Best Tropical Property Market for Europeans in 2026: Thailand vs Portugal, Bali, Greece and Turkey
European buyers looking at tropical or near-tropical property in 2026 face a landscape that has shifted. Portugal’s non-habitual resident regime, the tax draw for a decade of relocation, closed to new applicants. Its Golden Visa stopped accepting residential property in October 2023. Bali’s appeal still collides with the fact that a foreigner cannot own land there. Greece raised its Golden Visa thresholds by region. Turkey’s currency lost most of its value against the dollar between 2018 and 2024. Against that backdrop Thailand’s proposition has not changed at all, which is its strength: the same Condominium Act, the same 49% cap, the same absence of a visa from ownership.
This page compares the five markets Europeans most often weigh against each other, and it does so on structure, because structure is what this site can state with confidence. Each statement about a non-Thai market below sits in the site’s claims register, marked unverified and dated for review; the prices, yields and occupancy figures the earlier version carried for Lisbon, Seminyak, Athens and Bodrum have been removed because they traced to nothing. The Thai side is the side we know.
What European Buyers Actually Prioritise?
Something to own. Europeans are used to freehold of land and building, and the first question in any foreign market is what, exactly, is registered to you.
Status, or not. Some buyers want a residence permit or a passport from the purchase; most do not, but everyone should know whether the market offers one, because the markets that do price it in.
Permission to let. A tropical property pays for itself by being let, often by the night, and each of these markets regulates that differently: a licence held by the building, a registration held by the owner, a municipal cap, or nothing at all.
Season and currency. How many months a year the property earns, and in what currency the rent and the sale arrive.
Usability. Flight time decides how often you will actually be there, and a property you never visit is an investment whatever you called it.
With those five questions in hand, here is what each market answers.
Looking for the right property in Phuket?
Tell us which of the five questions above matters most to you. MORE Group answers for the Thai side, at no charge, and says plainly where its knowledge stops.
Thailand (Phuket): what a European actually gets
Ownership. A condominium unit, freehold, registered in your own name at the Land Department, provided the units held by foreigners in that building stay within 49% of its floor area; land is closed to foreigners, so a villa is held on a lease registered for 30 years at a time with the house in your name. That is a genuine title and a real limit, and both are stated in the freehold vs leasehold guide.
Status. None. Ownership confers no visa and no residence right at any price. The long-stay routes, the Long-Term Resident visa with its asset and income tests, the Privilege membership (the visa guide’s price for five years is 900,000 THB), the retirement visa from age 50, are separate applications compared in the visa options guide.
Letting. The Hotel Act makes a let of under 30 days hotel business, licensed at the building; monthly and longer lets need no licence. The professional route is a building or operator that holds the licence, and a yield built on nightly rates in a building without one is a yield built on tolerance.
Season and currency. A rental season that runs most of the year, in baht, with 15% withheld at source from a non-resident owner’s rent and no separate capital gains tax at the sale, which is taxed at the Land Department through the seller’s withholding; the rental income tax guide and the transfer fees guide set out both. This page quotes no yield band; the rental yield guide explains why a band is the wrong figure and what to ask an operator for instead. For scale, our catalogue’s median condominium entry price was 4,934,800 THB in the Q3 2026 market report.
Usability. A long-haul flight, so one or two visits a year for most European owners, and an operator who is the whole operating layer in between.
Portugal: The Post-NHR Reality
Ownership. Full freehold of land and building, no restriction on a European buyer. The clearest ownership of the five.
Status. An EU citizen already has the right to live there. For everyone else the Golden Visa stopped accepting residential real estate in October 2023, and the non-habitual resident regime that drew a decade of relocators closed to new applicants; a narrower successor covers specific professions rather than retirees and investors in general. The tax draw is gone, the lifestyle draw is not.
Letting. Short-term letting requires an Alojamento Local registration, constrained in the cities and not always transferable on resale, which makes the licence part of a property’s value in a way a European buyer of a flat in Lisbon should check before paying for the yield.
Season and currency. Euro, no exposure for a euro earner; a summer-weighted season, longer in the Algarve. The Thailand versus Portugal comparison works the two markets through in detail.
Verdict for Europeans. The choice for buyers who want land, EU courts and a short flight, and who accept that the rental case is seasonal and the tax advantage has expired.
