Phuket · Edition 9 September 2026
Buying property in Phuket as a foreigner
Yes, a flat. You own a Phuket condominium freehold in your own name, inside a 49% foreign quota per building, with no approval and no minimum price. You cannot own the land under a villa. Closing costs run 2.5% to 6.3%, and foreigners pay the full 2% transfer fee, as of September 2026.
Current at 9 September 2026. Dollars at THB 32.9 to US$1, the rate of 8 September 2026.
Villas above THB 40 million carry 77 months of unsold stock
Buying here is easy. Selling is not. That is the fact to hold on to if you are moving to Phuket with capital. In Bang Tao and Surin, 249 villas above THB 40 million ($1.22M) sat unsold against 20 sold in the first half of 2025. That band needs 77 months to clear. Rawai's THB 20–40 million band ($608,000–1.22M) needs 244 months.
Villa absorption fell island-wide, from 5.5% a month to 1.8% (REIC and the Phuket Real Estate Association, 2 October 2025). A buyer has power here. An owner who needs cash within a year has none.
The flat can be yours, the land cannot
A foreigner may own a condominium unit freehold under section 19 of the Condominium Act. The only cap is the building quota. No minimum price, no approval step, and any lawful entry status qualifies.
| Tenure | Open to a foreigner? | The limit |
|---|---|---|
| Condominium unit, freehold | Yes, in your own name | 49% of a building's saleable floor area |
| Land | No | Not in your name, and not via a Thai company you control |
| Registered lease on land or a villa | Yes | 30 years. Renewal needs a fresh agreement then, not a clause now |
| Superficies or usufruct | Yes | You hold the building or its use, never the ground. Hard to sell on |
A lease beyond three years must be filed at the Land Office to hold up. The purchase money must arrive from abroad, in foreign currency, in your name, with the purpose stated. Your bank issues a Foreign Exchange Transaction form at US$50,000 and above, a letter below that (thethaiger.com legal guide, 26 August 2026). No form, no registration, so opening a Thai bank account comes early.
What a THB 4.6 million condominium actually costs to buy
The island's condominium median is THB 91,757 per m² ($2,790), from FazWaz data for December 2025 to May 2026 (thethaiger.com, 13 June 2026). A 50 m² one-bedroom at that median is THB 4.6 million ($139,800). Work the costs on that.
| Cost | Rate | Who pays |
|---|---|---|
| Transfer fee | 2% of appraised value | Buyer in full, if foreign. A developer covers at least half on a new build |
| Lease registration | 1.1% of total rent across the term | Buyer, on leasehold |
| Specific business tax | 3.3% if the seller sells within five years | Seller |
| Stamp duty | 0.5% where that tax does not apply | Seller |
| Withholding tax | At the seller's rate | Seller |
| Land and building tax | About 0.02% a year | Owner, annually |
Rates are Thailand-wide (thethaiger.com legal guides, 24 July and 26 August 2026).
The transfer fee alone is THB 92,000 ($2,800). All in, budget THB 115,000 to 289,800 ($3,500–8,810) above the price, then about THB 920 a year ($28) in tax. Leasehold runs the same sum on a bigger base. A villa on a 30-year registered lease at THB 25 million ($760,000) registers at THB 275,000 ($8,360).
Borrowing is expensive. Offshore programmes lend 50 to 70% of value, Thai-based lenders about 50% at 8 to 12% interest (thethaiger.com, 26 August 2026).
The 0.01% transfer fee and the 100% loan-to-value allowance run to 30 June 2027. Both are for Thai natural persons buying at or under THB 7 million ($213,000). You pay the full 2%.
The three ways foreigners lose the money here
A 30+30+30 lease is not ninety years. In March 2025 the Supreme Court held that pre-agreed renewal clauses do not bind past the first term. Thirty years is the real number. Money paid for years 31 to 90 buys a promise that binds neither the land nor a future owner.
