Foreign freehold condos in Phuket: how full ownership works

Yes — a foreign national can own a condominium in Phuket outright, in their own name, with a title deed registered at the Thai Land Department. Thailand's Condominium Act grants foreigners full freehold title to individual units on two conditions: foreign owners in any one building may hold no more than 49% of the total unit floor area, and the purchase money must arrive in Thailand from abroad in foreign currency, documented by the receiving bank. No Thai company, no nominee structure, no lease: foreign freehold is direct, indefinite, inheritable ownership. This guide explains how the quota works, how the money must move, and what the current numbers look like.

What foreign freehold means under Thai law

Thai law does not permit foreign nationals to own land, which closes off direct villa ownership in most cases. The condominium is the deliberate exception. Under the Condominium Act of 1979, a registered condominium is divided into units, each with its own title deed, and each unit carries an undivided share of the building's common property and a vote in the owners' juristic person. A foreigner who qualifies for freehold is entered on the deed personally — the same document, the same register, and the same rights of disposal a Thai owner holds.

What freehold gives you

• Perpetual title: freehold has no term and never needs renewal
• Registered deed: your name on the unit's title at the Land Department
• Full disposal rights: sell, lease out, or bequeath the unit
• A share of common property and a vote in the building's owners' association

How the 49% foreign quota works

The quota is measured by area, not by unit count: foreigners may collectively hold up to 49% of the combined floor area of all units in a building. The developer and the building's juristic person track the allocation, and at transfer the Land Department requires a letter confirming the purchase fits within it. In projects popular with international buyers, freehold quota often sells first, and some developers price it separately from leasehold stock. The practical rule: before paying a deposit, ask for written confirmation that freehold quota is available for your specific unit, and have that confirmation referenced in the sale contract.

When the quota runs out

When a building's quota is exhausted, foreigners are offered the remaining units on leasehold. That is not a defect of the project — it is arithmetic — but it changes what you own, so the two structures deserve a sober comparison.

Freehold vs leasehold: what actually differs

Where leasehold still makes sense

Leasehold has legitimate uses, and in some buildings it is the only route in. But when quota is open and the funds can be moved correctly, freehold is the stronger instrument — which is why quota availability is one of the first facts we verify on any unit in our catalog.

Can you pay the difference and switch to freehold?

Often, yes — provided the building still has open foreign quota and the seller is willing to release that particular unit on freehold terms. What changes hands is not an upgrade to a right you already hold: freehold and leasehold are registered under different procedures, so moving between them is a fresh transaction rather than a top-up. Timing is therefore the whole answer. Before a lease is registered, switching is a conversation with the sales desk; afterwards it means deregistering the lease, transferring ownership and paying registration costs a second time.

In a new project the developer splits units into a freehold pool and a leasehold pool in advance, and stock moves between them only while it lasts. On a resale, the seller must hold the unit in a form that can be transferred, and quota has to be free on registration day rather than on the day you asked. If you expect to sell the unit on, raise freehold before the deposit: buyers for a perpetual title outnumber buyers for the remainder of someone else's lease, and that remainder gets shorter every year. Whichever you choose, name the tenure in the reservation agreement, along with what happens if quota is gone by transfer day.

Why the freehold unit costs more than the leasehold one beside it

The freehold premium is not a tax. Thailand's transfer fee does not change with the buyer's nationality, and no separate foreigner rate scales up the price of the unit. The premium exists because 49% of a building's floor area is a fixed, finite allocation and the seller prices it accordingly. That is why the same question produces a modest number in one project and a startling one across the road.

What the premium is made of

• Scarcity. Freehold quota is capped by area and cannot be enlarged; in buildings that sell well to international buyers it is the first thing to run out
• Different registration costs. Transferring ownership and registering a lease are charged on different bases, and the split between the parties is contractual — the rates are set out in our guide to taxes and costs when buying property in Thailand
• The money route. Freehold requires an inbound foreign-currency transfer and an FET form, which carries conversion spread, bank charges and time. Leasehold carries no such requirement
• Building and sales stage. Quota is tracked per registered building, so two towers in one project can quote different premiums, and one tower can quote differently at launch and at 80% sold
• Exit liquidity. A perpetual title sells into a wider pool of buyers than a partly expired lease, and sellers price part of that difference in from the start

So we answer the percentage question on a specific unit rather than on the market. We ask the developer for a price list showing the freehold and the leasehold price of the same unit side by side, and quote the gap as a sum and as a share of the price, with the date the list is valid for. There is no island-wide average worth quoting: the two pools are sold under different rules inside a single building, and no catalogue arithmetic turns them into an honest percentage. Tell us which project you are weighing and we will send both numbers.

