Quick answer: the Condominium Act of 1979 allows a non-Thai national to hold an individual unit freehold, in their own name, within a foreign quota set at 49% of the building’s total sellable floor area. You do not own land, you do not gain any visa, and you join a juristic person that collects charges, holds reserves and enforces the registered regulations. Confirm your unit’s quota position in writing and read the regulations before any deposit. Sequence: the due diligence guide.
For a foreign buyer in Phuket this Act answers the gate question that comes before every other one: can this specific unit be registered in my name with freehold title. Yield, view and beach are all downstream of that answer, and of the governance that comes with it.
The 49% quota, precisely
Four points about the quota account for most of the trouble buyers get into.
It is measured by area, not by units. The cap applies to total sellable floor area, so a building where foreign buyers took the large units can be out of foreign capacity while a majority of units remain available to Thai buyers. Counting doors tells you nothing.
It is building-specific. Quota is not an island-wide or developer-wide allowance, and capacity in one tower of a development says nothing about capacity in the next.
It is consumed at registration, not at reservation. This matters most on off-plan purchases completing 24 to 36 months out: the position you were shown at reservation is not the position that will be checked at transfer, and other buyers register in between.
And it is verifiable. The juristic person can state the remaining foreign capacity in writing. A sales gallery assurance is marketing; a written statement is evidence, and it should be refreshed shortly before the transfer date.
Where capacity is unavailable, the alternatives are a registered lease, generally thirty years at a time, or a resale unit whose foreign allocation is already recorded against it. The freehold versus leasehold comparison sets out what the difference is worth.
What “49% by area” works out to in units
The first of those four points is the one buyers under-read, so it is worth doing the arithmetic on a real mix rather than describing it. Take the layouts MORE Group’s list currently holds for one Layan scheme, Botanica Hythe. The figures below cover the units on the list rather than the whole building, so they illustrate how the rule behaves rather than stating that scheme’s actual quota position.
| Layout | Listed units | Average floor area, sqm | Total, sqm | Share of listed area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 bedroom | 49 | 60 | 2,940 | 12.1% |
| 2 bedroom | 63 | 89 | 5,576 | 22.9% |
| 3 bedroom | 49 | 208 | 10,174 | 41.8% |
| 4 bedroom | 8 | 709 | 5,674 | 23.3% |
| All | 169 | 24,364 |
Read the last two columns together. Eight units, 4.7% of the doors, hold 23.3% of the floor area. If foreign buyers took only those eight, they would have consumed almost half of a full 49% allowance before a single other unit was registered. Conversely, 49% of that area expressed entirely in 60 square metre one-bedrooms would be 198 units, more than the scheme contains.
That is the whole trap in one table. A sales gallery can say, accurately, that most units in the building are still available, at the same moment that foreign capacity is nearly gone, because the two statements count different things. It also means the order in which a building sells matters to you: a scheme whose penthouses go early to foreign buyers has less room left for you than one whose studios did, regardless of how many units remain.
The same shape holds across the island. Of the 12,054 priced apartments on MORE Group’s list, the median is 46 square metres, and 49% of all their floor area sits in the largest 3,475 of them, which is 28.8% of the units. On the island’s own size distribution, a 49% area cap corresponds to roughly 29% of doors when the largest go first, not 49%.
None of this replaces the written statement from the juristic person. It tells you what to ask that statement for: the remaining allowance in square metres, dated, set against the floor area of your specific unit, so the two numbers are in the same units and the subtraction is one you can do yourself.
What freehold unit title actually gives you
| You receive | You do not receive |
|---|---|
| Registered title to the unit in your own name | The land beneath the building |
| An undivided share of the common property | Any residence or work right |
| A vote in the juristic person, weighted by area | Mortgage access, for most non-residents |
| The right to sell, lease or bequeath the unit | Freedom from the registered regulations |
This is materially stronger than the leasehold position most foreign villa buyers hold, where the interest is a term of years that decays with time. A condominium unit does not expire, transfers to your heirs, and can be sold to any qualified buyer, subject only to quota capacity being available for a foreign purchaser at that time.
