Quick answer: Expect a reservation fee (often 100,000-200,000 THB on many condo projects) to hold a unit, then a contract deposit of 10-20% at SPA signing. Off-plan balances stage through construction milestones; resale deals often pay the balance at Land Department transfer. Exact numbers vary, read who holds money, refund windows, and forfeiture rules before wiring.
Payment schedules differ more between off-plan developer and resale than between nationalities. This guide maps typical tranches, refund behaviour, FX pitfalls, and red flags, so you do not pay early or into the wrong account.
Hub context: Phuket investment master guide 2026 and buying property Phuket guide. Off-plan fund safety: escrow and trust accounts guide. Total landed cost beyond deposits: Phuket property taxes and fees.
What Deposits Apply to Off-Plan Developer Condos?
| Stage | Typical purpose | Common range (indicative) |
|---|---|---|
| Reservation | Hold unit off market | 50K-200K THB fixed fee |
| SPA signing | Contract deposit | 10-20% of total price |
| Foundation / structure milestones | Fund construction | Cumulative 30-50% |
| Topping / fit-out | Late-build funding | Cumulative 70-80% |
| Land Office transfer | Register ownership | Balance 20-30% |
Never pay milestone tranches without lawyer confirmation that construction reached the defined stage, photos alone are insufficient on marginal projects.
Illustrative off-plan cash calendar
Assume 5,000,000 THB condo:
| Date | Event | Payment |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Reservation | 100,000 THB |
| Week 3 | SPA 15% deposit | 750,000 THB |
| Month 6 | Foundation milestone 15% | 750,000 THB |
| Month 14 | Structure milestone 20% | 1,000,000 THB |
| Month 22 | Topping 20% | 1,000,000 THB |
| Month 30 | Transfer 30% | 1,500,000 THB |
Replace with your SPA, schedules are not interchangeable between developers.
What Deposits Apply to Resale Purchases?
| Stage | Typical pattern |
|---|---|
| Reservation | Smaller good-faith sum, highly negotiable |
| SPA deposit | Often 10% upon contract, not universal |
| Balance | Bank manager’s cheque at Land Department |
Example 5,000,000 THB resale:
| Tranche | Amount |
|---|---|
| Reservation | 50,000 THB |
| Contract deposit (10%) | 500,000 THB |
| Balance at transfer | 4,450,000 THB |
Earnest money customs intensify in tight markets, sellers may request larger deposits to deter gazumping. Lawyer-held arrangements are preferable when negotiating.
When Are Deposits Refundable vs Forfeited?
| Timing | Typical outcome |
|---|---|
| Before SPA within reservation window | Partial refund sometimes |
| After SPA without cause | Forfeiture common |
| Seller / developer breach | Contractual remedies, lawyer led |
| Developer insolvency | Recovery uncertain, slow |
Red flag: Agent claiming “fully refundable anytime” without written clause.
Where Should Deposit Money Sit?
| Destination | Assessment |
|---|---|
| Developer corporate account | Common off-plan, verify entity match |
| Seller account (resale) | Normal, confirm title holder |
| Lawyer client account | Sometimes resale, written instructions |
| Agent personal account | Avoid |
Thailand often lacks US-style escrow; see escrow guide. Counterparty risk is real.
How Do FX and Currency Clauses Affect Deposits?
| Issue | Mitigation |
|---|---|
| THB strengthens before milestone | Budget FX buffer |
| SPA silent on FX | Lawyer clarifies who bears shortfall |
| Foreign buyer FET trail | Align each inbound wire with lawyer plan |
Do not use informal crypto routes to “save FX”, they break FET clarity and invite legal risk.
What Milestone Discipline Protects Off-Plan Buyers?
Milestone discipline means one thing: money moves when work has been done, not when a date arrives.
The distinction sounds pedantic and is the whole protection. A schedule tied to calendar dates transfers your cash on a timetable the developer controls. A schedule tied to verified construction stages (foundation complete, structure topped out, facade closed, MEP installed) means a stalled site stops your payments automatically.
Four rules that follow from it.
- Never pay ahead of the schedule, however the discount is framed. A developer offering a meaningful reduction for early settlement is buying your cash, and the price of that cash is your remaining leverage.
- Ask who certifies the milestone. If the answer is the developer, the milestone is an assertion. An independent engineer’s sign-off, or a bank’s construction-loan drawdown tied to the same stages, is verification.
- Visit, or have someone visit. A photograph with a date, taken by a person acting for you, costs very little against a six-figure tranche.
- Keep the final tranche meaningful. Ten per cent held to handover is leverage; two per cent is a rounding error, and a defect list backed by two per cent gets the attention it deserves.
Paying milestones early is one of the more expensive mistakes at this stage, and it appears alongside the others in the Phuket property buying guide.
How Do VAT and Transfer Fees Relate to Deposits?
| Item | Often excluded from “price” chat |
|---|---|
| Transfer fee (2% assessed value) | Split negotiable |
| SBT / stamp themes | Hold-period dependent |
| Fit-out for rental | $5K-$15K+ |
What Should You Do the Day Before Each Transfer?
