy blocks to 60–200 in luxury towers. New buyers pay a one-off sinking fund, typically 500–800 baht per m², which isn’t refunded on resale.
5. The building’s health. Ask for the last two annual general meeting minutes and accounts. Look for lifts out of service, lawsuits against the developer and a sinking fund that’s been spent down.
6. The contract. It should state the price, the deposit and when it’s refundable, the transfer date, and who pays each fee and tax. Get a Thai and English version and read the Thai one with someone you trust.

Off-plan or resale

Off-plan: you pay in instalments during construction and the balance at transfer. Thailand has no mandatory escrow for these payments, so your money is only as safe as the developer. Buy from developers listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, check their record of finishing on time, and make sure the contract allows for a size variance and a refund if quota runs out.

Resale: you can see what you’re buying, and the juristic person can tell you how the building is run. Check the air conditioners, the water pressure and the pipes, and ask the neighbours how the building handles repairs.

Step 3: transfer day at the Land Office

Buyer and seller (or their agents, with a power of attorney) meet at the Land Office for the district. You bring your passport, the FET forms or credit advice, the debt-free letter and the quota letter. The seller brings the title deed. You pay by bank cashier’s cheque, the officer collects fees and taxes, and the title deed is endorsed in your name the same day.

What it costs: fees and taxes

An owner who has been in the unit’s house registration book for at least a year pays stamp duty instead of specific business tax, even inside five years. Everything is negotiable, so write the split into the contract.

The Thai government has cut the transfer fee to 0.01% for homes up to 7 million baht until 30 June 2027. It applies only to Thai nationals buying as individuals. Foreigners pay 2%.

A worked example

A 35m² resale one-bedroom in Bangkok for 5 million baht. The Land Office appraises it at 4.5 million. The seller is an individual who bought it three years ago and never lived there. The fee split is 50/50.

Agents’ commission, normally 3% of the price, is paid by the seller. Add a few thousand baht for bank transfer charges. After that, the yearly land and building tax on a condo that isn’t your registered main home starts at 0.02% of the appraised value, about 900 baht a year here.

Leasehold: what it’s worth

Some condos and most foreign-bought villas are sold leasehold. A lease longer than three years must be registered at the Land Office to bind a later owner, and 30 years is the legal maximum per term. Registration costs 1% of the total rent plus 0.1% stamp duty.

Ignore “30+30+30” marketing. A Supreme Court ruling (No. 4655/2566), reported in 2025, held that pre-agreed renewals beyond the first 30 years are void. If the owner sells or dies, a renewal promise may be worth only a claim for damages. Price a lease as 30 years and no more.

The route to avoid: land through a Thai company

The old workaround for a house was a Thai company with Thai shareholders who put up no money and hold their shares for the foreigner. That’s a nominee arrangement, and it’s illegal under the Land Code and the Foreign Business Act, with prison terms of up to three years and fines up to 1 million baht for those involved.

The state is now checking. In October 2026, land offices were ordered to finish investigating 1,397 suspected companies, holding 2,360 plots, by December, and land confirmed as nominee-held faces a forced sale. The nominee crackdown follows the investigation.

If you want a house, the legal options are a registered 30-year lease on the land, a superficies giving you ownership of the building, or a usufruct for life.

Buying in a Thai spouse’s name is legal, but the law treats your money as a gift. At the Land Office you’ll sign a declaration that the funds are your spouse’s own property.

Before you pay a deposit

• Get the quota letter from the juristic person, dated this month.
• See the title deed and run a Land Office search on it.
• Open a Thai bank account before you send money, and ask how they issue the FET.
• Write the fee split and the transfer date into the contract.
• Budget for the year after: common fees, the tax bill, furniture and the repairs nobody mentioned.