Best ROI for Your Budget in Phuket (2026)

Best ROI for Your Budget in Phuket: Investment Return Guide 2026

Quick answer: nobody can source a forward return for a specific Phuket unit, so the useful version of this question is what a budget actually buys and what that asset has to earn to justify itself. The supply side is a matter of record. MORE Group’s project files hold 14,322 priced units across 297 developments, and they show the market dividing into bands that behave in quite different ways.

Budget, THB	Units on record	Developments	Composition	Median size	Median rate, THB/sqm
Under 5,000,000	3,221	61	condominium only	30 sqm	121,500
5,000,000 - 10,000,000	6,058	100	6,026 condo, 32 villa	46 sqm	153,300
10,000,000 - 20,000,000	2,441	133	2,038 condo, 403 villa	81 sqm	166,714
20,000,000 - 50,000,000	2,128	178	660 condo, 1,468 villa	340 sqm	91,229
Over 50,000,000	474	79	109 condo, 365 villa	568 sqm	130,367

Two things fall out of that table before any yield question is asked. The deepest part of the market by unit count is 5 to 10 million THB, with 6,058 units, nearly twice the band below it and two and a half times the band above. And the rate per square metre does not climb steadily with the budget: it peaks in the 10 to 20 million band and then falls by almost half, because that is the point at which villas take over the supply and a villa’s floor area is priced on a different basis from an apartment’s.

This sits inside the Phuket Property Investment Master Guide 2026 cluster.

Why does the square metre get dearer as the budget rises?

Split the same records by property type and the pattern is clean, and it runs in opposite directions.

Budget, THB	Condo units	Condo median size	Condo rate, THB/sqm	Villa units	Villa median size	Villa rate, THB/sqm
Under 5,000,000	3,221	30 sqm	121,500	none	-	-
5,000,000 - 10,000,000	6,026	46 sqm	153,669	32	148 sqm	60,127
10,000,000 - 20,000,000	2,038	75 sqm	175,000	403	210 sqm	67,610
20,000,000 - 50,000,000	660	121 sqm	219,547	1,468	375 sqm	80,404
Over 50,000,000	109	285 sqm	248,561	365	639 sqm	120,273

An apartment metre costs more the more you spend on it: 121,500 THB in the cheapest band, 248,561 in the dearest, a doubling across the market. Spending more on a Phuket condominium does not buy floor area more cheaply. It buys a better address, a better building and a better finish, at a higher price for every metre of it.

A villa metre also rises with the budget, but it starts at roughly half the apartment rate and stays below it in every band. At 10 to 20 million THB an apartment metre is 175,000 and a villa metre 67,610, two and a half times apart, which is why the same money buys a median of 75 sqm of apartment or 210 sqm of house.

That is the trade the budget question really poses, and it is not first of all a yield question. It is floor area against title. A foreign buyer can hold an apartment freehold outright under the Condominium Act B.E. 2522 (1979), within the 49% of a building’s floor area that non-Thai owners may take between them. The land under a villa cannot be held that way, so the same budget in villa form arrives as a lease or a company structure, with a different exit and a different set of questions. The extra 135 square metres are real; so is that difference.

Where does the villa market start?

Below roughly 5.5 million THB the choice is not available. Every one of the 3,221 units on record under 5 million THB is an apartment, and the cheapest villa in the files is at Anasiri Paklok, 5,490,000 THB for 148 sqm. The cheapest apartment on record is a 24 sqm studio at Utopia Central at 1,450,000 THB, so the bottom of the market is roughly a quarter of the price of its first house.

The budget end is also not the studio market it is usually described as. Of the 3,221 units under 5 million THB, 2,239 are one-bedrooms and 959 are studios, better than two to one the other way. There are even 23 two-bedrooms below that line, at Apple House, The Cube Amaze, dCondo Cove, The Element and Ever Prime Residences Karon, which is the cheapest way on record to reach the format that lets both nightly and monthly.

Where does the same budget buy the most floor area?

The band tables above are island-wide. The area a buyer picks moves the rate per square metre further than the budget band does. These are the ten areas with at least a hundred priced apartments on record.

Area	Apartments on record	Median rate, THB/sqm	Median size	Median price, THB
Patong	202	234,004	53 sqm	10,865,000
Choeng Thale	6,291	158,000	46 sqm	7,100,000
Karon	1,329	157,000	47 sqm	7,003,000
Kamala	699	156,140	47 sqm	7,723,650
Sakhu	605	143,148	39 sqm	5,993,200
Rawai	1,568	140,208	52 sqm	6,750,000
Wichit	374	112,522	31 sqm	3,420,000
Kathu	244	107,774	29 sqm	3,300,000
Chalong	396	98,550	35 sqm	3,430,000
Si Sunthon	307	92,515	35 sqm	3,240,000

Patong’s metre is 234,004 THB and Si Sunthon’s is 92,515: two and a half times, inside one island, for stock in the same price records. A buyer with 7 million THB is choosing between roughly 30 square metres in Patong and roughly 75 in Si Sunthon, and the rest of the argument is about what each of those two things can be let to and sold to.

