Phuket condos from $100,000 to $200,000

The band where the west coast opens up

Bang Tao is the clearest example. The one-bedroom median there is 5,930,000 THB on our price list, according to our Bang Tao vs Kamala comparison, which sits inside this band, while the median apartment of any size, 7,017,150 THB for 46 square metres in our Bang Tao area guide, sits above it. In Bang Tao, this budget buys the one-bedroom and the smaller units, not the typical flat.

Kamala is a step further: its one-bedroom median is 7,074,432 THB in the same comparison, so here the band reaches studios and compact units rather than the median one-bedroom. Surin, by contrast, has a one-bedroom median of 5,430,000 THB on a much shorter list, as our guide to the best areas to buy shows.

More floor area for the same money in the south

The south prices its metre lower. Our Nai Harn vs Rawai comparison gives Rawai 145,000 THB per square metre across 1,291 priced apartments and Nai Harn 125,000 across 277, against 161,000 in Bang Tao. For the same money that is about a tenth more floor area in Rawai than in Bang Tao, and close to 30 percent more in Nai Harn.

What you give up is the west-coast beach on foot and the depth of the holiday market. What you gain is a unit large enough to live in, in a town with a resident population that rents by the month, which suits an owner who will use the home for part of the year.

Studio, one-bedroom or two-bedroom at this price

Our guide to the best Phuket condos under $150,000 counts 3,084 priced units below that line, at a median of 3,872,300 THB and 30 square metres. In the lower half of this band, then, the typical unit is a studio; the one-bedrooms and the occasional two-bedroom sit in the upper half.

Size decides the tenant. Around 35 square metres is where long-stay letting starts, according to our guide for Scandinavian buyers in Rawai, so a studio below it depends on nightly guests and on a building licensed to take them, while a one-bedroom above it can fall back on a monthly tenant.

Off-plan or finished in this band

9 of the 62 projects here are finished, and the others are still being built or sold before construction. Off-plan in this band usually comes with a staged payment plan and the newest facilities, at the price of waiting and of trusting the developer to deliver.

A finished building trades novelty for certainty. You see the unit you are buying, the transfer can follow within weeks, and the accounts show what the building costs to run. For a buyer who wants to let from the next season, that certainty is worth more than a launch discount.

Holding and letting a unit at this price

Freehold is open to a foreign buyer in a registered condominium, within the 49 percent of floor area reserved for foreign ownership, with the purchase money remitted from abroad and declared on the Foreign Exchange Transaction form. In buildings popular with foreign buyers, ask for the remaining quota before you reserve.

If you plan to let, two documents decide the income before any projection does: the building’s hotel licence, since lets shorter than 30 days count as hotel business under the Hotel Act, and the co-owner regulations, which may forbid short stays whatever the licence says. Our short-term rental rules guide explains both.

A checklist for a $150,000 purchase

Compare units by price per square metre, not by headline price. Ask for the floor, the view and the walking time to the beach next to each price, the remaining foreign quota, the licence position, the monthly common-area fee and the sinking fund due at transfer. For an off-plan unit, add the developer’s finished buildings and the milestones each payment is tied to.