Can foreigners buy property in Thailand?

Yes, foreigners can buy property in Thailand, but only one kind outright: a condominium unit, and only while the building still has room in its foreign quota of 49% of floor area. Land is closed to foreign owners. A house or villa is bought as a registered lease of up to 30 years on the land, with the building itself owned separately if the paperwork is done right. That rule set comes from the Condominium Act and the Land Code, and it was still unchanged when we checked in September 2026.

Who is buying, and at what price

Thailand's Real Estate Information Center (REIC) counted 3,292 condominium units transferred to foreigners in April to June 2026, worth 14.8 billion baht. REIC put the foreign share at 10.2% of all condo units transferred nationwide and 20.0% of their value (Nation Thailand, September 2026), because foreigners buy larger and pricier units than the average Thai buyer. The average foreign purchase was 4.3 million baht for 43.9 m², about 98,600 baht per m². Chinese buyers lead, followed by Russian, Myanmar, American and Taiwanese nationals (REIC data reported September 2026).

The second quarter was a rebound, not a trend: over the first half of 2026 foreign condo transfers fell 8.8% by unit count to 6,533 units and 1.5% by value to 28.27 billion baht year on year, even though Q2 value alone rose about 20% (REIC via Nation Thailand, September 2026). Buyers are fewer, and those who buy spend more per unit.

Where foreigners buy

• Bangkok is the largest and most liquid market. It accounted for about 45% of the value of foreign condo transfers in January to March 2026, according to REIC. Rentals are driven by year-round demand from local professionals and expats rather than tourist seasons.
• Phuket is the main resort market: condos near the west-coast beaches and leasehold villas in gated estates, many of them run as rental pools.
• Pattaya has the lowest entry prices for sea-view condos within two hours of Bangkok.
• Chiang Mai is cheaper to live in and attracts retirees and remote workers, though resale is slower than in Bangkok.

The reforms you may have read about

Two proposals keep turning up in sales material: raising the condo quota from 49% to 75% in selected zones, and extending leases from 30 to 99 years. When we checked in September 2026, neither had been passed by parliament; the Condominium Act and the Civil and Commercial Code still set 49% and 30 years. Buy under the rules that exist, not the rules that might arrive.

Listings on HomeNSearch

HomeNSearch has 116 properties in Thailand, with prices starting from about USD 50,000 (our data, September 2026). You can browse the Thailand catalog to compare asking prices with the numbers in this guide.

What a foreigner can own

Thai law separates land from the buildings on it, and that separation defines every option. The table sums up the Condominium Act, the Land Code and the Civil and Commercial Code as they stood in September 2026; the sections below give the detail and the sources.

| What you want | Can a foreigner own it? | How it is usually held | |---|---|---| | Condo unit | Yes, freehold | In your own name, within the building's 49% foreign quota | | Land | No | Registered lease of up to 30 years | | House or villa | The building, yes | Building owned or covered by a right of superficies; land leased | | Land through a company | Only a genuine Thai-majority company | High legal risk if Thai shareholders are nominees |

Condo freehold and the 49% quota

Section 19 bis of the Condominium Act lets foreigners own units as long as the combined floor area of all foreign-owned units does not exceed 49% of the total floor area of all units in that condominium. The quota is counted by floor area, not by number of units, and it is counted per registered condominium, so two towers in the same project can be in different positions (Condominium Act B.E. 2522 as amended in 2008, checked September 2026). We explain the calculation in detail in how the Thailand condo foreign quota works.

In popular buildings in Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket the foreign quota can fill up while Thai-quota units are still for sale. Before you pay a deposit, get written confirmation from the building's juristic person office that quota is available for your specific unit. If it isn't, the developer may offer the same unit on a 30-year lease. That is a weaker product with lower resale value, and it should be priced accordingly.

A freehold condo can be sold to anyone and inherited. A foreign heir registers it within the quota; if there is no room, the heir has to sell within the period the Condominium Act allows, so ask your lawyer how it applies to your building.

Leasehold: 30 years, and renewals are not guaranteed

Under sections 538 and 540 of the Civil and Commercial Code, a lease of immovable property can run for at most 30 years, and a lease longer than three years is enforceable for its full term only if it is registered at the Land Office (checked September 2026). A registered lease binds a later owner of the land.

For years developers sold "30+30+30" leases as 90 years of security. On 18 March 2025 the Thai Supreme Court (case 4655/2566) ruled that pre-agreed renewals of this kind are unenforceable, as reported by Addleshaw Goddard and One Asia Lawyers: anything beyond the first 30 years has no legal effect unless a new lease is freely agreed at the time of renewal. Price a lease as 30 years of use and treat any renewal as a possibility, not an asset. On a house, a registered right of superficies over the building gives you a separate real right to the structure itself.

Thai companies and the nominee problem

A Thai limited company in which Thais hold the majority can own land. That works when the company is a real business, such as a hotel or a restaurant that owns its premises. It is illegal when the Thai shareholders are nominees who hold shares on paper for a foreigner who controls everything.

