Buying property in Thailand as a foreigner: the 2026 guide to the markets, the law, the money and the process

Thailand’s property market for a foreign buyer, in 2026

Thailand has sold property to foreigners for four decades under one settled rule and two settled exceptions. The rule is that land belongs to Thais. The first exception, since 1979, is the condominium, a unit in a registered building that a foreigner may own freehold in their own name as long as foreign owners hold no more than 49 percent of the building’s floor area. The second exception is the house, which a foreigner may own as a building while the land under it is let to the foreigner for the longest term the Land Office registers, 30 years, or owned by a Thai company whose Thai shareholders are real. Everything else, from the proposals to extend leases to 99 years to the annual rumours of a quota increase, is talk until it is in the Royal Gazette, and in September 2026 none of it is.

Within that frame the market is large and specific. The Real Estate Information Center, the government’s property statistics body, logged 6,533 condominium transfers to foreigners in the first half of 2025, worth 28.267 billion THB; Chinese buyers spent the most, Chonburi recorded the most transfers, and Bangkok and Phuket followed. Its first-quarter 2026 numbers, in The Nation’s report, had Russian purchases a third higher by unit and 75.9 percent higher by value. On the supply side, C9 Hotelworks’ 2026 review found more branded residences in Phuket, 3,465 units, than in any other resort market in Asia. Houses and villas bought by foreigners appear in none of those numbers, because a lease registers in the landowner’s name, which is one reason the villa market is talked about more than it is measured.

This page is the country-level starting point. It compares the six markets on which MORE Group holds a developer catalogue, sets out what a foreigner can and cannot own, walks the purchase from brief to registration, prices the costs, explains the banking, and points to the visa, tax and due-diligence guides that go deeper. Where a figure appears, it is computed from the project cards on this site on the date shown or attributed to the body that published it.

The six markets compared

MORE Group’s catalogue held 753 developer projects on 6 September 2026: 299 in Phuket, 167 on Koh Samui, 44 in Pattaya, 199 in Hua Hin, 30 in Bangkok and 14 in Chiang Mai. The table sets out, for each market, how many projects the site holds, the lowest starting price among them, the median starting price and the mix of products, all taken from the cards. A median here is the middle project’s starting price, not a unit price, and its one job is to show which market a given budget can walk into.

The catalogue is Phuket-heavy because the agency has reviewed the island’s projects for years and began the other markets in 2026; the counts describe the site, not the country. Krabi and Koh Phangan are real markets with no published cards yet (four Krabi estates sit in the registry awaiting prices), and the Koh Phangan page holds research rather than stock.

Each market has its own page with its districts, its catalogue and its comparison with Phuket: Bangkok, Pattaya, Koh Samui, Hua Hin, Chiang Mai, and Phuket through buying property in Phuket. Buyers who know the product before the place can start from the condominium catalogue, the villa catalogue or the houses catalogue, and the property for sale hub sets all three side by side.

What a foreigner can own, and what each right is worth

The law gives a foreign buyer three products, and the price of each includes the strength of the right.

A condominium in the foreign quota is freehold, registered in the buyer’s own name with its own title deed, inheritable, sellable to another foreigner within the quota or to a Thai buyer outside it, and the only Thai property a bank will occasionally finance for a foreigner. It is the strongest right and the simplest purchase, and for most first-time buyers it is the right answer. The condominium catalogue explains the quota, the Foreign Exchange Transaction record and the title in the order a lawyer checks them.

A house or villa on a registered lease is two rights in one purchase: ownership of the building, which can be registered in the foreign buyer’s name, and a lease of the plot for up to 30 years, endorsed on the land title at the Land Office and enforceable against anyone who later buys the land. It is a real right for its term and a wasting one after year twenty, and the renewals promised in 30+30+30 contracts are promises between the parties, not registered rights. Priced on the registered term, it is a sound way to own a home; priced as if it were freehold, it is not. The villa catalogue and the 30-year lease guide go through the terms.

A house through a Thai company is lawful when the company is real, with Thai shareholders who paid for their shares and a business that exists, and unlawful when the shareholders are nominees holding shares for the foreigner. The second kind was common in Phuket and Samui for twenty years, and the enforcement that began in 2025 and continued into 2026, with the company registrar and the Land Department asking where shareholders’ money came from, has made resale the point at which those structures fail. A buyer with a genuine Thai business may use a company; a buyer with a holiday home should lease.

Land cannot be owned by a foreign individual, and a foreigner who wants a plot to build on holds it the same way as a villa plot: a registered lease, a superficies giving the right to own the building on it, or a company. The land for sale page explains the four lawful structures, the title deeds and the plot checks; the land guide and the legal guide on foreign ownership set out the rules by structure and by nationality.

