One of the most consistent surprises for new Phuket property owners is how much it costs to maintain their investment. The yield figures you calculated at purchase assume expenses, but it’s common to underestimate specific line items, particularly condo fees, air conditioning maintenance, and periodic refurbishment cycles.
Quick answer: Budget 60,000-100,000 THB per year all-in for a typical 60 sqm rental condo before management fee, CAM, sinking fund, AC, linen and pest control add up fast in tropical humidity. Villas run 150,000-400,000 THB. Always model maintenance alongside management fees and net rental yield.
This guide gives you realistic annual maintenance budgets for different property types, broken down by cost category.
Understanding Phuket’s Maintenance Cost Environment
Humidity and salt air: Coastal properties face accelerated corrosion of metal fixtures, window frames, and marine-grade materials. Anything steel needs regular inspection and treatment.
Monsoon season: Heavy rains (May-October) reveal roof seals, window caulking, and drainage issues. Even well-built buildings develop water intrusion points over time.
Heat and UV: Exterior paint fades faster. Air conditioning runs 10-12 months per year rather than 3-4. Units typically require aircon servicing twice yearly versus once in cooler climates.
Pest pressure: Termites, ants, and geckos require periodic pest control. This is normal in tropical construction and manageable, but it’s a cost.
All four make a tropical building more expensive to keep than a temperate one. How much more depends on the building and the specification, and no honest multiplier exists for it, so budget from the line items below rather than from a percentage uplift on what a property costs elsewhere.
Where the figures on this page come from. They are the rates MORE Group sees quoted and paid on Phuket properties we help buyers with, not a published index; Thailand publishes no maintenance cost survey. That matters in a specific way. Every figure below is for something you can telephone and get a quote for today, so treat them as a budgeting starting point and verify the ones that matter to your purchase before you rely on them. That is a different kind of number from a yield or an appreciation rate, which is why this page carries costs and no return projection.
Condo Fee (CAM Fee / Juristic Person Fee)
Phuket condo fees by building tier in 2026:
| Building Type | Fee Range (THB/sqm/month) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Basic / older buildings | 30-45 | Minimal amenities, older stock |
| Standard new development | 45-60 | Pool, gym, basic security |
| Premium development | 60-80 | Full amenity, branded management |
| Hotel-integrated branded | 80-120 | Full hotel services included |
For budgeting purposes, 50 to 60 THB per square metre per month is a reasonable mid-market starting point for a new development, and it is worth converting into the number you will actually pay.
The median released one-bedroom in Phuket is 41 sqm and the median two-bedroom 66 sqm, across the 12,009 units on the price lists behind this site. At 55 THB per square metre that is roughly 2,255 THB a month on the one-bedroom and 3,630 on the two-bedroom, or about 27,000 and 43,600 THB a year before anything inside the unit is touched. On a median one-bedroom purchase of 6,048,000 THB, the common charge alone is roughly 0.45% of the price every year, and it is the one cost that continues whether the unit is let, empty or occupied by you.
Then ask for the building’s actual rate rather than using the estimate, because the range across tiers above is wide enough to change the arithmetic materially.
Sinking Fund
Typical sinking fund rates:
- Initial one-time contribution at purchase: 500-800 THB/sqm
- Ongoing annual contribution: Varies by building, typically 10-20% of annual condo fee budget
Check the sinking fund balance before buying. Buildings with underfunded sinking funds often face special assessments, one-time charges to all owners when a major expense arises, which can be 5,000-30,000 THB per unit or more.
Unit-Level Maintenance Costs
Air Conditioning (Highest Variable Cost)
In Phuket’s climate, aircon units run extensively. Standard maintenance requirements:
- Filter cleaning: Every 2 months (DIY or 300-500 THB/unit)
- Full service (cleaning coils, checking refrigerant): Every 6 months, 800-1,500 THB per unit
- Compressor replacement: Every 8-12 years, 8,000-20,000 THB per unit
A 50sqm 1BR typically has 2 units (living room + bedroom). Annual aircon cost: 3,000-6,000 THB in maintenance, with replacement reserve.
Plumbing and Water Heater
Water quality in Phuket is hard (mineral-rich), which causes limescale buildup in pipes, shower heads, and hot water heaters. Budget:
- Shower head / tap replacement: Every 3-5 years, 500-2,000 THB
- Water heater replacement: Every 5-8 years, 3,000-8,000 THB
- Plumbing call-out for minor issues: 500-1,500 THB per visit
Annual plumbing budget for a typical unit: 3,000-8,000 THB
Interior Repainting
Humidity causes paint to deteriorate faster than in dry climates. Budget a full interior repaint every 4-6 years:
- Studio/1BR (35-55 sqm): 15,000-25,000 THB
- 2BR (65-90 sqm): 25,000-40,000 THB
Annual equivalent provision: 4,000-8,000 THB
Furniture and Fixtures
For rental properties, furnishings take more wear than in owner-occupied properties. Budget for:
- Linen and towel replacement: 5,000-10,000 THB per year
- Minor furniture repairs or replacement: 5,000-15,000 THB per year
- Kitchen equipment replacement: 3,000-8,000 THB per year
Pest Control
Annual pest control service: 2,000-5,000 THB per year for a condo unit (termite inspection + treatment as needed). Villa properties with garden areas: 5,000-15,000 THB per year.
