Buying a Condo in Thailand Step by Step:…

A foreign purchase of a Thai condominium unit goes through five stages: a reservation, due diligence by your own Thai lawyer, a sale and purchase agreement, payments sent from abroad in foreign currency, and the transfer of title at the Land Office where the building stands. The order is the same for a new unit and a resale, although the protections differ. The SPA governs the details of each deal, and practice varies by developer.

Three documents decide whether the unit can be registered in your name at the end: the bank’s proof that the money came from abroad in foreign currency (the FET form), the building’s confirmation that foreign quota is available, and the certificate that the seller owes no common fees. If any one of them is missing on transfer day, the Land Office will not register the unit to a foreigner.

Below we take the stages one at a time. For the rules on what a foreigner may own in the first place, start with our guide to foreign ownership in Thailand.

Step 1: the reservation

The first signature is a reservation agreement, with a reservation fee paid to hold the unit while the paperwork is prepared.

New developments: a regulated contract since 2025

For condominium units sold by developers, reservations became a “contract-controlled business” under a notification of the Consumer Protection Board’s Contract Committee, published in the Government Gazette on 3 October 2024 and effective 120 days later, around 31 January 2025. The main points are these:

The reservation contract must be in Thai and follow the standard form, which names the project, the unit, the price, the reservation fee, the permit dates and the specifications.
The developer may not treat the reservation fee as a deposit or a down payment.
The developer may not confiscate the fee unless the buyer is in default, and may not charge a fee for assigning the reservation.
After a qualifying termination the fee must be refunded within 15 days if paid in cash or by transfer, or 45 days if paid by credit card.
Breaches carry up to one year’s imprisonment and/or a fine of up to THB 200,000.

So the old line that “reservation fees are never refundable” is wrong for developer sales of condominium units. Because the contract will be in Thai, ask your lawyer to read it before you pay.

How large is the fee?

There is no legal standard. On a resale the fee is often 5% to 10% and non-refundable, while developers tend to ask a fixed amount. Whatever you are quoted is that seller’s own terms, not a market rule.

Step 2: due diligence by your own lawyer

This is the step to finish before you pay more than the reservation. Your lawyer should act for you alone, not for the developer or the agent. The usual searches cover the Land Office (title, encumbrances, mortgages and servitudes), the local administrative office, the forestry and natural-resources offices, the town-planning office, the civil and bankruptcy courts and the Legal Execution Department. The searches matter because wrongly issued titles and lost records do occur.

The title document

For a condominium you receive a condominium unit title deed, the ownership document for one unit. For land, the Chanote (Nor Sor 4 Jor), the full ownership title with officially measured boundaries, is the only title a buyer should normally accept. Weaker documents exist, from the Nor Sor 3 Gor certificate of use down to the Sor Kor 1, a mere notice of possession that conveys no ownership. Transfers can be registered only on a Chanote, a condominium unit title, a Nor Sor 3 Gor or a Nor Sor 3.

Permits for an off-plan project

For a building still under construction, ask to see the building permit issued under the Building Control Act. Larger projects also need an approved Environmental Impact Assessment: under Section 48 of the Enhancement and Conservation of National Environmental Quality Act, as amended in 2018, condominium buildings with 80 or more rooms, or 4,000 m2 or more of usable floor area, require an approved EIA report. Remember too that unit titles can only be issued once the completed building is registered as a condominium at the Land Office.

Foreign quota

Ask for written confirmation that your specific unit can be registered within the 49% foreign quota. For a new building this comes from the developer; for a resale, from the juristic person, the co-owners’ body that manages the building. The quota is checked again at transfer, so the confirmation you get today is reassurance, not a reservation of quota.

Step 3: the sale and purchase agreement

For developer sales of condominium units, Thai law fixes the shape of the contract. Section 6/2 of the Condominium Act, added by Act No. 4 B.E. 2551 and in force since 4 July 2008, requires the SPA to follow the form prescribed by the Ministry of Interior. Any term that departs from that form and is less favourable to the buyer is invalid.

That protection is real, but it does not replace reading the contract. The SPA is where the payment schedule, the completion date, the specification and the split of transfer costs are written down. Most transfer taxes are legally the seller’s, but who pays what is negotiable and is set in the SPA; a 50/50 split of the transfer fee is common. Your lawyer should compare the developer’s document with the prescribed form and flag anything that shifts risk onto you.