90-year leases and the project's hotel licence

Ownership with no end date is available to foreign buyers in condominiums, so while quota is open the 90-year question does not arise at all. The 30+30+30 structure appears where freehold is not on offer: quota is full, the building is not registered as a condominium, or the property is a villa on land. Thai law caps a registered lease of immovable property at thirty years and counts each renewal from the moment it is granted rather than from the first day of the original term. Three terms in sequence are where the number ninety comes from.

What the register holds, and what only the contract holds

• The Land Department registers the first thirty years. The two renewals sit in the contract as promises by the lessor, and they cannot be entered on the register in advance — a renewal is registered when it takes effect
• A registered lease survives a sale of the land. The code passes the lessor's rights and duties to whoever acquires the property, so the contract does not vanish with the seller
• An unregistered lease protects three years, whatever it says. A longer lease that was never registered is enforceable only for three years, which makes registration the substance of the deal rather than a formality
• The renewal clause is the weak point. Thai courts have in recent years read automatic renewals that simply repeat the original terms more strictly, so the wording, the price of each renewal and the mechanics of granting it belong with your lawyer rather than the sales desk
• Heirs inherit a lessee's position, not ownership. Check that succession and assignment are written into the lease explicitly

What a hotel licence actually gives you

A hotel licence belongs to the project, not to your title. Thailand's Hotel Act treats paid temporary accommodation as hotel business and requires a licence for it, while accommodation let on a monthly basis or longer falls outside the Act. The licence therefore answers exactly one question: whether the building may legally take guests for a few nights. It does not extend a lease, does not turn leasehold into ownership, and is held by the company operating the accommodation rather than by you.

Ask about it concretely: is a licence issued today, to which legal entity, and — if the project is still under construction — where the application stands and what happens to the rental programme if it is refused. A verbal "the licence is coming" does not attach to a contract. The rest of the pre-deposit question list is in our guide to checks before paying a deposit on a Phuket condo.

Paying from abroad: the FET form and the money trail

Foreign freehold registration depends on how the money enters Thailand, not only on how much. The purchase funds must be transferred from abroad in foreign currency and converted to baht inside Thailand. The receiving Thai bank documents the inbound transfer with a Foreign Exchange Transaction form (FET) — the paper the Land Department requires before it registers a condominium unit in a foreign name.

Getting the transfer right

• Send the transfer in foreign currency, with the payment purpose naming the condominium purchase and the buyer
• The Thai bank converts the funds to baht and issues the FET form (or a bank credit confirmation)
• Present the FET at the Land Department on transfer day
• Keep the FET permanently — it is the basis for repatriating proceeds when you eventually sell

For the full transaction sequence — reservation, contract review, staged payments, registration — see our guide on how to buy property in Phuket.

What freehold condos cost in Phuket in 2026

Aperwind tracks direct developer price lists with their publication dates, alongside our own site-visit videos. As of September 2026 the Phuket catalog holds 571 active listings — 418 apartments and condominiums and 148 villas — across 189 projects. Condo entry pricing starts at THB 2.1M, and the island-wide median asking price is THB 10.2M.

Prices by area

Reading the spread

The spread is the story: Bang Tao and the west-coast beach areas trade at a premium to Rawai in the island's south. Our area guides at /areas/phuket break down each location's supply and buyer profile, and the Phuket prices guide tracks the medians over time. On off-plan units, many developers offer staged payment plans running to key handover; the schedules are project-specific, so we send current terms on request rather than quoting generic figures.

