How a foreigner buys property in Thailand: rules, steps, payment

Buying property in Thailand as a foreigner is legal and common: a condo unit you can own outright, land you cannot. High season starts on 1 November, and buyers are booking December trips to view property now. If you are one of them, understand the whole path of the deal before you fly. Most of it can be done from home.

As of 14 October 2026, a condo unit can be registered freehold in your name, inside the foreign quota. Land can only be leased. For the purchase itself you need one document: your passport.

Can foreigners buy property in Thailand? The short answer

Yes. The question is what you buy and in what form.

Can a foreigner own a condo freehold?

Freehold is full ownership. You can live in the unit, rent it out, sell it, give it away and leave it to your children. It costs more than leasehold in the same project. In my posts the gap is about 10% on average in one and 10-15%, sometimes more, in another; when the freehold quota is gone, leasehold of the same unit is often 5-10% cheaper. The spread depends on the developer and on how scarce freehold is in that building.

The limit is the quota. Foreigners together may own no more than 49% of a condominium's total floor area. The count goes by square metres, so a building of a hundred apartments does not mean forty-nine of them go to foreigners.

People ask me if their deal can be cancelled when not enough Thai buyers turn up. If your ownership is registered, nobody cancels it. The real risk is narrower: whether there is free quota for your unit on the day you register at the Land Office.

So before anyone pays, I check four things:

1. Is there free foreign quota for this specific unit.
2. What share of the quota is already used.
3. Can this unit actually be registered freehold.
4. Is the quota guarantee written into the contract.

If the quota is full, there are options. Take the unit leasehold. Find a similar unit in another project. Wait for a foreigner to sell a freehold unit; on resale, freehold units mostly change hands between foreigners, because a unit can move to a foreign name only while the quota allows it, which I cover in buying a resale below market. Or reserve early, while quota is open. The full comparison is in freehold vs leasehold in Phuket.

Can a foreigner own land or a villa?

With a villa, the land is taken leasehold, and the building itself can be registered freehold. Everything is recorded at the Land Department.

A lease of property in Thailand is capped at 30 years. A lease longer than three years must be registered. Many contracts, and many websites, promise 30+30+30: a lease with two automatic renewals. In ruling No. 4655/2566 the Supreme Court held such renewal clauses void.

Contracts usually oblige the developer to sign a new lease with you for two further terms. That is how the market works, and I explained it as a legal mechanism in my post of 1 October. The court ruling means you cannot force that new lease through a court, so in practice it rests on the developer.

Contracts often say 30+30+30, but courts do not recognise automatic renewal. (from my channel post of 17 September 2025, translated)

Laguna and Sansiri already sign new leases with foreigners. That is why I look for a developer with 12-20 years behind it, completed projects and its own renewal cases. With a 10-20 year horizon, leasehold is a workable option: you earn rental income over that time and exit by selling the lease.

Nominee structures, where a Thai person formally holds the land in a company for you, count as a violation and are under increased enforcement. If the company is found to be a sham, you can lose both the money and the property.

What are the steps to buy?

The order is roughly the same for every new condo in Phuket.

1. Goal. Living, family or income. The goal decides the area, the format and the budget. If the area is still open, start with the best areas to buy in Phuket.
2. Shortlist. Three to five projects with prices, return calculations, photos and video, and the honest pros and cons of each.
3. Unit. Building, floor, view, layout and form of title: freehold or leasehold.
4. Reservation. Since 31 January 2025, a condo reservation in Thailand follows a standard form set by the consumer protection board (OCPB). It gives you the right to terminate if the developer has not obtained the building permit by the agreed date, or a required EIA is not approved. The unit comes off sale and the price is fixed. One example from my channel, on a house project: a booking of 100,000 baht (about USD 3,000).
5. Sale contract. The first payment is usually 20-30% of the price. Schedules differ: in one Sansiri launch it is 30% at contract, 20% a year later and 50% at the keys.
6. Build. Payments follow the instalment schedule. The money goes straight to the developer; escrow is voluntary in Thailand. This is why I do not take on companies that arrived in the market yesterday. More in buying off-plan in Phuket.
7. Handover and Land Office. The unit is registered in your name, and the fees are paid. With a finished unit you connect to the management company almost right away.

I don't take on companies that came to the market yesterday, because buyer protection during construction in Thailand is practically non-existent. (from my channel post of 17 August 2026, translated)

Can you buy without flying in?

Yes. A remote deal is a working scheme here: up to 80% of investors from Russia buy this way. We agree the goal on a call, I send a shortlist, and then I walk you through the location, the complex and the showroom on a live video call.

Do you have to fly to Thailand to buy property? No. A remote deal has long been a working scheme here. (from my channel post of 8 February 2026, translated)

The reservation agreement arrives by email and you sign it electronically. The contract is in Thai and English, signed electronically. The deposit goes directly to the developer, and after payment you receive a confirmation and bank documents. During construction, I or a broker from my team send you progress reports, and video from the site if needed.

After handover, everything with the management company can also be done remotely: email, WhatsApp, a power of attorney. You take part in every key decision.

How do you pay from abroad, and why does the sender's name matter?

For freehold, the money has to arrive in Thailand from abroad, in foreign currency. The Thai bank then issues proof of the transfer. For a single transfer from USD 50,000 (about 1.65 million baht) that is the Foreign Exchange Transaction form, known as Tor Tor 3. Below that amount, you get a credit advice.

Watch the sender's name. It must match the buyer's. Money sent by a friend, a company or a payment agent may not count for your freehold registration, and a crypto payment does not produce an FET form or a credit advice in your name. If you want freehold, plan the route of the money before the first payment. Keep every bank record of every instalment, because the Land Office will ask for them at registration.

The payment route also affects the choice of title. Leasehold does not require the same foreign currency paperwork, which is why some buyers whose money sits in a country with banking restrictions find it simpler. If your money is in Russia, there is no universal method, and I go through each case individually.

What fees and one-off costs does the buyer pay?

The Land Office charges are set by law, and the contract decides who pays them.

After that come the running costs: maintenance of 60-100 baht per sqm a month and an annual property tax of 0.02-0.1% of the appraised value. For 50 sqm, maintenance is 36,000-60,000 baht a year. The full picture is in the cost of owning a condo in Phuket.

If you are buying partly for a visa, read Thailand property and the investment visa first. The threshold is 3 million baht (about USD 91,000), and an off-plan unit qualifies only after handover.

What to do before a viewing trip?

If you are flying in for the high season, say in December, use the weeks before the trip. Decide why you are buying. Ask for the quota status of the units you like, in writing. Check how the money will reach Thailand and in whose name. Read the reservation form before the trip, not at the sales desk.

Then on the viewing you check what you already know instead of seeing everything for the first time, under pressure. In good projects freehold quota goes first.

I put the questions I ask on every deal into one list. Take the 30 questions to ask before you sign with you, or we can go through it on a call before you fly, and you decide from there.