Phuket Real Estate Referral Commission 2026

Short answer: in Phuket a referral fee is a slice of the agency’s commission, and the agency’s commission is paid by the developer. According to the seven programme pages we checked on 6 November 2026, five programmes state a share: 30% at PhuketStayPro, 30% on average at IBG Property, 30% to 50% at Insight Estate depending on the lead, up to 50% at Kalinka, and 20%, 35% or 50% at MORE Group depending on the model. Zodiac Estate agrees terms individually, and Aster of Asia does not publish them on its partnership page. Payment follows the developer’s payment to the agency, so the timing rule matters as much as the percentage.

This guide is written for agents, brokers and advisers outside Thailand who have a buyer for Phuket and want to know what a fair arrangement looks like. It covers the three working models, the published terms of seven programmes side by side, the clauses that decide whether you actually get paid, and a worked example in dollars.

Who pays whom on a Phuket new-build sale?

The money in a Phuket referral starts with the developer. A developer who sells through outside agencies signs an agency agreement with each of them and sets a commission rate in it, usually as a percentage of the contract price, such as the 3% or 6% used in the examples below.

The buyer pays the developer the price on the price list; the agency fee comes out of the developer’s sales budget, which is why buyers in this market normally pay no commission of their own. Our guide to buying property in Phuket explains the purchase from the buyer’s side.

The agency that registered the buyer with the developer is the one the developer pays. When an outside agent introduced that buyer, the agency then shares its fee with the agent under a separate partner agreement. So a partner payout is always two steps away from the buyer:

The buyer pays the developer under the sale and purchase agreement.
The developer pays the agency its commission, on the dates its agency agreement sets.
The agency pays the partner the agreed share of that commission.

Two consequences follow, and they explain most of the questions agents ask. First, a partner share is quoted as a percentage of the agency fee, not of the unit price, so “30%” means 30% of the 3% or 6% the developer pays; according to the calculation price x rate x share, that works out to roughly 0.9% to 1.8% of the price. Second, the partner cannot be paid before the agency is paid, and the agency is paid on the developer’s schedule. If a developer releases the agency fee in parts tied to the buyer’s instalments, then on a long off-plan payment plan the partner’s money arrives in stages too.

Resale works differently. On a secondary sale the seller usually agrees a fee with the listing agency, and a co-broking agency on the buyer’s side negotiates its share deal by deal. The MORE Group programme is built around new-build and off-plan stock, where the developer’s rate is fixed in advance, and the examples in this guide follow that case.

What are the three ways to work with a Phuket agency?

Almost every programme in the table below offers some version of three working models: referral, co-broke and full partner. The names vary; what changes between them is who talks to the buyer and who deals with the developer on the Phuket side. At MORE Group the three tiers pay 20%, 35% and 50% of the agency commission.

Model	What the partner does	What the Phuket agency does	Typical share of the agency fee
Referral	Introduces a buyer who agrees to be contacted, then steps back	Qualifies the brief, shortlists, shows, negotiates, closes	Lowest tier: 20% at MORE Group; 30% for a cold lead at Insight Estate
Co-broke	Keeps the relationship, joins calls, helps the buyer decide	Viewings, developer liaison, documents, transfer in Phuket	Middle tier: 35% at MORE Group
Full partner	Runs the sales conversation end to end with their own clients	Catalogue, due diligence, legal and closing on the ground	Highest tier: 50% at MORE Group

Referral suits people who meet buyers but do not sell property every day: relocation consultants, wealth advisers, lawyers abroad, Thailand bloggers. The partner’s work ends with a clean introduction and the buyer’s consent. The agency does everything else, which is why this tier pays the least.

Co-broke is the usual arrangement for a licensed agent in another country whose client wants to buy in Phuket. The client keeps talking to the person they already trust, and that person stays in the loop on every shortlist and call. The Phuket agency supplies the part that cannot be done from abroad: seeing units, checking the 49% foreign quota on the building’s floor area, set according to the Thai Condominium Act, collecting the bank paperwork for the Land Department and attending the transfer.

Full partner fits an agency abroad that already sells overseas property and only needs a Phuket desk. It runs its own marketing and sales calls and uses the local agency as back office and closing team. The share is higher because more of the selling happens on the partner’s side.