Budgeting for Irregular Large Expenses
| Item | Frequency | Estimated Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Full interior repaint | Every 5 years | 15,000-40,000 THB |
| Air conditioning compressor replacement | Every 8-12 years | 8,000-20,000 THB per unit |
| Hot water heater replacement | Every 5-8 years | 3,000-8,000 THB |
| Full furniture refresh | Every 7-10 years | 80,000-200,000 THB |
| Flooring replacement (tile grout/caulk) | Every 10 years | 10,000-30,000 THB |
| Kitchen appliance replacement | Every 8-12 years | 20,000-50,000 THB |
A common approach is to hold 1 to 1.5% of the property value each year as a capital reserve, kept separately. On a 6,048,000 THB condominium, the median released one-bedroom price on this site’s data, that is roughly 60,000 to 91,000 THB a year. The reserve is what turns the table above from a list of shocks into a schedule.
Get a Full Cost Breakdown Before You Buy
MORE Group provides transparent pre-purchase cost modelling including maintenance, management, and net yield projections.
How Maintenance Costs Affect Net Yield
The point of this section is the shape of the arithmetic rather than the numbers in it, so work it with your own figures.
Take the gross letting income an operator projects for your unit. Deduct the management share, whatever it actually is in the contract rather than a market average. Then deduct the annual maintenance total you have built from the line items above, which for a mid-market one-bedroom will run somewhere in the tens of thousands of baht before any capital item is replaced. What is left is the number that matters, and it is always meaningfully below the gross.
No worked example with assumed occupancy and an assumed nightly rate appears here, because both of those are the inputs nobody can source and both were previously supplied on this page to produce a tidy net yield. The honest version is the instruction: model total expenses rather than management fees alone, and ask the operator to show you a real twelve-month statement from a comparable unit before you accept any gross figure at all.
The number to ask for, and why the published rate is not it
Every building publishes a CAM rate per square metre per month, and that figure is the starting point rather than the answer.
What you actually want is three things. The rate today, so you can multiply it by your floor area. The rate three years ago, so you can see the direction of travel, since CAM rises and a steep climb means either improving service or a funding problem. And the building’s actual collections against its actual expenditure, which tells you whether the rate is sufficient and whether owners are paying it.
That third item is the one almost nobody asks for and the one that predicts the future best. A building collecting materially less than it spends is heading toward either a rate rise or visible deterioration, and both land on the owner. A building with a healthy collection rate and a funded reserve is one where the published figure means what it says.
Your lawyer can obtain the juristic person’s financial statements as part of due diligence. It is a small piece of work, it costs very little, and it is the single check most likely to surface a cost you would otherwise meet by surprise.
Where the money goes, by property type
Maintenance is discussed as one figure and behaves as several, and the split differs fundamentally between an apartment and a house.
| Cost | Condominium | Villa |
|---|---|---|
| Pool | Shared, funded through CAM | Weekly service, yours alone |
| Garden and grounds | Shared, funded through CAM | Yours alone, year-round |
| Building fabric | The juristic person’s, via the sinking fund | Roof, walls and drainage are yours |
| Air conditioning | Your units only | Your units, and there are more of them |
| Pool plant | n/a | Pump and filtration on a replacement cycle |
| Security | Shared | Estate-level or your own arrangement |
| Turnover cleaning | One unit | Whole house, multiple bathrooms, plus the pool |
The structural point is that a condominium owner buys a share of professional maintenance through CAM, while a villa owner is the maintenance department. That is not a percentage difference; it is a different category of cost and a different demand on attention.
It also changes what a bad year looks like. A condominium’s worst case is a special assessment, which is unwelcome but bounded and shared. A villa’s worst case is a simultaneous failure of the pool plant and an air conditioning system in the same season, entirely on you, at whatever the market rate is when it happens.
That is the argument for an annual reserve rather than an annual budget. Set aside a fixed sum each year against capital items with known lifespans, and the failures become scheduled expenses rather than events.
The other structural difference is who chooses. In a condominium the juristic person decides when the lift is replaced, what the lobby looks like and how the pool is maintained, and you contribute and vote. In a villa you decide everything, which means you also decide nothing gets deferred by anyone but yourself. Owners who are rarely on the island frequently find the condominium’s arrangement preferable for exactly that reason: the building is maintained whether or not they are paying attention, and a villa is not.