The penalties are real. Under section 36 of the Foreign Business Act, a nominee arrangement carries up to three years in prison and a fine of 100,000 to 1,000,000 baht, or both, for the Thai nominee and the foreigner. The Land Code adds up to two years in prison or a fine of up to 20,000 baht for holding land on a foreigner's behalf (sections 111 and 113), and the Land Department can order the land sold (checked September 2026). Enforcement has tightened: since 1 January 2026 the Department of Business Development (DBD) requires bank evidence that Thai shareholders of companies with foreign participation paid for their shares from their own funds, and since 1 April 2026 similar checks apply to share transfers and director changes (DBD orders as summarised by DFDL and Nishimura & Asahi, checked September 2026).

If a broker offers a shelf company with Thai shareholders you will never meet, walk away.

Land: the narrow exceptions

• Marriage does not give a foreign spouse land rights. A Thai spouse can buy land in their own name, and the foreign spouse signs a statement at the Land Office that the money is the Thai spouse's personal property.
• Section 96 bis of the Land Code allows a foreigner who invests at least 40 million baht in approved assets to apply for up to one rai (1,600 m²) of residential land, with permission from the Minister of Interior. It is rarely granted (Land Code, checked September 2026).

Title deeds

The Department of Lands issues several grades of land document. Buy only land, or a building on land, with a chanote (Nor Sor 4 Jor), the full title with surveyed boundaries. Lower grades such as Nor Sor 3 Gor carry more risk of boundary disputes and are harder to lease out and resell. Your lawyer's title search at the Land Office confirms which document you are buying.

The money has to come from abroad

To register a condo in a foreign name, you must show the Land Office that the purchase money entered Thailand in foreign currency, or came from a non-resident baht account or a foreign currency account (Condominium Act, section 19). Under the Bank of Thailand's reporting rules, for each transfer of USD 50,000 or more, the receiving Thai bank issues a Foreign Exchange Transaction form (FET form). For smaller transfers it issues a letter confirming the inward remittance instead.

Three practical rules. Send the money in dollars, euros or pounds and let the Thai bank convert it. Write the purpose in the transfer, for example "purchase of condominium unit 12A, [building name]". Make sure the sender's or recipient's name matches the buyer named on the title deed. Keep the FET forms: you will need them again when you sell and want to send the proceeds home.

Paid at the Land Office on transfer day

Rates below are from Siam Commercial Bank's guide to transfer taxes and DLA Piper's Thailand real estate tax summary, checked September 2026.

| Charge | Rate | Base | Who usually pays | |---|---|---|---| | Transfer fee | 2% | Official assessed value | Split or negotiated | | Specific business tax | 3.3% | Higher of sale price or assessed value | Seller, if owned under 5 years | | Stamp duty | 0.5% | Higher of sale price or assessed value | Seller, only if specific business tax does not apply | | Withholding tax | 1% for a company seller; progressive for an individual | Higher of sale price or assessed value (company); assessed value (individual) | Seller |

Who pays what is a matter of the contract, so read that clause before you sign.

Leases are cheaper to register: the Land Office charges 1% of the total rent for the whole term plus 0.1% stamp duty.

The 0.01% fee cut does not apply to you. Until 30 June 2027 the transfer and mortgage fees are reduced to 0.01% for homes and condos priced at 7 million baht or less. The cabinet extended the measure on 30 June 2026, but it applies only to Thai individual buyers (Tilleke & Gibbins, July 2026).

Owning

The Land and Building Tax Act B.E. 2562 (in force since 2020) and its rate decree set residential rates from 0.02% to 0.1% of assessed value, depending on the value band, with a legal ceiling of 0.3%. A home used as the owner's main residence is exempt up to 50 million baht if the owner holds land and building, or 10 million baht for the building alone (which covers condos), provided the owner's name is in the house registration on 1 January of the tax year (Lex Bangkok summary of the act, checked September 2026). Whether a foreign owner qualifies depends on getting a house registration for the unit, so check with the local district office. Otherwise the 0.02% band applies to most condos, which is 400 baht a year per 2 million baht of assessed value.

Condo owners also pay common area fees and a one-off sinking fund contribution set by each building's juristic person. Ask for the current rate per square metre before you commit.

Rental income

Under the Revenue Code, rent from Thai property is taxed in Thailand as personal income at progressive rates of 0% to 35%, whether or not you live there (Revenue Department rate schedule, checked September 2026). When a Thai company is your tenant it withholds part of the tax at source. File a Thai return each year and keep your lease contracts.

Money you bring into Thailand

If you become a Thai tax resident (180 days or more in a calendar year), foreign income earned from 1 January 2024 is taxable in Thailand when you bring it into the country, under Revenue Department instruction Por. 161/2566. Savings earned before 2024 can be remitted tax free. A proposed exemption for income remitted within two years was still a draft in August 2026 (Thai Law Online tracker). If you plan to move to Thailand and pay for a property with recent income, get tax advice before the money moves.