The purchase in ten steps

The process is the same in every province and for every product, and its order is what protects the buyer. Compressed, it takes four to ten weeks for a completed property and the construction period plus the same closing for an off-plan one.

1. Write the brief. Market, product, budget in foreign currency, intended use, holding period, and how the title will be held. A one-page brief stops the shortlist from being someone else’s stock list.
2. Choose the market. The table above and the market pages. A buyer who wants rail, tenants and completed buildings is in Bangkok; a buyer who wants a pool and a beach is choosing between Phuket’s price and Samui’s finished estates; a buyer who wants the lowest entry is in Pattaya.
3. Settle the structure. Foreign-quota condominium, leasehold villa with building ownership, or a lawful company, decided with a lawyer before any reservation, because it changes the contract, the cost and the resale market.
4. Shortlist against the brief. Three to six projects, each with its developer’s record, its title status and its stage of completion, and for a completed building or estate its accounts.
5. Reserve, conditionally. A reservation fee holds the unit for two to four weeks; the reservation form should make it refundable if the title check fails.
6. Check the title and the seller. The deed pulled at the Land Office, the foreign quota remaining, the building or construction permit, the environmental approval where the size of the project requires one, the developer’s company record, and, for a completed property, the juristic person’s or estate’s accounts. The due diligence guide is the checklist.
7. Sign the contract, and the lease if there is one. Reviewed against the plot or unit number, the payment schedule, the delay clause, the built-area tolerance, the defects period and the transfer costs, with the lease registration terms for a villa. The off-plan guide covers what a good contract contains.
8. Send the money. As a foreign-currency transfer from the buyer’s own account, marked as payment for the property, which is what makes the Thai bank issue a Foreign Exchange Transaction record. Section eight below explains why this cannot be skipped.
9. Register at the Land Office. The condominium transfer or the lease registration and building transfer, the fees paid, the deed or the endorsed title in the buyer’s hand, with a lawyer present and certified copies of everything before leaving.
10. Set up the holding. Common-area or estate fees, Land and Building Tax registration, insurance, a management or letting arrangement if the property will be let, and the tax filings that follow.

Insider tip: the two steps buyers most often reverse are five and six. A reservation paid before the title has been read is a reservation paid on the developer’s description of the title, and the refund clause is the only protection. Ask for the deed number on the first call and let the lawyer read it before the fee is paid.

What it costs to buy and to hold

Purchase costs in Thailand are modest by the standards of Europe or Australia and are mostly paid at the Land Office on the day of transfer. The rates below are statutory; the ranges are what contracts show in 2026. The tax guide carries the worked examples and the transfer fees guide the condominium detail.

A working rule for a budget is to add 3 to 5 percent of the price for the purchase and the first year, more for a villa with a pool to service and an estate fee to pay, and to keep the funds in foreign currency until they are sent.

Getting the money into Thailand, and out again

The single most consequential piece of paperwork in a Thai property purchase is a bank form the buyer never sees until it is missing. When purchase funds arrive from abroad as foreign currency, from an account in the buyer’s own name, with a purpose line naming the unit or house being bought, the receiving Thai bank converts them and issues a Foreign Exchange Transaction record, or a confirmation letter for amounts below the threshold that the Bank of Thailand sets. The Land Office requires that record to register a condominium in a foreign name, which is why a condominium cannot be bought with baht already in Thailand, with cash, or through a friend’s account. The record is also the buyer’s proof, when the property is sold, that the proceeds may be sent abroad in the same currency, and a seller without one spends months reconstructing the trail.

For a leasehold villa the Land Office does not require the record, and buyers are sometimes told it does not matter. It matters at the exit for the same reason, and it matters for the buyer’s home tax authority, which will ask where the money went. The practical rules are simple: one transfer per property, from an account in the buyer’s own name, in dollars, euros, pounds or another foreign currency rather than baht, with the purpose field completed, and the bank’s record collected and filed with the deed.

Opening a Thai bank account is possible on most long-stay visas and difficult on a tourist entry; a buyer who will hold the property for years should open one for the running costs, and the banking guide covers which banks open accounts for which visas in 2026.

One budget across six markets: what 10,000,000 THB buys

Ten million THB converts to about $305,810 at 32.7 THB per dollar, a shade below the catalogue’s median starting price, so it is a useful budget to walk through the six markets with. The counts are of projects whose starting price is at or below the budget on 5 September 2026; the unit at that price is the smallest the developer sells.

In Bangkok the budget reaches 26 of the 30 projects, everything except the three Sukhumvit residences above 40,000,000 THB and Sansiri’s Via 34 at 13,300,000 THB. It buys a one- or two-bedroom in a completed tower by a listed developer on the MRT, and it leaves room for a second unit in the outer districts.