The registration itself brings one further requirement. Where a non-resident buys freehold, the Land Department expects evidence that the purchase money entered Thailand from abroad in foreign currency, in the form of the Foreign Exchange Transaction record issued by the receiving Thai bank. That is exchange control law rather than the Condominium Act, and it is not optional. See the banking guide.
The juristic person, and why it decides your returns
| Function | Why it matters to an investor |
|---|---|
| Common area maintenance billing | A fixed monthly drag on net yield, payable whether let or empty |
| Sinking fund | Reserves for roof, facade, lifts and plant, or the absence of them |
| Regulation enforcement | Short-stay rules, pets, renovation hours, guest registration |
| Annual general meeting | Where special assessments and major capital works are decided |
| Records and minutes | Where problems appear before any broker mentions them |
Voting is generally proportional to ownership share, so larger units carry more weight, and a development where a single party retains a large unsold holding is one where that party effectively controls the meeting. Worth knowing before you buy into a building where the developer still owns 40% of the floor area.
Insider tip: read one full year of AGM and committee minutes before buying any resale unit. Special assessments, lift replacements, facade repairs and disputes about short-stay letting all appear there months before they appear in a listing. It is the single highest-value document request in a condominium purchase and it is almost never made.
Charges, reserves and what they signal
Common area maintenance is the monthly operating charge, billed by floor area, and the sinking fund is the capital reserve for major work. Both are obligations rather than preferences: non-payment accrues, and it will be settled at transfer whether or not the seller intended to.
For a typical Phuket one-bedroom, annual common area charges commonly land somewhere between $1,200 and $3,500 depending on the building and the amenity level. The number itself matters less than what sits behind it. A low charge in a building with no reserve is not cheap, it is deferred, and the deferral arrives as a special assessment on whoever owns the unit when the roof fails.
Two signals are worth acting on. A charge that has risen materially with no corresponding capital programme suggests operating costs are running ahead of the budget, and the reserve is likely being used to cover them. A reserve that has been static for years in a building over 10 years old suggests nothing is being set aside for work that is certainly coming. The future-proofing checklist covers what to look for.
Letting: the Act is not the whole answer
The Condominium Act governs the form of ownership. What you may do with the unit is decided by two further things.
The registered regulations of the building may impose a minimum tenancy, require guests or tenants to be registered, restrict subletting or limit the use of common areas by non-residents. These bind every owner and are enforceable.
Separately, the Hotel Act treats accommodation let for under 30 days for payment as hotel business, which is licensed at the level of the premises rather than the owner. That rule applies whatever the condominium regulations say, and it is why nightly letting requires a hotel-licensed building. See renting out legally.
An owner needs a yes from both before modelling any nightly revenue.
Registration day, and what the Act requires there
The transfer itself is a short appointment at the Land Office, and the Act shapes what has to be in order before it can happen.
The juristic person issues a debt-free certificate confirming that common area charges and the sinking fund contribution on the unit are settled. Without it the registration does not proceed, and since unpaid charges follow the unit rather than the seller, this is a protection for you rather than a formality. A seller with arrears will need them cleared or deducted from the proceeds on the day.
The foreign quota is checked at that moment, against the register as it stands, which is why a confirmation obtained months earlier is not the same thing as capacity today. Where you are registering freehold as a non-resident, the exchange documentation is presented at the same time.
Transfer taxes and duties are payable at registration and the split between buyer and seller is a matter of negotiation rather than law, so it belongs in the sale and purchase agreement in explicit terms rather than as an assumption. Buyer-side costs on a resale commonly land somewhere near 3 to 5% of the price once everything is counted.
If any of those pieces is missing on the day, the correct response is to postpone rather than to proceed on assurances. Rebooking costs days; registering on the wrong basis costs considerably more.
Off-plan under the Act
Off-plan raises two Act-specific issues that ready stock does not.
The condominium does not legally exist until it is registered. Before that point, there is no juristic person, no registered regulations and no quota register, so what you are buying is a contractual right against a developer to be sold a unit in a building that will exist. Everything in the Act that protects a unit owner arrives later, at registration, which is the reason off-plan due diligence is weighted toward the developer rather than toward the unit.