That difference in control is also a difference in timing: a condominium’s costs arrive as regular charges, while a villa’s arrive as occasional large ones, and the two demand different kinds of budgeting even where the annual totals are similar.
Buyer Scenarios: Maintenance Budgets by Profile
Scenario A, Studio flip or short hold (under 3 years): Minimise furnishing capex but do not skip AC service, deferred coils cost 8,000-20,000 THB per compressor. Budget 39,500-56,000 THB/year on a 30 sqm unit per tables above.
Scenario B, Villa buyer targeting families: Pool chemistry and pump service alone run 36,000-60,000 THB/year before garden and security. Underwrite 200,000+ THB total opex before management. Read condo vs villa occupancy in Phuket before choosing asset class.
Scenario C, Off-plan handover in 2026: Developers quote CAM at launch rates, ask for historical step-ups in sister projects (often 8-15% every 3-5 years). See how often condo fees increase and off-plan buying guide.
Red flags in a maintenance budget
- CAM quoted without the rate per square metre. A monthly figure means nothing without the area it is charged on, and it is the rate that lets you compare buildings.
- No sinking fund position disclosed. On a building more than a few years old, the reserve balance against its age is the best available predictor of whether a special assessment is coming.
- Villa costs modelled from condominium figures. A villa funds its own pool, garden and turnover alone, with management at 25-30% of gross against 15-20% on an apartment. It is a different order of expense, not a percentage above.
- Capital items treated as surprises. Pool plant, compressors and roofs have known lifespans. On any hold longer than five years they are scheduled costs, and a budget without an annual reserve for them is incomplete.
- Utilities between guests omitted. Air conditioning running in an empty unit in a tropical climate is a real line, and it is almost always left out.
- No insurance line, or insurance assumed to be inside CAM. Sometimes it is and sometimes it is not, and the answer differs by building.
- A furnishing budget with no replacement cycle. A let unit wears; soft furnishings on roughly a five-year cycle come straight off the net.
Insider tip: ask for the building’s actual CAM collections and expenditure for the past three years, not the published rate. The rate tells you what owners are charged; the accounts tell you whether that is enough to run the building, and whether owners are actually paying. A building collecting materially less than it spends is a building heading for either a rate rise or a deterioration, and both land on you.
Insurance and Emergency Reserve Line Items
For villas, structural and liability cover runs 15,000-35,000 THB/year depending on pool and staff. Cyclone-season drainage checks in May-June prevent 50,000-150,000 THB water-damage repairs that insurers may dispute if maintenance logs are thin.
Related Guides:
- Phuket property management fees 2026
- Phuket rental yield guide
- Short-term vs long-term rentals in Thailand
- How often Phuket condo fees increase
- Buying property in Phuket step-by-step
- Rental income tax in Thailand
Frequently Asked Questions
Condo fees in Phuket range from 30 THB to 80+ THB per sqm per month, depending on building quality and amenities. For a standard new development with pool and gym, budget 45-60 THB/sqm/month. For a premium branded development, 65-80 THB/sqm/month is typical.
Condo fees (juristic person fees) are always the owner's responsibility, regardless of whether the unit is rented. Utilities (electricity, water, internet) during a tenancy are typically charged to the tenant or deducted from the rental management income, depending on how your rental agreement is structured.
Some, but be careful about which ones. Skipping regular aircon service typically leads to expensive repairs. Deferring repainting leads to mould and structural issues in humid climates. The costs you can genuinely reduce: negotiate building insurance as part of your management agreement, DIY minor fixes when you're in-country, and buy in a building with lower but adequate condo fees.
Management companies coordinate maintenance but almost always pass costs to the owner at actual cost, often with a 10-15% markup. They report issues and arrange contractors; you pay the bills. Some premium management programs include minor maintenance up to a threshold (e.g. 1,000-2,000 THB) in their fee, but this is not universal.
Villas cost significantly more to maintain, typically 150,000-400,000 THB per year versus 40,000-100,000 THB for a comparable-value condo. This is because villas bear all structural maintenance costs themselves, plus pool, garden, and security that condos absorb in building fees. Higher absolute income from villas partially offsets this but yields are generally lower.
Yes. Rental units typically add 5,000-15,000 THB/year in linen, turnover wear and minor furniture replacement beyond owner-occupied baselines. Short-stay turnover can double AC filter cleaning frequency, factor 20-30% above owner-occupied maintenance tables.
A one-time levy from the juristic person for major works, roof, lifts, pool resurfacing. Amounts of 5,000-30,000 THB per unit are common; large deferred projects can exceed 50,000 THB. Buildings with sinking fund balances below 6 months of CAM are higher risk.
Both belong in the annual figure rather than being treated as optional extras.
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.
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