Bali: The Leasehold Problem
Ownership. Indonesia does not permit foreign freehold of residential property; a foreigner holds a lease or a right of use, and the register puts the terms at roughly 25 to 80 years depending on the instrument. At the end of the term the land reverts to the Indonesian title holder, and renewal is a negotiation with whoever holds the land then. A 25-year lease bought today is, in substance, prepaid rent.
Status. None from property.
Letting. A nightly market with its own licensing uncertainty, which the Phuket versus Bali comparison treats at length.
Season and currency. Rupiah, floating; a season that runs much of the year but with a wet-season trough.
Verdict for Europeans. Undeniable lifestyle appeal and, on paper, high gross yields, discounted by the fact that you do not own the asset in any long-term sense. Priced honestly, the risk-adjusted case is weaker than a Phuket freehold, which is the only reason this site, which sells Phuket, feels entitled to say so.
Greece: Golden Visa Reset, Market Adjustment
Ownership. Full EU freehold of land and building.
Status. Greece still grants a residence permit for a qualifying property purchase, and it raised the thresholds by region, highest in Athens and the most visited islands, so the residency play needs more capital than it did. An EU citizen does not need it.
Letting. Island tourist markets with a short, summer-weighted season, and municipal short-let rules that have been tightening.
Season and currency. Euro; a season measured in months rather than in most of the year.
Verdict for Europeans. EU security with a real residence route for non-EU buyers and genuine island rental demand in summer; the Thailand versus Greece comparison sets the two side by side.
Turkey: The Currency Risk
Ownership. Foreign nationals of most countries own apartments, houses and land in full freehold on a title deed, with no foreign quota: the widest ownership right of the five.
Status. A passport: Turkey’s citizenship route is a real estate purchase of $400,000 or more, held for three years, and it covers the buyer’s spouse and dependent children.
Letting. A long coastal season.
Season and currency. The lira lost most of its value against the dollar between 2018 and 2024, so property that rose in lira over those years could be worth less in dollars, or euros, than it cost. Dollar-denominated contracts mitigate part of that; the rent and the running costs do not.
Verdict for Europeans. Low entry, wide ownership rights and a passport, for a buyer who is comfortable with the currency and the political risk; the Thailand versus Turkey comparison covers the trade. For a return measured in euros, the currency is the whole question.
What “best” depends on
There is no single answer, and the honest version of this comparison starts by naming which question you are asking. If the objective is a residence permit or a passport, Greece and Turkey offer one and Thailand, Portugal and Bali do not, and no amount of yield compensates for a permit you needed; that decision is made before any financial comparison. If the objective is income, season length does more work than nightly rate: a property earning across ten months at a moderate rate finishes ahead of one earning across three at a high one, which is the structural reason the Asian markets lead on yield. If the objective is a place you will actually use, flight time decides it. And if the objective is capital security, the currency question is the one to weigh: euro-denominated property removes an exposure that a baht, rupiah or lira position carries, and over a decade that exposure is not small in either direction.
How the five markets compare on the things that decide it
| Thailand | Portugal | Bali | Greece | Turkey | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ownership for a foreigner | Condominium freehold within a 49% cap; no land | Freehold, land included | Leasehold or right of use; no freehold | Freehold, land included | Freehold, land included, no quota |
| Status from a purchase | None | None since October 2023 | None | Residence permit, thresholds by region | Citizenship at $400,000 and three years |
| Nightly letting | Hotel licence held at the building | Alojamento Local registration, constrained in cities | Local licensing, uncertain | Municipal rules, tightening | Registration regime |
| Earning season | Most of the year | Summer-weighted, longer in the Algarve | Most of the year, wet-season trough | Short, summer-weighted | Long, coastal-weighted |
| Currency for a euro earner | Baht, floating | Euro, no exposure | Rupiah, floating | Euro, no exposure | Lira, historically volatile |
| Flight from Western Europe | Long haul, one stop or none | Short haul | Long haul, usually two legs | Short haul | Short haul |
| Main structural risk | No land ownership | Yield too low to cover costs | The leasehold clock | Season length | Currency |
The table makes the trade clearer than any ranking. The two European markets remove currency risk and give you land, and charge for it in a shorter season and, in Portugal’s case, a licence you may not get. The two Asian markets earn across the year and ask you to accept either a cap on what you can own or a clock on it. Turkey offers the widest ownership rights and the largest macro exposure.