The second column deserves as much weight as the third. Choeng Thale alone accounts for 6,291 of the priced apartments on record, more than Karon, Rawai, Kamala and Sakhu put together. Depth of supply cuts both ways: it means competition for a tenant and a buyer, and it means an exit into a market where transactions in comparable stock happen regularly. Patong’s 202 units are the opposite case, the dearest metre in the market and the thinnest record of it.

Which developments sit in which band?

These are examples from the same records rather than a ranking, and they are quoted in baht as the price lists are written.

Development	Area	Status	Units on record	Range, THB	Formats
Utopia Central	Kathu	finished	8	1,450,000 - 13,500,000	studio
SO Origin Kata	Karon	in build	199	3,010,000 - 12,270,000	studio, one, two
Rhea by Sansiri	Choeng Thale	in build	44	4,810,000 - 10,150,000	one, two
SO Origin Bang Tao Beach	Choeng Thale	in build	196	4,910,000 - 10,560,000	studio, one, two
Anasiri Paklok	Pa Khlok	finished	8	5,490,000 - 6,790,000	148 and 166 sqm houses
CANVAS Cherngtalay	Choeng Thale	finished	65	6,927,000 - 21,043,000	one, two

Three of those span more than one band on their own. Utopia Central’s eight priced units run from 1,450,000 to 13,500,000 THB, SO Origin Kata from 3,010,000 to 12,270,000, CANVAS Cherngtalay from 6,927,000 to 21,043,000. Choosing a building is therefore not the same decision as choosing a budget, and a shortlist built from project names rather than from unit numbers will keep producing quotes that do not match the brief.

Anasiri Paklok is the useful counter-example on rate. Its eight houses are priced between 37,095 and 40,904 THB per square metre, which is a third of what the cheapest apartment band charges and a sixth of Patong’s. What that buys is 148 to 166 square metres on the eastern side of the island, at Pa Khlok, well away from the west-coast beaches the yield arguments are usually built around. The floor area is genuinely cheap; the question the price is answering is where it is.

What the fees take, and where the figures come from

The deductions are the part of the return that can be quoted before purchase, which makes them the part worth pinning down in writing. The ranges below are what MORE Group sees quoted in the Phuket market rather than a published statistic, and every one of them should be replaced with the actual figure for the actual unit before any model is built on them.

• Rental management commission. Programmes quote from about a quarter to about 40% of gross booking revenue. Ask what the percentage is taken on: gross including the platform’s own commission, or net of it, which is a materially different number.
• Common area maintenance. Commonly 50 to 120 THB per square metre per month, set by the building rather than the unit. On a 30 sqm studio at the low end that is 18,000 THB a year; on a 121 sqm apartment at the high end, 174,240.
• The sinking fund. A one-off contribution at transfer, and the balance of the fund is what stands between the building and a special assessment later.
• Furnishing replacement. Nightly letting consumes soft furnishings on a cycle of a few years, and the allowance for it is the line most often left out of a projection.
• Thai tax on the rental income, which is due whether or not the owner is resident.

Before accepting any headline yield, ask the management company for two years of operating statements covering a comparable unit under the same roof. If they cannot produce them, the quoted figure is marketing rather than measurement. See real income potential and does Phuket appreciate for how income and growth interact over a longer hold, and off-plan versus resale for what the waiting period costs.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does each budget buy in Phuket? +

On MORE Group's records of 14,322 priced units, under 5,000,000 THB is an apartment market only, median 30 sqm at 121,500 THB per square metre. From 5 to 10 million is the deepest band in the market, 6,058 units at a median 46 sqm. Villas begin at 5,490,000 THB and take over the supply above 20 million, where the median unit is 375 sqm. There is no sourced forward return to attach to any of those bands, and any figure presented as one should be traced back to the statements it came from.

Is a guaranteed rental return in Phuket real? +

The guarantee is a contract, so what matters is what it is calculated on and who stands behind it. A percentage of the purchase price, paid by a named company with accounts you can read, is one thing. A percentage of a 'projected rental income' defined elsewhere in the same document is another. Ask which it is, ask what happens in the years after the guarantee ends, and ask to see the operating statements for units already past that point.

Where in Phuket does a budget stretch furthest on floor area? +

Across the ten areas with at least a hundred priced apartments on record, the rate per square metre runs from 234,004 THB in Patong down to 92,515 in Si Sunthon, with Chalong at 98,550 and Kathu at 107,774. About 7 million THB therefore buys roughly 30 square metres in Patong or roughly 75 in Si Sunthon. What it cannot buy in the cheaper areas is Patong's tenant base, which is the trade being made.

