Phuket condos from $200,000 to $300,000

The typical west-coast apartment, not the smallest one

The median Bang Tao apartment, 46 square metres at 7,017,150 THB according to our Bang Tao area guide, falls inside this band, and so does the median apartment nearest Layan Beach, 6,720,000 THB for 45 square metres in our Cherng Talay vs Layan comparison. Kamala’s one-bedroom median, 7,074,432 THB, sits here too.

Patong shows how far the metre moves between districts: its studio median is 6,630,000 THB in our Patong vs Kamala comparison, so the same money that buys a typical Bang Tao flat buys a studio by Patong Beach. Read the district column of the table before the price column.

Estate and branded buildings, and what they cost to run

This is the first band where branded and estate buildings appear in numbers. Our Laguna vs Bang Tao comparison prices the Laguna-branded schemes at 222,137 THB per square metre at the median, while Bang Tao overall sits at 161,000, so at this price an estate unit is smaller than a standalone one.

The running cost differs as well: the comparison sets the estate’s common-area charge at 80 to 120 THB per square metre each month, where standalone buildings charge 40 to 60. Across a ten-year hold the fee gap belongs next to the purchase price in any comparison. What the estate gives back is security, managed grounds and a brand the resale market already knows.

Two bedrooms, families and the school run

This band is also where families start to look, because the relocating family on an annual lease is the steadiest tenant on the west coast. Our Bang Tao area guide names NIST International School at the edge of Laguna and lists BISP, HeadStart and UWC Thailand nearby, which is why families sign year-long leases around Bang Tao.

For an owner who plans to let, a family tenant means one lease a year instead of dozens of check-ins, and a unit judged on its bedrooms, parking and the drive to school rather than on its pool photographs.

The new supply around these buildings

Much of this band is off-plan, and it is being built in a busy corridor. Bang Tao alone has 4,687 apartments being built against 464 completed, by the count in our Bang Tao area guide, and in Layan the figure is 2,378 priced units still going up, according to our Laguna and Bang Tao investment comparison.

A unit bought today will be let and resold next to everything that completes after it. Ask which buildings around yours hand over in the same year, with units of the same size, before you treat a launch price as a discount. 4 of the 13 projects on this page are already finished, which removes that question for their buyers.

The foreign quota in popular buildings

A buyer from abroad can register a condominium unit freehold, as long as the foreign-owned floor area of the building stays at or under 49 percent. Well-known west-coast buildings sell heavily to foreigners, so the remaining quota is a real question at this price: get it in writing from the juristic person, and remember that it is consumed at registration, not at reservation.

Where a building’s quota is used up, a registered lease or the resale of a unit already in foreign hands are the usual alternatives, and either changes the price you should pay.

Questions to settle before you reserve

Ask for the price per square metre next to the floor and the view, the common-area fee and the sinking fund, the remaining foreign quota, the hotel licence and the house rules on short lets, and for an off-plan unit the milestones that trigger each payment. Our guide to buying off-plan in Phuket sets the off-plan checks out in order.