Unsold condos in Bangkok: where the stock is, how fast it sells

The movement is not confined to Sukhumvit: across Greater Bangkok, sales of new condominiums rose by 19.5% in the second quarter of 2026, according to the Real Estate Information Center (REIC) survey published on 22 September. That same summer, another figure did the rounds of the newsrooms: 350,000 unsold condominiums, announced on 12 June by Knight Frank for Bangkok and its neighbouring provinces. On 15 October, Cushman & Wakefield counted 65,300 for Bangkok alone. The two figures do not cover the same territory and, according to the sources that break it down, the stock is concentrated in the mass market and on the outskirts, far from the central addresses described in our guide to Bangkok’s neighbourhoods. Here is what the series count, where the unsold units are, how they built up and what the public measures cover.

Why can’t 350,000 and 65,300 be compared like for like?

Because they do not cover the same territory, and the documents consulted give no detailed definition that would allow them to be reconciled. Knight Frank Thailand’s report on the first quarter of 2026 refers to unsold inventory of ‘around 350,000 units’, which would take five to six years to clear without substantial new supply. The report itself does not define its scope; it was the firm’s spokesperson, Pojaman Worakitpokatorn, who clarified it on 12 June in Krungthep Turakij and The Nation: Bangkok and its surroundings. The same report sets this stock against about 60,000 condominium transfers a year, which does indeed give the five to six years announced. What these 350,000 units include, older developments, projects under construction or resale units, is not specified in the documents consulted.

Cushman & Wakefield publishes a narrower measure. Its Thailand Real Estate Outlook for the third quarter of 2026 counts ‘more than 65,300 unsold units’ in Bangkok, worth about THB 370 billion (£8.3 billion), of which 25,700 are completed and ready for transfer, or about 40%. Its head of research, Surachet Kongcheep, speaks in the Thai press of ‘accumulated’ stock in developments. Colliers provides another order of magnitude for Bangkok’s stock. The REIC also publishes total regional supply, which is a separate indicator. Resale listings measure something else again.

Five measures of condominium supply, with different scopes and dates:

Knight Frank’s figure is markedly higher than the other series shown. Differences in subject, territory and date make it impossible to measure the gap between them here on a like-for-like basis. To place the market as a whole, the REIC records 202,414 homes still for sale, of all types, houses included, in Bangkok and its five neighbouring provinces in the second quarter of 2026. Clearance times follow the same logic: each divides a different stock by a different pace, hence durations ranging from two to seven years.

Where is Bangkok’s condominium stock?

In the mass market, first of all. According to Cushman & Wakefield, about 55% of Bangkok’s unsold units are offered below THB 3 million (£67,400) or at no more than THB 100,000 per square metre (£2,200); adding the band from THB 100,001 to 150,000 per square metre (up to £3,400) takes the share to about 76%. Dr Sopon Pornchokchai, of the Agency for Real Estate Affairs (AREA), was already placing the bulk of unsold homes, all types combined, in the market at THB 3 million or less and on the outskirts back in January.

On the outskirts next, but not everywhere. The REIC measures condominium absorption by area in the second quarter of 2026: 5.2% of stock sold each month in Sukhumvit, or about 16 months; 3.3% in the Bang Yai–Bang Bua Thong–Bang Kruai–Sai Noi area, in Nonthaburi, about 27 months; 2.8% in the Mueang Samut Prakan–Phra Pradaeng–Phra Samut Chedi area, about 32 months; and 0.4% in Krathum Baen–Ban Phaeo, in Samut Sakhon province, or about 252 months. The outskirts are not uniform: Khlong Luang, in Pathum Thani province, clears its stock in about ten months. Kiatnakin Phatra Bank (KKP) identifies three corridors as the most heavily stocked with mid-market homes, all types combined: Rangsit–Pathum Thani (19,300 unsold), Bang Bua Thong–Nonthaburi (18,100) and Bang Na–Samut Prakan (16,400).

Two of these three corridors are places where foreigners barely buy at all. According to AREA, foreign buyers acquired 2,015 new units in the central business district in 2025, 44.2% of sales in the area, and the city centre accounts for 55.7% of the value they bought; their purchases are close to zero in Rangsit–Pathum Thani, Chaeng Wattana or Nonthaburi–Bang Bua Thong. For the whole country and the first half of 2026, the REIC gives an average transfer to a foreigner of THB 4.3 million (£96,500) for 43.9 m², above the THB 3 million threshold used by Cushman & Wakefield. The logic of address and station that guides these purchases is set out in our article on Bangkok prices by address and station.

What built up this stock?

One word recurs in every source: credit. According to the Housing Business Association survey published on 21 October, 44.9% of mortgage applications were rejected on average in the first half of 2026, and 48.1% below THB 3 million. Its president, Sunthorn Sathaporn, sums it up: the question is no longer just buyers’ intention to purchase, but their ability to get through the bank’s assessment. Cushman & Wakefield describes access to credit as a ‘major obstacle’ in the cheapest developments, and the REIC sees the mass market under pressure from loan rejections, while the upper end holds firm.

