Phuket vs the alternatives: Bali, Bangkok, Vietnam, Dubai, Florida and Cyprus

Almost nobody chooses between two Phuket apartments. They choose between Phuket and another country — usually Bali, Bangkok, Vietnam, Dubai, Florida or Cyprus. Phuket wins that argument less often than agents pretend, and when it does it is almost always on one point: a foreign individual can hold a condominium here freehold, in their own name, indefinitely.

We write about Thailand with confidence because we work here. For the other markets we publish only what a linked document supports, which is why you will find ownership law and transaction costs below and almost no foreign price data.

What a foreign buyer actually owns

Thailand's answer is narrow but unambiguous. A foreigner may own a condominium unit freehold within the 49% foreign quota of a building's saleable area: the title is perpetual, registered at the Land Department in the buyer's own name, and freely sold or inherited. Land is a different matter. A foreign individual cannot hold it, so a villa is a 30-year registered lease of the plot with the house owned outright, and only that first term is guaranteed in the register.

The same question in the competing markets

• Dubai and the UAE. The Land Department's investor handbook states it plainly: in the designated areas foreign freehold is absolute and unrestricted by time, with usufruct and leases to 99 years alongside it. Outside those areas freehold is not available.
• Bali and Indonesia. Freehold land title (Hak Milik) is closed to foreigners. What remains is Hak Pakai, a right of use: under Government Regulation 18/2021 it runs 30 years, extendable by 20 and renewable for another 30.
• Vietnam. The Housing Law 27/2023, in force since 1 August 2024, caps foreign ownership at 50 years from the certificate date, renewable once. Foreigners may hold no more than 30% of a building, and the land stays in state ownership.
• Bangkok. The same national statute as Phuket, applied to city towers rather than beach stock. We hold 39 listings there.
• Florida. A non-resident buyer takes fee simple title like anyone else; the holding cost is the surprise. The homestead exemption requires a permanent residence, homeowners insurance is among the dearest in the United States, and the IRS withholds 15% of the amount realised from a foreign seller.
• Cyprus. An EU member state with perpetual freehold, but a non-EU buyer needs District Administration permission under the Immovable Property Acquisition (Aliens) Law, Cap. 109, and is capped at one plot of up to 4,000 sq m for an owner-occupied dwelling, or two units per household.

The pattern is clear enough. Dubai, Florida and Cyprus give a foreigner perpetual title including the land; Thailand gives perpetual title too, but only to an apartment and only inside the quota. Bali and Vietnam give less, and that gap reappears at resale.

Citizenship by investment: Thailand does not offer it

Buying property in Thailand grants no citizenship and no residence permit, and none is needed to complete the purchase. Long stays run separately — the Board of Investment's LTR visa is five years with a five-year renewal — but an apartment does not open it. If a second passport is the objective, Phuket is the wrong market.

• The UAE Golden visa is described by the government portal as a long-term residence visa, not citizenship; property owners qualify from AED 2 million.
• Türkiye's Investment Office publishes the exception openly: citizenship on a property purchase of USD 400,000 or more, with an undertaking not to sell for three years.
• Inside the EU the route has closed. Cyprus terminated its investment programme on 1 November 2020, as its own finance ministry registry states, and the European Commission opened infringement proceedings against such schemes that October; Spain stopped accepting investor visa applications on 3 April 2025.

Entry price and what a million buys

For Phuket we quote prices held directly from developers, each with a date attached. The catalogue carries 571 listings: 148 villas and 418 apartments across 189 developments, entry from THB 2.1M, median THB 10.2M. The district tiers are visible in the data — Bang Tao is the premium core at roughly THB 140k/m², Kamala sits at THB 11.3M, Nai Harn at THB 11.0M, and Rawai at THB 8.0M remains the value tier of the south.

One cross-border comparable is worth trusting: Knight Frank's index of how many square metres of prime property one million US dollars buys. At the end of 2025 that was 33 sq m in London, 42 in Sydney, 58 in Miami, 62 in Dubai, 75 in Madrid and 80 in Lisbon. Phuket is not in the index, and we will not drop our own median into a table it was never measured for.

Paying for it: instalments rather than a mortgage

Thai banks rarely lend to a foreigner without local income, so the market runs on developer instalments instead. They are interest-free and involve no bank and no income check: a booking deposit, roughly 30% at contract, stage payments tied to construction, the balance at handover. The plan ends when the building does, so the monthly load is heavier than a twenty-year mortgage.