Section 6/2 is written for developer sales. On a resale, the deposit, the completion date and the costs are whatever you and the seller write down, which is one more reason to have your own lawyer draft or review the contract.

Step 4: paying from abroad

Off-plan purchases are paid in instalments during construction with the balance at transfer. There is no legal standard schedule and the split differs by developer, so judge each plan on its own terms.

What does not vary is how the money must travel. For a unit registered under the foreign quota, each payment should arrive from abroad in foreign currency and be converted into baht by the Thai bank, so the bank evidence covers the full price. The receiving bank issues the Foreign Exchange Transaction form, the FET, formerly Tor Tor 3. It is bank practice, not law, to issue it for transfers of about USD 50,000 or more; smaller payments are evidenced by credit advices and a bank confirmation letter.

The Land Office will refuse foreign-quota registration if the money was sent by a company, a relative or a friend, or arrived as baht that was converted before it left. The safest practice is simple. Send foreign currency, from your own account, with the project and unit number in the payment reference, every time.

Step 5: the transfer at the Land Office

All land transactions in Thailand must be in writing and registered at the Land Office where the property is located. Seller and buyer attend in person or are represented by holders of a power of attorney.

For a foreign buyer of a condominium unit, the Land Office requires:

the foreign quota evidence, confirming the unit can be registered to a foreigner;
the FET forms or bank confirmation letters for the purchase money;
the juristic person’s certificate under Section 29 of the Condominium Act that the seller owes no common expenses, usually called the debt-free letter.

Transfer fees and taxes are paid at the Land Office on the day. The main items are the 2% transfer fee on the official appraised value, the seller’s Specific Business Tax of 3.3% or, where that does not apply, 0.5% stamp duty, and the seller’s withholding income tax. Developers also commonly collect a one-off sinking fund and advance common-area fees at transfer; the amounts are set project by project and there is no standard rate. The full breakdown is in our guide to Thai property taxes and fees.

The documents, who issues them and when

Document	Issued by	When it matters
Reservation contract (standard Thai form for developer sales)	Developer	Step 1, before the reservation fee is paid
Land Office and court search results	Your lawyer, from the authorities	Step 2, before further payments
Building permit and EIA approval (larger projects)	Local authority; environmental regulator	Step 2, for off-plan purchases
Written foreign quota confirmation	Developer or juristic person	Step 2, and again at transfer
Sale and purchase agreement (Ministry of Interior form for developer sales)	Developer or seller, reviewed by your lawyer	Step 3
FET form, or credit advices and bank confirmation letter	The Thai bank receiving your money	Step 4, for every payment; kept for resale
Section 29 debt-free letter	Juristic person	Step 5, transfer day
Condominium unit title deed in your name	Land Office	Step 5, issued on registration

Where things go wrong, and how buyers avoid it

Three things commonly go wrong, and each is covered by a check above. The quota fills up before transfer, which is why you ask for written confirmation early and check again before completion. The money arrives the wrong way, from a relative or already converted to baht, which leaves the Land Office without the evidence it needs. Or the off-plan project is delayed, which is a developer risk you reduce by checking the building permit, the EIA approval for larger buildings and the Ministry-form SPA before you commit.

A resale has its own traps. The seller must have no unpaid common fees, or there will be no debt-free letter, and the split of transfer costs must be agreed in writing because the law does not settle it for you.

What to check before you buy

For a new unit, that the reservation contract is on the standard Thai form, and that you understand when the fee can be refunded.
That your own lawyer has completed the Land Office and court searches before you pay more than the reservation.
The building permit, and for larger buildings the EIA approval.
Written confirmation of foreign quota for your unit.
That the SPA matches the Ministry of Interior form, and that it states who pays each transfer cost.
That every payment leaves your own account in foreign currency, with the unit in the reference, and that you hold an FET or bank letter for each one.
For a resale, the debt-free letter and the seller’s title deed.

When you have a shortlist, our Thailand properties page is the place to start, and our Thailand page gives the overview.

Buying a Condo in Thailand Step by Step: Reservation, Contract, the FET Form and the Land Office Transfer