Buyer guide
Buying a condominium in Thailand: what to check
A condominium unit is the one kind of home in Thailand that a foreign buyer can own outright in their own name. That makes it the simplest purchase, not one without things to check. These are the points that decide what you own, what it costs to keep and what you may do with it.
Ownership and the foreign quota
Foreign buyers may own units freehold up to 49 percent of the total floor area of all units in a condominium building. The rest must be owned by Thai nationals or Thai companies. The quota is counted per building, so it can be full in one building of a project and open in the next.
Before you reserve, get written confirmation that your unit is sold within the foreign quota. If the quota is full, a foreign buyer can only take the unit on a lease, which is a different and weaker right and should be priced as one.
What you own is the unit itself, shown on its own title deed, together with a share of the common property: the land, the structure, the lifts, the pool.
The building
- Size: a low-rise building with a few dozen units lives differently from a tower with several hundred. Fewer neighbours also means fewer owners to share the costs.
- Lifts and units per floor: they decide how long you wait and how much passes your door.
- Facilities: a pool, gym, lobby staff and gardens are paid for by the owners through the common fees, for as long as the building stands.
- Parking: ask whether you get a fixed space, a right to park where there is room, or nothing. In many buildings there are fewer spaces than units.
- Approvals: larger buildings need an approved Environmental Impact Assessment before construction.
The unit
- Area: ask what the stated area includes. Balconies and the ledge for the air-conditioning unit are usually counted. The area on the title deed is the one that matters.
- Orientation: rooms facing west take the afternoon sun and cost more to cool.
- View: what stands between you and the view today, and what may be built there?
- Noise: roads, lifts, refuse rooms, pool decks, neighbouring bars and building sites.
- What is included: kitchen, appliances, air conditioning, wardrobes, furniture. A "fully fitted" unit and a "fully furnished" one are not the same.
What it costs to own
- Common fees: charged per square metre per month and usually collected a year in advance. As a rough guide, most new buildings fall between about 30 and 90 baht per square metre per month, and hotel-serviced buildings above that.
- Sinking fund: paid once at transfer. Owners can later vote to top it up for major repairs.
- Utilities: electricity and water are best billed at the public utilities' own rates. Some buildings add a margin.
- Land and building tax: billed yearly by the local authority.
- Insurance for the contents, and upkeep of everything inside your own walls.
How the building is run
Every registered condominium has a juristic person: the legal body of all the owners, with a manager, an elected committee and a yearly meeting that sets the budget and the fees. Its regulations decide practical things such as pets, renovation hours and whether units may be let short-term.
In a new building the developer runs things at first and holds the votes of the unsold units. In a building that is already occupied, ask for the regulations, the latest accounts and how much is owed in unpaid fees.
Letting the unit
Letting by the month or longer is the normal way to rent out a condominium unit. Letting for shorter periods counts as hotel business under Thai law, which a condominium unit cannot be licensed for, and many buildings ban it in their regulations as well.
Some projects, branded residences in particular, run a rental programme under the project's own hotel licence. That is a separate contract with its own fees and limits on your own use; read it as carefully as the purchase contract.
Selling later
A unit held within the foreign quota can be sold to a buyer of any nationality, which gives it the widest market. How quickly it sells depends on the location, the building's condition and how many similar units are for sale nearby, including the ones still being built.