The stock also bears the mark of years of abundant launches. The Thai Condominium Association, which represents developers, expects about 17,000 launches in 2026, the lowest level in twenty years; it reports sales periods that have stretched from two or three years to five or six, and construction costs up by 10 to 20%. Chinese buyers have also pulled back: their transfers fell by 13% in 2025, according to Cushman & Wakefield, and Chinese tourist arrivals by 33.6%.

Knight Frank draws a diagnosis from this that sheds light on everything else. The market’s problem, says its spokesperson, ‘is not a lack of buyers, but an excess of remaining supply’. Read alongside the REIC’s absorption figures, this diagnosis points to a market where demand exists, but is not always where the developments were built, nor at the price level at which banks are willing to lend.

In the centre, a very thin luxury pipeline

The top of the market reads differently. JLL records, in the second quarter of 2026, a stock of 74,922 high-end and luxury condominiums in Bangkok, after five completions; no further completions are expected before the end of 2026, and the pipeline holds about 1,900 units up to 2029, or roughly 3% of existing stock according to JLL. CBRE notes, in its mid-year review of 31 July, that luxury and super-luxury outperformed the Bangkok market as a whole, with foreign demand described as ‘resilient’, coming in particular from the Middle East, Japan and Russia.

New supply has gone elsewhere. In the first quarter of 2026, Knight Frank recorded no launches at all in the central business district: 58% of the 6,174 units launched were on the city fringe, 42% in the suburbs, and 68% below THB 80,000 per square metre (£1,800). Prices do not follow a single curve, however. Knight Frank found average asking prices slightly down in the central business district and on the city fringe, slightly up in the suburbs, and JLL notes that capital values in the centre have continued to trend lower. The addresses at this top end of the market are described in our article on Bangkok’s prime neighbourhoods.

On the developers’ side, Cushman & Wakefield describes targeted responses: priority to completed or nearly completed units, smaller developments or ones built before launch, rent-to-own below THB 100,000 per square metre, and discounts and promotions without becoming the norm. In May 2026, The Nation documented campaigns offering up to 48 months without repayments, transfer fees paid or common fees covered for up to five years. These are dated commercial offers, specific to each development.

Whom do the state’s measures really cover?

Three public schemes target the stock, each with its own scope. The Bank of Thailand first relaxed the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio from 1 May 2025 to 30 June 2026; one of its officials, Somchai Lertlarpwasin, expected it to help developers sell their supply. On 14 May 2026, Governor Vitai Ratanakorn announced the extension for contracts signed from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. The government, for its part, cut transfer and mortgage fees to 0.01%, and the Government Housing Bank opened a loan programme on 15 October for homes of THB 3 million or less.

Public housing measures in force at 1 November 2026, and what they cover:

The fee reduction targets homes of up to THB 7 million; the Government Housing Bank programme cited targets those of up to THB 3 million. The LTV relaxation follows other thresholds. For a foreign buyer, the reading is shorter. The 0.01% fees are reserved for individuals of Thai nationality. The LTV governs loans by Thai institutions, and the sources consulted do not address a non-resident’s access to credit. Eligibility for the Government Housing Bank programme is not specified there.

What separates a close reading of the stock from an average one?

A figure read with its scope. 350,000 unsold units for Bangkok and its surroundings, 65,300 for Bangkok: each series has its own territory, subject and date. The 85,249 units published by the REIC for Bangkok and five provinces represent total condominium supply, not a third, interchangeable measure of unsold stock. A series that does not publish its definition cannot be compared like for like with the others.

A neighbourhood read at its own pace. Regional stock says nothing about a particular soi. Sixteen months of supply in Sukhumvit and 252 months in Krathum Baen–Ban Phaeo come from the same REIC survey; the regional average of 39 months blurs them together.

A building read at its stage of completion. Of the 65,300 unsold units counted by Cushman & Wakefield, 25,700 are completed; the rest are under construction or off plan, with no published breakdown. A unit already handed over and one due in 2028 carry neither the same timetable nor the same documents to check, as set out in our article on buying off plan.

Matthew’s case: a one-bedroom apartment near Phrom Phong

How our database places a building within its neighbourhood

According to our survey of 6 October 2026, 60 developments are still selling off plan in the thirteen neighbourhoods of our guide, with completions from 2026 to 2029; in Silom and Sathon, 98 of the 102 developments tracked are already completed, as are 92 of the 93 in Ari and Phaya Thai. In Thong Lo, our database counts 3,288 units for sale in 191 developments. Our survey of 20 October 2026 records 34,891 condominium units for sale in Bangkok, 43.8% of them offered under the foreign quota, with a very uneven map: 90% of buildings in Watthana offer this quota, against 39% of those in Prawet. These are listed units and asking prices, not developers’ unsold stock: they place a building against its neighbours. To compare those in the same area, place them on the map.

What you can do now

Before judging a building by the market figure, read the absorption rate for its area in the REIC’s quarterly survey, then ask the seller or the manager for the foreign quota position and the number of units still to be sold. Then compare, on our map, the asking prices in completed buildings in the same neighbourhood. You will have a reading of the stock at the scale at which you are buying.