Buying property in Thailand gives no right to a visa or residence permit. An owner enters and stays on whatever visa they qualify for. The main long-stay options, with the thresholds we checked in September 2026:

• Retirement (Non-Immigrant O or O-A, age 50+), Immigration Bureau rules as summarised by Siam Legal: 800,000 baht held in a Thai bank, a monthly income of 65,000 baht, or a combination reaching 800,000 baht a year. Extended one year at a time. The O-A version requires health insurance.
• Long-Term Resident (LTR) visa, 10 years. Run by the Board of Investment; figures from the BOI's LTR site. The Wealthy Pensioner category needs an annual passive income of USD 80,000, or USD 40,000 plus USD 250,000 invested in Thai property or government bonds. The Wealthy Global Citizen category needs USD 1 million in assets and USD 500,000 invested in Thailand, which can include property. Both need USD 50,000 of health insurance or USD 100,000 on deposit.
• Thailand Privilege membership. A paid visa package, from 650,000 baht for five years up to 5 million baht for 20 years (Thailand Privilege Card Co., September 2026). It gives long stays but no work rights.

This is the short version. Our guide to Thailand long-stay visas compares the routes, documents and costs in detail.

Step by step for a condo

The order below follows the Land Office registration procedure and the checks Thai property lawyers recommend. None of it is optional.

1. Hire your own lawyer before you reserve anything, one who works for you rather than for the developer or the agent.
2. Check the unit. Title search at the Land Office, mortgages and other encumbrances, building permits, the juristic person's accounts, and written confirmation of foreign quota for your unit.
3. Reserve. Pay the reservation deposit only after your lawyer has read the terms, and make it refundable if the checks turn up problems.
4. Sign the sale and purchase agreement. For off-plan units, read the completion date, delay penalties and what happens if the developer fails to finish. Escrow is not standard in Thailand, so most instalments go straight to the developer.
5. Transfer the money from abroad under the FET rules in the legal section.
6. Register at the Land Office. Buyer and seller, or their representatives under power of attorney, attend. The fees and taxes listed in the tax section are paid there, and the unit is registered in your name at the same appointment.

For a house or villa

The same checks apply, plus road access and the zoning of the plot. The lease is registered on the land title at the Land Office, and ownership of the building, or a right of superficies over it, is registered separately. For off-plan villas, find out exactly who owns the land during construction and what happens to your payments if the project stops.

Finance

Thai banks rarely lend to non-residents; where they do, they usually ask for a work permit and local income, so ask the bank directly before you count on a loan. Most foreign buyers pay cash, use a developer's instalment plan, or borrow against assets at home.

Mistakes that cost the most

• Paying a deposit before the foreign quota is confirmed in writing.
• Treating "30+30+30" as 90 years after Supreme Court ruling 4655/2566 of March 2025.
• Holding land through a nominee company, which the DBD has checked at incorporation since January 2026 and at share changes since April 2026.
• Sending baht from a Thai resident account instead of foreign currency, which can block registration of a freehold condo under section 19 of the Condominium Act.

Thailand is cheap to live in by Western European standards, but Bangkok and Phuket cost noticeably more than Chiang Mai. Numbeo's crowd-sourced figures, updated 21 to 22 September 2026:

| City | Single person, excluding rent | 1-bedroom rent, city centre | 1-bedroom rent, outside centre | |---|---|---|---| | Bangkok | 23,600 baht | 22,800 baht | 11,700 baht | | Phuket | 21,500 baht | 24,500 baht | 16,300 baht | | Chiang Mai | 18,200 baht | 16,000 baht | 9,600 baht |

For a family of four, Numbeo puts Bangkok spending at about 86,000 baht a month before rent.

Can you live on USD 2,000 a month? At Numbeo's conversion of roughly 36 baht to the dollar, USD 2,000 is about 72,000 baht. A single person renting a one-bedroom in central Bangkok needs about 46,000 baht on these figures, so yes, with room for travel and savings. A couple living the same way is comfortable on USD 3,000. International schools and private health insurance are the costs that change the budget most, so price those separately.

For a fuller breakdown by city, see our guide to the cost of living in Thailand.

Yields

Global Property Guide estimated the average gross rental yield in Thailand at 6.49% in February 2026, and 6.22% in Bangkok. Those are gross figures. Common area fees, furnishing, agent commission, vacancy and income tax come off before you see a net return, and resort rentals swing sharply between high and low season.

Long-term lets

Renting for 30 days or more is an ordinary lease under the Civil and Commercial Code and falls outside the Hotel Act, so a foreign owner can do it without a licence. In Bangkok, tenants look for furnished units close to BTS and MRT stations, and one-year contracts are common.

Daily and weekly rentals

Letting a condo for less than 30 days counts as running a hotel under the Hotel Act B.E. 2547. Without a hotel licence the penalty is up to one year in prison, a fine of up to 20,000 baht, or both, plus up to 10,000 baht for each day the offence continues (Thai Law Online, checked September 2026). Phuket authorities began cross-checking booking platform listings in 2026, and most condo buildings ban short lets in their own rules anyway. If Airbnb income is part of your plan, check the building rules and the licence position before you buy, or choose a project that already operates under a hotel licence.

What to do next

Decide first whether you need land or can live with a condo: it decides every other step. Then shortlist units in the Thailand catalog, ask the juristic person office in writing about the foreign quota, and have an independent Thai lawyer check the title before you send any money.