Deposits anchor psychology. Once money has moved, the instinct is to protect the decision rather than test it, which is exactly why the checks belong before the wire and not after.
A short routine, repeated before every tranche rather than only the first.
- Confirm the milestone is actually reached, from a source that is not the sales team. Photographs with a date, an engineer’s note, or a site visit.
- Check the beneficiary details against the SPA, on the document rather than on an email. Payment-diversion fraud in property transactions works by changing bank details in a convincing message close to a known payment date.
- Confirm the invoice is in baht and matches the schedule, including the tranche number.
- Send from an account in the buyer’s own name, and let the Thai bank convert on arrival. A transfer from a relative’s account, or converted to baht before sending, complicates or destroys the record the Land Office will need.
- Ask your lawyer whether anything has changed on the title since the last payment. New encumbrances appear.
- File the confirmation with the previous ones. At sale, repatriation is capped by what you can document coming in.
None of this takes more than an afternoon, and its value is entirely in being done while the payment is still reversible.
How do deposit schedules compare across developer tiers?
| Developer tier | Typical SPA deposit | Milestone flexibility | Buyer priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| SET-listed (Sansiri, Origin) | 15-20% at SPA | Low | Delivery certainty |
| Established private (Bang Tao boutique) | 10-15% at SPA | Moderate | Inspect completed phases |
| New market entrant | 10-30% at SPA | High, but risky | Lawyer scrutiny essential |
| Completed unsold inventory | 10-20% at SPA | Often negotiable | Immediate inspection |
Never trade deposit flexibility for developer quality on off-plan purchases unless your lawyer has verified permits, escrow arrangements, and completion track record.
Worked example: USD buyer funding a 8M THB off-plan purchase
| Stage | THB amount | Indicative USD (rate varies) | FET required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reservation | 150,000 THB | ~$4,600 | Yes, partial trail |
| SPA deposit 15% | 1,200,000 THB | ~$33,600 | Yes |
| Foundation 10% | 800,000 THB | ~$22,400 | Yes |
| Topping 15% | 1,200,000 THB | ~$33,600 | Yes |
| Fit-out 10% | 800,000 THB | ~$22,400 | Yes |
| Transfer 30% + fees | 2,400,000 THB + fees | ~$67,200 + 7% | Yes, must match total |
| Total | 8,000,000 THB + fees | ~$224,000 + fees | Full trail required |
Each inbound wire should use a clear payment reference matching the SPA unit number. Your lawyer reconciles all FET forms against the registered purchase price at Land Department, gaps block foreign buyer registration.
Reservation fee, deposit, instalment: three different things
The words are used loosely in sales conversations and they carry very different consequences, so it is worth separating them before you agree to anything.
A reservation fee holds a unit for a short period while checks are run. It is usually modest and it is the one payment where refundability is genuinely negotiable, because the developer is only taking the unit off the market for a few weeks. Ask in writing whether it is refundable, and under what conditions. A reservation fee that is non-refundable if the foreign quota turns out to be unavailable is not a reservation fee, it is a bet.
A deposit is paid on signing the sale and purchase agreement and it commits you. From this point the contract governs, and what happens if you walk away is whatever the forfeiture clause says. This is the payment that should never move before independent counsel has read the whole document, because it is the last moment at which your position is fully reversible.
An instalment is one of a series against construction progress, and by the time you are paying instalments the questions are about the schedule rather than about whether to proceed. What matters here is whether releases are tied to inspected milestones or to calendar dates, and what the cure period is if you miss one.
The practical error is treating all three as “the deposit” and negotiating none of them separately. The reservation fee is where refundability is winnable. The contract deposit is where the forfeiture terms are set. The instalment schedule is where your exposure over the following two years is decided. Different conversations, different leverage, and all three happen before you own anything.
What happens in chain transactions and simultaneous deals?
| Risk | Mitigation |
|---|---|
| Seller needs your deposit to fund their purchase | Lawyer coordinates simultaneous closing dates |
| Chain breaks if one party withdraws | Include contractual deadlines and forfeiture clauses |
| Deposit released before your transfer completes | Use lawyer client account with staged release |
| Seller still occupying after agreed date | Penalty clauses in SPA |
For resale deposits in competitive situations, a larger earnest money deposit (15% instead of 10%) signals seriousness, but should flow through lawyer-held accounts, not directly to the seller’s personal account.
Portfolio buyers: deposit strategies for multiple units
| Incentive type | Realistic on 2+ units |
|---|---|
| Reduced SPA deposit (10% vs 15%) | Sometimes |
| Extended milestone timeline | Common |
| Furniture package upgrade | Common |
| Parking or storage inclusion | Common |
| Direct price reduction | Rare at launch; possible late-cycle |
Portfolio buyers must still map aggregate cash flow across all units, three SPAs with overlapping milestones can strain liquidity even with per-unit discounts.