In Pattaya it reaches every condominium on the catalogue and two housing estates, Patta Terrane in Huai Yai from 8,290,000 THB and The Palm in Nong Prue from 8,340,000 THB, and stops short of the pool villas, which start at 16,030,000 THB. It buys a sea-view two-bedroom in Wongamat or Jomtien, or a family house inland near the schools.

In Phuket it reaches 98 of the 135 condominium projects and 7 of the 149 villa estates. It buys a one-bedroom in Bang Tao, a two-bedroom in Rawai, Kata or Nai Yang, or the entry villa in Pa Khlok or Nai Yang with nothing left over for the pool service.

On Koh Samui it reaches all three condominiums and 18 of the 38 villa estates, most of them completed, in Maenam, Bo Phut and Lamai. It buys a finished two- or three-bedroom pool villa on a hill, held on a registered lease.

In Hua Hin it reaches 23 of the 34 projects: a completed two-storey home on a Supalai estate in Hin Lek Fai, a single-storey pool villa on a small estate in Thap Tai with change to spare, or a house in Cha-Am at a third of the budget. It is the only coast on this site where the budget buys a finished pool villa near a town with hospitals and international schools.

In Chiang Mai it reaches 10 of the 14 projects: every condominium building in the city district, Hang Dong and San Sai, The Britt’s estate homes in San Sai from 8,300,000 THB, and 999 Developments’ pool villas in Ban Waen from 9,900,000 THB, all of them completed, in the one market on this site that has no sea.

The walk shows the shape of the country: the same money buys the most infrastructure in Bangkok, the most sea view in Pattaya, the most resort in Phuket, a finished villa on a hill on Samui, a house with a garden near a town in Hua Hin and a mountain valley with a university in Chiang Mai, and the choice between them is a choice of life rather than of price.

What a foreign buyer needs to bring

The paperwork on the buyer’s side is short. A passport with a valid entry stamp, and a copy certified by the buyer’s embassy or a notary if the buyer will not be present at the Land Office. The Foreign Exchange Transaction record or bank confirmation for the purchase funds, in the buyer’s name. Proof of address at home, which the developer and the bank will ask for under anti-money-laundering rules. For a buyer using a Thai spouse’s name, the marriage certificate and a signed statement that the money is the spouse’s own. For a buyer completing remotely, a power of attorney in the Land Office’s own form, signed before a Thai consulate or notarised and legalised, which the remote purchase guide explains step by step. Everything else, from the deed to the developer’s permits, is on the seller’s side, and the buyer’s lawyer collects it.

Visas: separate from the purchase, decisive for the use

Ownership in Thailand does not depend on a visa, and no visa is granted for buying property. A buyer can complete a purchase on a tourist entry and many do. What the visa decides is how long the owner can live in what they bought, and the routes most owners use in 2026 are four.

The retirement extension, for owners aged 50 and over, granted a year at a time on a Non-Immigrant O or O-A visa against a deposit of 800,000 THB in a Thai bank or a monthly income of 65,000 THB, with the O-X ten-year variant for some nationalities. The retirement visa guide sets out the options and the health-insurance rules.

The Destination Thailand Visa, for remote workers and long-stay visitors, valid five years with stays of 180 days per entry against proof of 500,000 THB in funds, which has become the default route for owners under 50 who work online. The DTV guide covers the application and its limits.

The Long-Term Resident visa, ten years for wealthy global citizens, wealthy pensioners, remote professionals and highly skilled workers, with the financial thresholds revised in 2025; property in Thailand counts toward the investment test in the wealthy-citizen category. The LTR guide has the categories and the fees.

Thailand Privilege, the paid membership formerly called Elite, five to twenty years of multiple-entry residence for a fee, useful for owners who want simplicity and do not qualify elsewhere. The Privilege guide prices the tiers and says when it is worth it.

Whichever route applies, the 180-day rule sits behind all of them: an owner who spends 180 days or more in Thailand in a calendar year is a Thai tax resident, and since 2024 the Revenue Department taxes foreign income remitted into Thailand by residents. Buyers who intend to live in their property should read the property tax guide before they choose a visa.

Living here: what the property costs to live in

A property is bought once and lived in for years, and the second question follows the first. The cost of living guide prices a month in Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya and Chiang Mai for a single person, a retired couple and a family, with Numbeo’s dated figures and the statutory costs that do not vary; the living in Thailand guide covers the yearly paperwork, banking, driving, healthcare, schools and culture that a resident learns in the first year; the moving to Thailand guide is the month-by-month checklist from six months out to the first week in; and the retire in Thailand guide sets out the visa routes, budgets, healthcare and places for the over-50s. Each of them says the same thing about property: rent for a year in the district you are considering, then buy as a resident rather than a visitor.