The City Phuket Phase 2, Building C

photos on request

Price on request

Kathu · 2 bd · 79 m²Under constructionAvailability to be confirmed

Save: The City Phuket Phase 2, Building C, Kathu, 2 bd, 79 m²

Developer render

Price on request

VIBE Residence

Karon · 2 bd · 54 m²Under constructionAvailability to be confirmed

Save: VIBE Residence, Karon, 2 bd, 54 m²

Developer render

THB 10.1Mfirst instalment 40%: THB 4.0M

Abov Patong Residence (EX The Forest Patong Residence)

Patong · 1 bd · 29 m² · THB 346,897/m²Under construction

Save: Abov Patong Residence (EX The Forest Patong Residence), Patong, 1 bd, 29 m²

Developer render

THB 2.5M

Dcondo Cove

Kathu · 1 bd · 24 m² · THB 104,833/m²Under construction

Save: Dcondo Cove, Kathu, 1 bd, 24 m²

THB 2.4M

DCondo Reef

Kathu · 1 bd · 28 m² · THB 86,714/m²Completed

Save: DCondo Reef, Kathu, 1 bd, 28 m²

THB 6.1M

Ever Prime Residences

Karon · 1 bd · 49 m² · THB 124,454/m²Under construction

Save: Ever Prime Residences, Karon, 1 bd, 49 m²

Transfer day: fees, duties and documents

Ownership changes hands at the Phuket Land Office. The headline cost is the transfer fee — 2% of the official appraised value, which typically sits below the contract price. Which side pays is negotiable and should be fixed in the sale contract. On resales, additional duties can apply depending on the seller's status and holding period; these are calculated per transaction, so ask for a written cost breakdown before signing rather than relying on rules of thumb.

Documents on the day

• Buyer's passport
• FET form evidencing the inbound foreign-currency transfer
• Foreign-quota confirmation letter from the building's juristic person
• On resales: a debt-free letter confirming no outstanding common-area fees

If the developer fails to deliver: your money and your unit

No structure protects a buyer completely from a project stalling, in Thailand or anywhere else, and a salesperson who promises otherwise is selling the promise. The narrower question buyers actually ask — can the developer take the apartment back if the company goes under — does have a precise answer, and it turns on a single date: the day the transfer is registered at the Land Department.

Before registration and after: two different positions

The practical rule follows from the table: the closer a payment sits to registration, the safer it is. Clearing the full price early to earn a discount moves construction risk onto the buyer, because escrow is voluntary in Thailand and most residential projects do not use it — the money goes to the developer directly. Our guide to developer instalment plans in Phuket covers how schedules are built and which clauses to read before signing.

What the law already gives a condominium buyer

• A prescribed contract form. A developer's condominium sale agreement must follow the standard set by the Ministry of Interior, and any clause that contradicts that standard or works against the buyer has no effect
• Advertising counts as contract. Brochures, renders and sales letters are treated as part of the sale agreement, and where advertising and contract differ, the difference is read in the buyer's favour — so keep everything you were sent, including the specification and the floor plan
• A registered lease survives a sale of the land, which is what matters when the leasehold pool is the one on offer
• A registered title is final. Once the unit is registered in your name it has left the developer's estate, and the developer's creditors have no claim on it

What to verify before the deposit

• Who is selling: the legal entity named in the contract, its record in the DBD company register, and how it relates to the brand on the brochure — the two are frequently not the same company
• Delivery record: completed phases you can walk through on the island, and whether previous handover dates were met
• Land and encumbrances: whether the project land is mortgaged to a bank, and who releases your unit from that mortgage before registration
• Permits for your building and your phase specifically rather than the one beside it, plus the environmental assessment where the project needs one
• The delay clauses: the developer's penalty, the point at which you may withdraw, and how paid instalments come back
• Where the money goes: the named recipient account, whether instalments are tied to verified construction milestones, and whether escrow or a bank guarantee exists
• A sample contract before you pay anything. A seller who will not show one until after the deposit has already told you something useful

None of these is a guarantee on its own. Together they move the decision from trusting a brand to reading documents, which is the part of an off-plan purchase a buyer can actually control.

Where to start

From here, the practical next step is inventory. The new-build hub at /complexes/phuket lists all 189 projects with dated developer price lists, and our team accompanies transactions in Russian and English from reservation through registration.

Sources

The links below are statutory texts and government services. They explain the mechanics; they do not settle a transaction, and whether a rule applies to your contract is confirmed by the lawyer handling it.