Is a studio the best entry point at the budget end? +

The records say the budget end is not primarily a studio market. Of the 3,221 units below 5,000,000 THB, 2,239 are one-bedrooms and 959 are studios. The distinction matters because Phuket's monthly tenant market barely reaches below about 35 square metres, so a studio depends on the nightly channel and therefore on a hotel licence and on house rules that permit short lets. A one-bedroom at a similar price reaches both markets.

Does owning Phuket property affect my taxes at home? +

Rental income from Thai property is typically reportable as foreign income in most countries. Capital gains on sale are also generally reportable. Thailand has double taxation treaties with the UK, Australia, France, Germany, and many other countries, which may reduce or eliminate double taxation. Always consult a tax advisor in both your home country and Thailand before purchasing.

Getting the Most Accurate ROI Model for Your Budget

The most accurate model is not the most sophisticated one. It is the one whose inputs somebody was prepared to put their name against.

Three inputs do almost all the work. Occupancy month by month for a comparable unit in the same building, not an island figure. The rate those months were actually booked at, which is not the rate on the listing. And the deductions itemised in baht from a genuine owner statement, not expressed as a percentage of something.

Everything else (appreciation assumptions, exchange-rate scenarios, financing costs) is refinement around those three. Where any of the three is a guess, say so in the model rather than smoothing it into an annual figure, because a guess labelled as a guess is useful and a guess presented as a forecast is not.

Red flags at the budget end of the market

The cheapest stock is where the percentage looks best and where the gap between the percentage and the money is widest.

A gross yield quoted on a small unit. A changeover clean costs what it costs whether the guest paid 1,800 THB a night or 6,000, and the platform’s cut and the manager’s minimum behave the same way. Those fixed elements swallow proportionally more of a 30 sqm unit’s revenue than of a 120 sqm one, which is why the distance between the advertised percentage and the money in the account is widest exactly where the entry price is lowest.

An older building whose reserve is thin. Lift replacement, pump sets, roof waterproofing and common-area air conditioning arrive on a schedule the building knows and the brochure does not. On a 4 million THB apartment a levy of 100,000 THB is most of a year’s net. Ask what the fund holds today and against which of those items.

A 30 sqm unit sold as a long-stay asset. Phuket’s monthly tenants largely stop looking below the mid-thirties in square metres, so the income leans on nightly letting, which in turn leans on a hotel licence and on co-owner regulations that may forbid it. Both need checking separately, and both in writing.

Foreign freehold assumed rather than confirmed. The 49% is allocated by the developer across the building, and the cheapest stack is rarely where they put it. Ask for the unsold foreign quota in square metres, against your unit number, with a date on it.

Purchase costs left out of the percentage. Conveyancing, the bank’s charges and the paperwork behind the inward remittance barely vary with the price, which means they take a far larger bite out of 3 million THB than out of 30 million, and the same bite again at the exit.

A projection that beats its own corridor. What a unit can earn is set by the corridor, the licence and the manager, not by the developer’s ambition. When a number sits well above what comparable units in the same corridor achieve, ask for twelve months of statements from one of them, and treat the gap as the answer.

Where the budget end actually earns

The corridors that support a budget unit are not the ones that photograph best, and that is the whole point.

Patong and its hinterland, including Kathu, have the island’s deepest year-round tenant base: hotel, restaurant and retail staff who rent locally on twelve-month terms, alongside a nightly market with genuine shoulder-season demand. Rates are unspectacular and occupancy is the steadiest on the island.

Phuket Town and the eastern side run on the resident economy (administration, hospitals, schools, marine services), and let almost entirely monthly. Nightly demand is minimal, which sounds like a weakness and is actually why the income is predictable.

Karon and Kata carry a strong high season and a genuinely quiet low one, so a budget unit there needs either a licence and active management, or a size that lets it fall back on the monthly market.

The northern corridor around the airport lets to airline and airport staff, logistics workers and relocating families, again mostly monthly.

What none of these support is the combination most budget buyers hope for: a west-coast beach postcode with nightly rates and year-round occupancy at 2.5M THB. That unit does not exist, and a projection describing it is describing something else.

Building the model, in baht

Start from what comparable units in the same building achieved last year, month by month, rather than from an island average or an advertised rate. Then take out, in baht: the clean at each changeover, the booking platform’s cut, the manager’s commission, common area maintenance at the building’s rate multiplied by your own floor area, the contribution to the reserve, utilities for the empty months as well as the full ones, a yearly figure for replacing what guests wear out, and Thai tax on what is left.

What survives that is the return. Set it against the purchase price with the cost of buying added on top, and compare the result with whatever else the same capital could be doing.

If the figure survives that treatment, the budget end of Phuket is a legitimate income asset. If it only works before the deductions, the percentage was never the point.

Read Also:

• How rental yield is actually calculated in Phuket
• Which areas the money goes to, and why
• What condos here really earn, corridor by corridor
• The whole purchase, from reservation to transfer
• Reading a guaranteed-return contract properly