The right model is the one that matches the work you will actually do. A programme that pays 50% for a referral with no further involvement would be unusual; one that pays 20% while asking you to run viewings and paperwork would be a poor deal for the partner. For reference, the MORE Group tiers quoted in this guide are set according to the MORE Group partner agreement.

What are the pros and cons of each model for an agent?

Each model is a trade between the share you earn and the work you keep. According to the MORE Group partner agreement, a referral pays 20% of the agency commission, a co-broke 35% and a full partnership 50%. The table lists what an agent gains and gives up in each, so you can match the tier to the hours you can give the deal.

Model	Pros for the agent	Cons for the agent
Referral, 20%	Little time per buyer; no viewings or paperwork; no Thai licence needed when you refer from abroad	Lowest share; you step back after the introduction and see less of the sale
Co-broke, 35%	You keep the client relationship; the Phuket agency runs viewings, the quota check and the transfer	You stay on calls and shortlists until the buyer decides, so each deal takes more of your hours
Full partner, 50%	Highest share; your own team runs the sales conversation with your own clients	You carry the marketing and the sales calls yourself, which suits an agency that already sells overseas property

Whatever the tier, the payout still waits for the developer’s payment to the agency, and the shares in the table are paid according to that same rule in our agreement, so the timing points in the checklist below apply to all three.

Which model fits you? Three partner scenarios

Pick the model by the work you can do and the buyers you already have. Below are three typical partner scenarios, each with the model that fits it and what that model pays at MORE Group: 20% of the agency commission for a referral, 35% for a co-broke and 50% for a full partner.

If you are an agent in Dubai with a client who wants Phuket, choose co-broke. Your client keeps talking to you, and you stay on every shortlist and call. The Phuket agency runs the viewings, checks the 49% foreign quota and attends the transfer. Referring or co-broking from outside Thailand needs no Thai licence.
If you are a blogger writing about Thailand, choose referral. You introduce a reader who agrees to be contacted, register them before the first contact and step back. The agency does the selling, so your work ends with a clean introduction.
If you run an agency with a steady flow of buyers, choose full partner. You keep your own marketing and sales calls, and the Phuket agency works as your back office for the catalogue, due diligence, legal work and closing.

How do open referral programmes in Phuket compare?

We read each programme’s own partner page on 6 November 2026 and copied only what the page states. Where a term was not on the page, the cell says so. According to those pages, the published shares range from 20% to 50% of the agency fee. We do not rate other agencies; the table records their published terms, nothing more.

Checked on 6 November 2026.

Programme	Partner share	When the partner is paid	Client protection	Payout methods	Source page
MORE Group	20% referral, 35% co-broke, 50% full partner, of the agency commission	Within 7 calendar days after the developer pays the agency	12 months from written registration	THB, international bank transfer, crypto	moregroup.estate/partners
PhuketStayPro	30% of the agency fee on every closed deal	Within 7 days of deal close	12 months from registration	USDT (TRC-20), SWIFT transfer, THB cash in Phuket	phuketstaypro.com/en/partners
IBG Property	On average 30% of the agency commission	When the conditions of the partner agreement are met; no fixed term published	Not published	Not published	ibg-partners.com/en
Insight Estate	50% of net commission for a warm lead, 30% for a cold lead	Advance within 3 days after the developer confirms payment, the remaining 70% once the agency receives its commission	Not published	Not published	insightestate.com/en/partners
Zodiac Estate	Agreed individually before work starts	Not published	90 days from registration in the agency’s bot	Not published	zodiacestate.com/en/agents
Kalinka	Up to 50% of the commission on each closed deal	Immediately after the deal is completed	Not published	”A suitable way”; no methods named	kalinka-realty.com/partners
Aster of Asia	Not published on the page we could read	Not published	Not published	Not published	asterofasia.com/partnership

A few notes on reading the table:

“Share of agency fee” and “per deal” are different measures: a fixed range in dollars says nothing about the percentage behind it, and a percentage says nothing until you know the developer’s rate on the unit.
“Not published” means the page we checked did not state the term; it does not mean the term is missing from the programme’s agreement.
Scope differs too: IBG Property’s partner site covers Thailand, Bali and Cambodia, and Kalinka’s partner page covers its programme across 18 countries, Thailand among them, so their terms are not specific to Phuket.
Terms change, so treat the table as a snapshot of 6 November 2026 and confirm each point in writing with the agency you choose.