• Registration costs. Thailand charges a 2% transfer fee on appraised value, often split with the developer on the primary market. Dubai charges 4% of the sale price, by default shared equally.
• Funds routing. Money for a foreign freehold purchase must arrive from abroad in foreign currency, evidenced by the bank's Foreign Exchange Transaction form. Without it the title is not registered.
• Where we are beaten. Buyers from central Europe hold up UAE payment plans as the benchmark, and they have a point: post-handover schedules of that length are rare here.
• The comparison at home. A second property in England carries a 5% stamp duty surcharge, with a further 2% for a non-UK resident — before a single night is let.

Yield: what a buy-to-let comparison really involves

British buyers arrive with a net yield in their heads, and they are right to. Hamptons put the average gross yield on a newly bought English and Welsh buy-to-let at a record 7.1% in 2024 — an honest starting point for any comparison. What the gross figure hides is that since 2020 an individual UK landlord can no longer deduct mortgage interest from rental income and receives basic-rate relief instead.

• We publish no yield percentage for Phuket. It turns on the project, the operator's contract and the season, so we model each unit on developer and operator figures.
• Leverage changes the question. A Thai purchase is unleveraged in practice: no interest to restrict, but no borrowing to amplify the return either.
• Holding costs differ more than headline rents. A Florida second home gets no homestead exemption and some of the country's dearest insurance; in Thailand the recurring lines are the common area fee, land and building tax and utilities.
• Demand is verifiable from outside. CBRE reports Phuket residential sales up more than 45% in the first half of 2026 year on year, with 67% of condominium buyers international.

Flights, distance and market maturity

For a European or American owner the flight is a genuine mark against Phuket, and buyers say so directly: Florida is close enough for the children to visit and Thailand is not. The island's international airport softens the point without removing it. The rental side compensates a little: a guest who flies half a day books a fortnight, not a weekend.

On maturity, clients tell us opposite things about Dubai in the same week — one has a friend caught out there, the next calls the timing perfect. Knight Frank settles it more calmly: prime Dubai rose 25.1% in 2025 against a 3.2% average across the hundred cities tracked, with Bangkok at 6.3%. Bali and Vietnam are younger, with more upside and more variance. Phuket sits between them, with height near the shoreline held down by zoning.

The comparison in one table

Built to be read diagonally on a phone: market first, then the questions buyers ask first.

Where Phuket loses

• Space per dollar. Buyers routinely show us quotes where the same budget buys two bedrooms and 85 sq m elsewhere. We do not argue with arithmetic.
• Passports. Thailand runs no citizenship-by-investment programme, so there is nothing to put against Türkiye on that axis.
• Distance and family. An owner in the United States or northern Europe is measuring how often relatives will realistically fly out.
• Familiarity. Home cities, Bangkok, Samui — places the buyer already knows — win on confidence rather than numbers, and that is a real advantage.
• Payment terms. UAE post-handover plans run longer than anything a Thai developer typically offers.
• Guaranteed returns. We quote none. Where someone else does, compare the contracts rather than the percentages: who carries the void periods, and what survives the costs.

Where Phuket wins

• Perpetual title in your own name. A condominium inside the 49% quota is sold and inherited freely, which Bali and Vietnam cannot match. It is the argument that most often decides in our favour.
• No bank in the transaction. Interest-free instalments across the build, with no income check, credit file or residency requirement.
• Year-round demand. The November to April high season is backed by summer arrivals from Asia and the Middle East, so the shoulder months dip less than at most regional resorts.
• An ownership ecosystem that already exists. Operators, managing agents, international schools and private hospitals are running, not planned.

Pattaya and Samui are covered separately

Phuket's two closest rivals are domestic. Pattaya's entry price is lower because high-rise towers are permitted, spreading land cost across hundreds of compact units — see the Phuket vs Pattaya guide. Samui is quieter, but its airport belongs to a single carrier and the resale pool is narrower — see the Samui vs Phuket guide. The ownership rules are national and identical across all three.

An honest word about our catalogue

We sell Phuket and nothing else. We have no office, no database and no standing to price Dubai, Bali or Florida the way we price this island, so the guide is deliberately lopsided: dated Thai figures on one side, sourced ownership law on the other. Holding a projection from an agent in another country? Send it over and we will tell you where our option is the weaker one.

Laguna Beach Residences Seashore

photos on request

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Developer render

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SO Origin Residences Bangtao

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The Title Coralina Kamala

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AYANA Commons

photos on request

Price on request

Bang Tao · 1 bd · 32 m²Under constructionAvailability to be confirmed

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Canvaz Palette Cherngtalay

Bang Tao · 2 bd · 62 m²Under constructionAvailability to be confirmed

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Developer render

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Laguna Lakelands Waterside Lakeview Residences

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Sources

Thai rates and procedure are set out in our guides on buying property in Thailand, foreign freehold on Phuket and Thai property taxes. None of it calculates your transaction; that is the transaction lawyer's work.