Red flags when comparing tropical markets
| Red flag | What it usually means | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Yields compared without local cost stacks | The comparison flatters whichever is quoted gross | Net after each market’s own costs and tax |
| ”Freehold” used across markets interchangeably | It means different things in each | What is registered, and to whom |
| Residency benefits assumed permanent | Programme rules have changed repeatedly, in Portugal, Spain and Greece within three years | The current rules, with local counsel |
| Returns quoted in euro only | Currency is doing part of the work | The local-currency figure, stated separately |
| One market’s growth measured from its trough | Cycle timing presented as a trend | Figures spanning a full cycle |
| A nightly yield in a building with no licence | Income built on tolerance | The licence position in writing |
| Exit costs and time to sell omitted | They differ substantially between these five | Transaction costs both ways, and typical marketing periods |
Verdict: Why Thailand Wins for Most European Buyers in 2026
For a European whose objective is income from a property they will use for a few weeks a year, Thailand wins on the combination that matters: a title registered in their own name, a season that runs most of the year, low recurring taxation, and a professional operator layer that makes ownership from Europe workable. It loses to Portugal and Greece for a buyer who wants land, EU courts and a short flight, to Greece and Turkey for a buyer who needs a permit or a passport, and to nobody on the leasehold question, where only Bali is worse placed. This site sells Phuket and says so; the reader who weights proximity or status above income should take the other answer, and this page has tried to make that answer easy to find.
Buyer scenarios
Scenario A: income first, a few weeks of own use. A managed Phuket condominium in a licensed building, bought on an operator’s audited statement, with the owner’s weeks taken in the shoulder months; the holiday home guide works the arithmetic.
Scenario B: EU security over yield. A flat in the Algarve or a house on a Greek island, land included, in euros, with a seasonal rental case and the licence checked before purchase; some European families hold one of these and a Phuket unit as the satellite income asset.
Scenario C: status first. Greece for a residence permit, Turkey for a passport, each at the current thresholds and with local counsel, and Thailand only afterwards, for income, since it offers no status at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
A condominium unit, yes: freehold, registered in your own name at the Land Department, provided the units held by foreigners in that building stay within 49% of its floor area. Land cannot be owned by a foreigner of any nationality, so a villa is held on a lease registered for 30 years at a time with the house in your name. The Condominium Act has worked this way since 1979.
For income, usually, because the Phuket season runs most of the year and Portugal's is summer-weighted, and because Portugal's non-habitual resident regime has closed to new applicants and its Golden Visa dropped residential property in October 2023. For land, EU courts and a short flight, Portugal. This page quotes no yield for either; compare net with net, after each market's own costs and licence position.
The primary one is that Indonesia does not permit foreign freehold of residential property: a foreigner holds a lease or a right of use for a term, at the end of which the land reverts to the Indonesian title holder, and renewal is a negotiation with whoever holds the land then. High gross yields have to be discounted for that clock, and for licensing uncertainty around nightly letting.
None from the purchase itself. The Long-Term Resident visa is a ten-year route for qualifying categories with asset, income or investment tests; Thailand Privilege membership costs 900,000 THB for five years per the visa guide; the retirement visa is available from age 50 on an income or bank-balance test; and most European passports enter visa-exempt for a viewing trip. Passing 180 days of presence in a calendar year makes an owner Thai tax resident whichever visa they hold.
An owner present in Thailand fewer than 180 days a year has 15% withheld at source from the rent, and for most non-resident owners that is the end of the Thai side; an owner here 180 days or more files on the progressive scale. A sale is taxed at the Land Department through the seller's withholding rather than through a separate capital gains tax. What the home country adds depends on its own treaty with Thailand, and the country pages on this site set each out.
Read Also:
Maksim Shchegolev
Founder, MORE Group
Founder of MORE Group. Four years in investment banking before moving to Phuket, where he has worked in the local property market since 2018. Oversees developer relationships and every engagement above $300K.
About MORE Group →Get a Focused Phuket Property Shortlist
Share budget, area and goal. We will reply with suitable live projects, not a generic catalogue.