What should you check before you sign with any agency?

The percentage is the first number agents compare and the least likely to cause a dispute. Payouts go wrong on timing, registration and ownership of the client. MORE Group’s written terms, for example, fix payment within 7 calendar days after the developer pays and protect a registered buyer for 12 months. Settle these points before you send the first name.

A written partner agreement

A message in a chat is not an agreement. Ask for a document that names both parties, the share for each model, the payout trigger and deadline, the registration rule and how a disagreement is settled. If the agency’s page lists terms, check that the agreement carries the same numbers. An agreement also tells you whether the arrangement is exclusive: a non-exclusive one leaves you free to work with other Phuket agencies at the same time.

Registration before the first contact

Every programme protects the partner through registration: you send the buyer’s details, the agency confirms in writing that the buyer is now registered to you, and only then does anyone from the agency contact them. Check three details:

What counts as registration. A form, an email or a message, and what it must contain (name, contact, budget, timeline).
The confirmation. A written reply with a date, which becomes your evidence if the buyer later reaches the agency another way.
The protection period. How long the buyer stays yours after registration, and whether the clock restarts on a new purchase.

Insider tip: keep the dated written confirmation for every buyer you register. It is the evidence that settles a dispute over who introduced the buyer.

When the money is actually paid

“Paid after closing” can mean three different dates on a Phuket sale: the day the buyer signs, the day the title is registered, or the day the developer pays the agency. Only the third one puts money in the agency’s account. Ask which event starts the clock and how many days follow it. On an off-plan unit with a payment plan of 3 years, ask whether the developer pays the agency in one sum or in parts, and whether your share follows the same parts.

If the buyer is already in the agency’s database

Buyers often write to several agencies before they choose one. A good agreement says what happens when your buyer turns out to be known already: who decides, on what evidence, and whether the agency tells you before any work starts. A rule such as “the first registration with documented consent wins” is easy to apply. A rule that leaves the decision to the agency’s discretion is not.

Currency, payout method and tax at home

The methods published in the table above range from THB cash in Phuket to SWIFT transfers and USDT, and five of the seven pages name no specific method. Ask which methods are available, who pays the bank fee and which exchange rate applies if the fee is converted. How the payout is taxed depends on where you live and how you are set up, so ask your own accountant before the first payment arrives, not after. This guide does not give tax or legal advice.

Who handles the buyer’s paperwork

Your client’s experience reflects on you. Ask what the agency does for the buyer between reservation and transfer: quota confirmation for freehold, the reservation agreement, a lawyer’s review of the sale and purchase agreement, and the foreign exchange transaction form that the buyer’s bank issues when the money arrives from abroad, covered in our proof of funds guide. An agency that cannot describe this in a few sentences will be hard to defend to your client later.

Why referral payouts fall through

When a partner is not paid, the cause is rarely a refusal. It is usually one of a handful of situations that the agreement did not cover:

The buyer was introduced before registration. The partner sent a project link to the client, the client wrote to the agency directly, and the registration arrived a day later.
The buyer bought a different unit or project. Check whether your registration covers the buyer for any purchase through the agency during the protection period, or only the unit first discussed.
The buyer bought after the protection period. A buyer who takes 18 months to decide falls outside a window of 12 months unless it is extended in writing.
The sale was cancelled. If the buyer walks away from an off-plan contract and the developer does not pay the agency, there is no fee to share.
The developer paid late. The partner’s deadline runs from the developer’s payment, so a late developer means a late partner payout, even when the agreement promises payment within 7 days.

Each of these can be settled in one sentence of the agreement. Ask about them before the first registration, when nobody’s money depends on the answer yet.

Have a buyer for Phuket?

Register the buyer with us before the first contact and we confirm it in writing. You choose referral, co-broke or full partner.

See partner terms WhatsApp

Worked example: how much does a partner earn on $300,000 and $500,000?