Deposit checklist: day-of-transfer verification
| Step | Confirm |
|---|---|
| 1 | Recipient account name matches SPA entity exactly |
| 2 | Amount matches SPA milestone schedule for this date |
| 3 | Construction stage verified by lawyer (off-plan only) |
| 4 | FX rate and currency clause understood |
| 5 | Wire reference includes unit number and buyer name |
| 6 | Lawyer notified before transfer (not after) |
| 7 | Confirmation saved to FET documentation folder |
| 8 | Calendar reminder set for next milestone minus 30 days |
Negotiated deposit terms: how to negotiate with Phuket developers. Off-plan vs resale framework: buying off-plan vs resale.
What if the developer or seller defaults?
Developer default is the risk that matters on an off-plan purchase, because you have paid against a building that does not yet exist and your money is already inside the developer’s business. It takes several forms, and they are not equally severe.
A delay is the common case, and it is usually recoverable. The contract should state a completion date, whatever extension the developer may take as of right, and what remedy you have beyond that. Read the delay clause before you sign rather than at the two-year mark, because many buyers discover only then that a twelve-month extension was permitted all along.
A specification shortfall is the next most common: the delivered unit differs from what the contract described. The defence is a specification schedule attached to the contract as an annex rather than adjectives in a brochure, and a snagging inspection before you sign acceptance rather than on the day you first see the unit.
Genuine non-delivery, where the project stalls or the entity fails, is rarer and far worse. The protections that actually help are all put in place before the first payment: a developer with filed accounts and completed projects you have walked, a payment schedule tied to verified construction progress rather than dates, and instalments weighted towards the later stages so that less of your money sits in an unbuilt project. Escrow or a bank guarantee where offered is worth asking about, and its absence is worth noting.
Seller default on resale (failing to vacate, incomplete repairs, title defects discovered late) is less common but equally costly. Mitigations include:
- Lawyer-led due diligence before SPA signing
- Holdback amounts in lawyer client account until vacating confirmed
- Penalty clauses for late completion of seller obligations
- Title insurance where available
Cross-read Phuket property buying mistakes, paying deposits before due diligence completes is among the most frequent errors MORE Group sees from first-time Thailand buyers.
Deposit timing and personal liquidity planning
| Planning horizon | Action |
|---|---|
| 12 months ahead | Confirm milestone dates in calendar with alerts |
| 6 months ahead | Verify construction progress matches next tranche |
| 30 days ahead | Confirm FX rate and account details |
| Day of transfer | Lawyer confirms milestone met before you wire |
Investors holding three or more off-plan units simultaneously should build a consolidated cash-flow spreadsheet, overlapping milestones from different developers can strain liquidity even when each individual deal is sound.
How do co-buyers and spouses share deposit obligations?
Thai spouse arrangements require additional scrutiny. If a Thai spouse holds part of the registered interest while the foreign buyer funds the purchase, the deposit and FET structure must align with how ownership will appear on the chanote. Misalignment between who paid and who owns creates problems at resale and inheritance. Never wire deposits to a spouse’s personal account unless your lawyer has documented the structure in the SPA and confirmed it with the developer or seller.
Buyer scenarios: how much to put down
Scenario A, resale purchase in a competitive situation. A larger earnest deposit signals seriousness and can win a unit against a similar offer, but only if it flows through a lawyer’s client account with staged release rather than into the seller’s personal account. The point of the larger figure is to demonstrate that you can complete, not to give the seller your money early. If the seller insists on direct payment, that insistence is the information.
Scenario B, off-plan purchase with a long completion. Push the weighting later rather than negotiating the total down. Money paid before the structure is topped out is the money most exposed if the programme slips, and a developer who will not move on the headline price will often move on the staging. Tie each release to inspected progress.
Scenario C, buyer funding from a property sale that has not completed. The deposit is not the problem; the balance is. Coordinate the two timelines with your lawyer, build a real buffer for the sale slipping, and know before you commit what bridging would cost if it does. Chains break, and they break on someone else’s schedule.
Scenario D, buyer taking two or three units. Model the aggregate cash flow across every unit before agreeing any of them. Three schedules from different developers can produce overlapping milestones that strain liquidity even when each deal is individually comfortable, and a missed instalment carries forfeiture terms that do not care why you missed it.
Scenario E, purchase involving a Thai spouse. Align who pays with who will appear on the title before any money moves. A mismatch between the funding trail and the registered interest creates problems at resale and at inheritance, and it is very much easier to structure correctly at the start than to explain afterwards.
Comparing two payment schedules?
We map developer milestones to cash flow and FX sensitivity, 0% buyer commission.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Resale deals can vary. Everything is negotiable until signed, subject to seller appetite.
Rare for large amounts. Developers usually accept bank transfers. Check card fees if allowed.
The SPA may treat you as in default with penalties or termination. Calendar reminders matter.
Usually not unless a specific bond exists, verify with developer and lawyer.
Foreign buyers should align inbound transfers with lawyer guidance so Land Department totals match at registration.
Sometimes partially before SPA within a defined window. After SPA, forfeiture is common without breach or negotiated exit.
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.
