The most common way for foreigners to purchase a property in Thailand is to purchase a condominium. The only restrictions applied to foreigners on purchasing a condominium are:

• The percentage of units sold to foreigner must not be over forty-nine percent (49%) of total units in that condominium
• The funds used to purchase the condominium must have been remitted from abroad and recorded as such by a Thai bank on a Thor Tor 3 (Thor Tor Sam) document, which is an official bank document issued by the receiving bank upon the receipt of foreign currency into a bank account in Thailand. A foreigner must request a Thor Tor 3 from a bank when he/she is remitting funds to Thailand in order to purchase a condominium and the Thor Tor 3 must specify that the remittance is solely for the purpose of purchasing a property.

After transfer of ownership, a title deed, a certificate of ownership, will be given to the owner of each condominium unit with statement stating that how many percentages of rights over the common area of the condominium each owner possesses.

It is clearly stated under Thai law that foreigner cannot own freehold land. However, according to Thai law, any person can register any type of building in their own name. Thus, a foreigner can own a building and may register such ownership at local district’s land authority office. Certainty of possession of land and house is determined by ownership of the house. Therefore, a foreigner can have a 30-year lease on the land with a prepaid option to renew for a further two times of 30 years each, and the house will be separate from the land, and will not be considered a component part of the land under Civil Law.

For foreigner married to a Thai spouse, the Thai-national spouse can purchase and own freehold land in Thailand. However, the Thai spouse must be able to prove that the money used in the purchase of freehold land is legally and solely theirs with no foreign claim to it.

• Buyer makes a booking on the purchase property unit.
• Buyer signs an agreement to purchase the property unit with the developer.
• Buyer pays installments as part of the down payment sum to the developer as shown in the agreement signed (only applicable to under-construction project/unit).
• Buyer applies for a mortgage loan (if applicable) with a financial institution.
• Developer transfers the ownership of the property to the buyer as the buyer pays the outstanding sum of the property price agreed to the developer.

There is no property tax equivalent to property taxes in western countries. However, there are land tax and structure usage tax collected by the municipal office or district office applied to properties used for commercial purpose. When a property is bought and sold in Thailand, there are four kinds of taxes applicable:

• Transfer of ownership fee of 2.0% of appraised value of the property.
• Stamp duty fee of 0.5% of the appraised value or the selling price whichever is higher.
• Specific business tax of 3.3% of the appraised value or the selling price whichever is higher. This specific business tax is applied to all sales made by developers and to any individual sale that occurs within 5 years from the date of purchase.
• Income tax which is calculated on a rather complex formula according to the appraised value of the property, the length of ownership and the applicable personal income tax rate.