Off-plan, completed and resale: three ways to buy the same building

Most new property in Thailand is sold before it is finished. On this catalogue 308 of 753 projects are off-plan or under construction and 408 are completed, and in Phuket the ratio is steeper still. Each way of buying carries its own checks.

Off-plan means a lower price at reservation, instalments over construction of 12 to 36 months, and the developer’s delivery risk. Escrow under the 2008 Act is voluntary and rarely used, so the protection is the contract and the developer’s record: projects delivered, dates promised and met, permits in hand for this building, the environmental approval where a building of 80 units or 4,000 square metres requires one. The developer reputation guide and the escrow guide set out the checks.

Completed means a building or villa that can be inspected, a juristic person or estate with accounts, a quota that can be confirmed at the Land Office, and a transfer that can happen in weeks. The price is higher and the risk is lower, and for a first purchase in a new country the trade is usually worth making.

Resale means buying from an owner rather than a developer, in the same buildings a few years on. The registration is the same, the seller’s taxes are the seller’s, and two extra documents matter: the seller’s own Foreign Exchange Transaction record, proving the unit was lawfully bought into the quota, and a debt-free letter from the juristic person. The resale catalogue lists owner sales through this office and the selling guide explains the seller’s side.

The 2026 changes a buyer should know

The law has not changed; the enforcement and the incentives have.

The transfer fee relief at 0.01 percent for homes up to 7,000,000 THB was extended to 30 June 2027 for Thai individual buyers and does not reach foreign purchases, whatever a listing says.

The nominee crackdown that began in 2025 continued through 2026, with company shareholder funds checked at registration and at the Land Office; a foreigner buying a villa through a company set up for the purpose should assume the structure will be examined at resale if not before.

The Destination Thailand Visa and the revised Long-Term Resident thresholds have shifted the profile of owners under 50, and the buildings and estates that sell to them have begun to write remote-work rather than holiday rules into their regulations.

The foreign income remittance rule in force since 2024 has made tax residence a property question: an owner who spends 180 days in Thailand and brings foreign income in to live on is taxed on it, and the treaty with the owner’s home country decides how much.

The 99-year lease and 75 percent quota proposals remain proposals. A buyer offered a 99-year lease in 2026 is being offered a 30-year lease with a long promise attached.

Who buys in Thailand, and where each buyer tends to end up

The city professional or investor who wants tenants, rail and a listed developer’s completed building buys a Bangkok condominium on the MRT Blue Line from about 3,000,000 THB, or on Sukhumvit from 4,200,000 THB.

The winter resident who wants a beach, a pool deck and a unit that can be let between visits buys a Pattaya or Jomtien condominium from 1,431,000 THB, or a Phuket condominium in Patong, Kata or Nai Yang from 1,450,000 THB, and reads the building’s letting rules first.

The family or the retiree who wants a house buys a Samui villa, where 30 of 38 estates are finished, from 3,650,000 THB, a Phuket villa in Rawai or Nai Yang, or a Pattaya house inland from 8,290,000 THB near the schools.

The buyer of a managed asset with a brand buys in Bang Tao or Layan, at medians near 30,000,000 THB for a villa and near 6,800,000 THB for a condominium, and reads the management contract as carefully as the title.

The remote worker on a DTV tends to rent for a year, then buy, and tends to buy a condominium; the visa’s 180-day stays and the 180-day tax rule are the two numbers to hold in mind together.

What this page does not say, and why

No yield, occupancy, appreciation or days-on-market figure appears anywhere on this site’s catalogue or guides. Thailand keeps no letting register and no resale price index at the level of a building or an estate, and the figures that circulate are projections written by sellers. The statistics that do exist, from the Real Estate Information Center on condominium transfers and from C9 Hotelworks on branded supply, are cited where they are relevant and dated. A buyer who is shown a return figure should ask what register it came from, and the honest answer in Thailand is none.

How MORE Group works

MORE Group carries a Phuket agency licence and handles Bangkok, Pattaya, Koh Samui, Hua Hin and Chiang Mai through its own teams; the 753 projects on this site are those that have passed the agency’s registry check, with unconfirmed fields left empty rather than guessed. Developers pay the fee on new-build sales, so the buyer pays the published price. The work runs in the order above: brief, market, structure, shortlist, title and developer checks by a lawyer the buyer chooses, contract, money, Land Office day and holding set-up, with a straight answer whenever a project falls short. Buyers who want to see the process in one market before choosing can read how buying in Phuket works, and buyers who already know their market can start from its page above.