The payout depends on three numbers: the unit price, the developer’s commission rate to the agency and the partner’s share of that commission. The table uses two prices and two developer rates, 3% and 6%, and the three MORE Group shares. Every sum is worked out according to one calculation, price x rate x share, by a script rather than by hand; the developer rate on a real unit is set in the developer’s agency agreement and can be lower or higher.

Unit price	Developer rate	Agency commission	Partner at 20%	Partner at 35%	Partner at 50%
$300,000	3%	$9,000	$1,800	$3,150	$4,500
$300,000	6%	$18,000	$3,600	$6,300	$9,000
$500,000	3%	$15,000	$3,000	$5,250	$7,500
$500,000	6%	$30,000	$6,000	$10,500	$15,000

Any programme that pays a share of its fee works according to the same formula: price × developer rate × partner share. Two things in the table are worth noticing. The developer rate moves the result as much as the tier does: a referral at 20% on a 6% unit pays the same as a co-broke at 35% would on a rate of about 3.4%. And the same unit can pay very different sums through different agencies, because each agency negotiates its own rate with the developer. Our partner page has a calculator for other prices and rates.

According to the calculation above, a payout of $1,800 to $15,000 per sale is a useful range for planning, but only the developer rate on the specific unit makes it a firm number. Ask the agency to state the rate, or the expected payout in dollars, when it sends the shortlist to your buyer.

Does a foreign agent need a Thai licence?

The question comes up in every first call with an agent abroad. On our partner page the answer for MORE Group partners is short: you do not need a Thai real estate licence if you refer or co-broke from outside Thailand. You work under the rules of your own country, and MORE Group carries the licensed activity and the developer contracts on the ground in Phuket. According to the MORE Group partner agreement, partners abroad earn 20% of the agency commission for a referral and 35% for co-broking.

Two practical notes follow from that answer:

Your local rules apply to you, so if your country requires a licence to receive a share of an overseas sale, that requirement stands regardless of Thailand.
Work inside Thailand, such as running viewings in Phuket yourself, is a different matter from referring from abroad; ask the agency how it is handled before you plan a trip with a client.

How does the MORE Group partner programme work?

MORE Group has sold Phuket property since 2018 and has closed more than 500 deals. Partners earn 20% of our agency commission for a referral, 35% as a co-broker and 50% as a full partner. We pay within 7 calendar days after the developer transfers our commission, in Thai baht, by international bank transfer or in crypto.

According to the MORE Group partner agreement, a buyer you register stays yours for 12 months from our written confirmation, the agreement is non-exclusive, and joining costs nothing. Terms, the calculator and the application form are on the partner programme page.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a normal referral commission in Phuket real estate?

According to the programme pages we checked on 6 November 2026, open programmes pay a share of the agency fee, from 20% for a simple referral up to 50% for a partner who runs the sale; two of the seven publish no share at all. In money, a $300,000 unit at a 3% developer rate gives the agency $9,000 and a 20% partner $1,800; a $500,000 unit at 6% gives the agency $30,000 and a 50% partner $15,000.

Is the referral fee a percentage of the property price?

Usually not. It is a share of the commission the developer pays the agency. A 35% share on a 6% developer rate equals 2.1% of the price; the same 35% on a 3% rate equals 1.05%. Ask for the developer rate or the payout in dollars for the specific unit.

What is co-broking in Phuket?

Co-broking means two agencies share one sale: you keep the client relationship and take part in calls and decisions, while the Phuket agency runs viewings, developer liaison, documents and the transfer. It pays more than a referral because you keep working on the deal after the introduction.

When will I receive my referral payment?

Only after the developer pays the agency, because the partner share comes out of that payment. Check which event starts the clock and the number of days after it. According to the MORE Group partner agreement, we pay within 7 calendar days after the developer transfers our commission.

Can I refer a buyer to more than one Phuket agency?

If your agreements are non-exclusive you can work with several agencies, but register each buyer with only one of them. Two registrations for the same buyer lead to a dispute over who introduced them, and the agency that the developer recognises is the one that gets paid.

Do I pay tax on a referral fee from Thailand?

That depends on the country where you live and how you are registered there, so ask your own accountant before the first payout. Ask the agency in advance which currency and method it pays in and who covers bank fees, so you can give your accountant the full picture.

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