A nominee company is an offence, not a structure. A Thai company that holds land while you control it breaks the Foreign Business Act. Enforcement tightened on 1 January 2026 and again on 1 April. The registry is now checking 36,277 firms that hold land through foreign links, 31,516 of them at or below 49% foreign-owned (nationthailand.com, 18 August 2026). Sections 36 and 37 carry up to three years in prison, fines of THB 100,000 to 1 million ($3,040–30,400), and a forced sale of the land. Company-held villas are also hard to resell now (edgeprop.sg, 4 June 2026).
Some land cannot be built on, and the seller will not raise it. Plots above 80 metres of elevation, or on a slope over 35%, cannot be built. Former forest or park land carries no statute of limitations, so a title can be undone years later. Missing rights of way are the third version (thethaiger.com, 24 July 2026). You hold a plot you cannot build on or reach.
Prime beachfront is still rising while the rest softens
Phuket launched 45,066 units from 2021 to 2025, about 25,000 of them in 2024 and 2025. Some 40,600 condominium units now sit listed across 343 developments (thethaiger.com, June and July 2026). Of 6,563 villa units, 2,614 are unsold (edgeprop.sg, 4 June 2026).
No vacancy series is published here, and the two unsold counts that exist measure different things. CHECK One gives 10,159 unsold units in May 2025, the other the 40,600 listed today.
Second-hand stock took 63% of deals in the first half of 2025. The discount on it is contested. REIC put island-wide condominiums at THB 121,000 per m² new against THB 68,000 resale, a 44% gap (2 October 2025). The Thaiger put the same pair at THB 139,000 against THB 100,000, a 28% gap (24 July 2026). CHECK Neither shows its sample.
Location splits the price. Bang Tao and Cherngtalay run about THB 156,000 per m² ($4,740), Phuket Town about THB 86,000 ($2,610). Branded stock asks around 28% more (thethaiger.com, 24 July 2026). Rawai reads 91,666 on the winter FazWaz cut and about 130,000 on the July cut. CHECK Two cuts of one dataset, a factor of 1.4 apart.
Yields averaged 5.8% gross in 2025, inside a 3.2% to 9.1% range. West-coast short-lets run 6.5 to 8.5% gross and 3.8 to 5.2% net (thethaiger.com, 24 July 2026).
Demand shifted rather than grew. Foreign condominium transfers across Thailand ran 6,533 units in the first half of 2026, down 8.8% year on year, worth THB 28.267 billion ($859M). Chinese buying fell 27.7% by value. Russian buying rose 75.9% to THB 3.603 billion ($109M), led by Phuket and Chonburi (REIC via nationthailand.com, 29 August 2026). Sell-side analysts still forecast 8 to 10% price growth a year. That sits badly beside villa absorption of 1.8% a month. CHECK
Phuket, honestly names 25 buildings across the island's three price bands, each with a sale price per square metre beside its one- and two-bedroom rents.
Buy a condominium in quota, or do not buy
Rent first. That is the answer for almost everyone arriving.
If you do buy, buy a condominium inside the foreign quota. It is the only version where the deed carries your name and the exit does not rest on a lease term. Four conditions decide it. You will be here beyond ten years. The juristic person confirms the quota in writing before you pay. You are buying resale or a completed build. And losing the capital would not change your life.
Do not buy a villa in your first year. If you want one later, buy resale and negotiate as though nobody else is coming, because in most bands nobody is. The weakest corner is off-plan villas in the THB 10 to 40 million band ($304,000–1.22M), inland and around Rawai. Avoid it.
Phuket is a fine island to buy on, and a bad one to sell on in a hurry.
What this page does not cover
- The purchase sequence in order: the 1–2% reservation, the Chanote check, the written quota letter, the FET remittance and the Land Office appointment
- The seller-side tax arithmetic, including withholding tax, and which lines a developer will absorb on a new build
- The March 2025 lease ruling read against the usufruct and superficies alternatives, and what each is worth when you sell
- The title, permit, slope and access checks to run before a deposit leaves your hands
All of it is in Phuket, honestly — 21 pages, $29. See what's inside
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