The regulations are drafted by the developer and registered at completion. Buyers who intend to let should ask to see the draft, because the rules that will bind you for the life of the ownership are being written while you pay instalments, and the version shown at launch is not always the version registered.
The off-plan guide covers the commercial side of the same decision.
Buyer scenarios
The short-stay investor. Quota confirmation is necessary and not sufficient. You also need the hotel licence position and the registered regulations, and you need them before the deposit, since neither can be changed afterwards by any amount of spending.
The long-term landlord. The Act supports letting unless the regulations restrict it, and monthly tenancies avoid the hotel licensing question entirely. Check for a minimum term and a tenant registration requirement, then treat the building’s governance as the main variable in your holding costs.
The owner-occupier. Your interest in the juristic person is different and no less real: the reserve, the maintenance standard and the enforcement of noise and renovation rules are what daily life in the building will actually feel like. Read the minutes for what residents argue about.
The buyer planning to resell in 5 years. Your exit depends on the next buyer’s lawyer re-running these same checks. Quota capacity for a foreign purchaser, a healthy reserve, clean minutes and a well-run juristic person are what make that check come back cleanly, and each of them is set by the building you choose today.
Misconceptions worth correcting
“A Thai partner can hold the land for me.” Nominee holdings are unlawful and outside the Act entirely. The Act’s whole significance is that it provides the lawful route to freehold, and reaching for a nominee structure discards the one clean mechanism available to you.
“The Act guarantees my rental income.” It governs ownership form, nothing else. Occupancy, daily rates, licensing and the building’s own rules are all outside it.
“49% means half the units.” It means 49% of the floor area, which in practice is often a smaller number of larger units.
“Quota was confirmed at reservation, so I am fine.” Capacity is consumed at registration. Confirm again before transfer, particularly on off-plan.
Inheritance and what happens to the unit
The Act permits a foreign owner’s unit to pass to heirs, and the practical position deserves stating because buyers assume more difficulty here than exists.
Your unit forms part of your estate. Foreign heirs inherit it and then have to satisfy the same quota condition to register it in their own names. That is usually straightforward, because the unit is already recorded as foreign-held and the allocation does not have to be found again. Where it cannot be satisfied, the ordinary outcome is a direction to sell within a period fixed by law, not a forfeiture.
A Thai will covering your Thai assets makes all of this considerably simpler than relying on a foreign will alone, which has to be recognised before it can be acted on. It costs little, and it keeps your executors out of a procedure conducted in a language and a legal system neither of them will know.
Records to keep from day one
Keep the written quota confirmation, the sale and purchase agreement, the Foreign Exchange Transaction records and SWIFT confirmations, the registered regulations, and every annual meeting notice and set of minutes. The exchange records set the ceiling on what you can repatriate at sale, and the governance file is what your buyer’s lawyer will ask for. Both are trivial to keep and awkward to reconstruct 8 years later.
Getting it right: the short version
Verify the quota in writing for your specific unit, and verify it again before transfer. Read the registered regulations and a year of minutes before you commit. Judge the building by its reserve rather than by its charge. Establish the letting position under both the regulations and the Hotel Act if income is part of the case. Keep the exchange documentation permanently. The Act gives foreign buyers something genuinely rare in the region, and using it well is mostly a matter of reading documents that are available for the asking.
Get the quota and the governance checked before you reserve
We request the written quota position, the registered regulations and the juristic accounts on shortlisted buildings, and we read the minutes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Within the quota, a foreign owner holds title and juristic rights on the same footing as any other co-owner, with the same charges, the same vote weighting and the same obligations.
Where the registered regulations restrict letting, yes, and it can enforce them. Read the regulations before purchase if rental income is part of your reasoning.
The Land Department will not register a further transfer into foreign ownership beyond the cap. The alternatives are a registered lease or a resale unit already on the foreign side of the register.
Yes, permanently. Repatriation of sale proceeds is limited to the amount documented as having entered the country, so the records set your ceiling years before you need them.
No. It is a plain-language summary for orientation. Confirm the current position with Thai property counsel before any commitment, since the Act has been amended and practice varies by Land Office.
A written quota confirmation for the specific unit, an independent lawyer instructed before you shortlist, and the building's regulations and minutes. The buying guide sets out the full sequence.
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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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