Selling a condo in Thailand: quota, taxes and timing

On the day of the sale, at the Land Office counter, the unit’s title deed is put in a new name and the taxes are paid. That appointment is prepared weeks in advance. Listings also show that a unit’s quota regime counts in the asking price: in the same building, a unit under the foreign quota is listed 11.8% higher than one under the Thai quota in Pattaya, and 1.6% higher in Bangkok, according to our survey of 20 October 2026 presented in our guide to ownership and price. Here, in the order of the texts, is what Thai law asks of the seller: the quota, the documents, the taxes according to how long the unit has been held, the transfer, and finally the return of the proceeds to the seller’s home country. Texts checked on 1 November 2026; five points that the sources consulted do not settle are listed at the end of the article.

Does the foreign quota pass with the condo when it is resold?

Yes. The Condominium Act B.E. 2522 does not restrict resale: it restricts the foreign share of each building. Section 19 bis, as worded in 2008, provides that foreigners may not hold more than 49% of the total area of all the units, measured when the condominium is registered. When a unit passes to a foreigner, section 19 ter requires the transferor to declare the names of the foreign owners and the area they hold; the transferee, for their part, shows their own category. For the most common category, foreign currency brought in from abroad, they prove a transfer ‘of an amount not less than the sale price of the unit’. Section 19 quater allows the transfer to be registered only if the proportion held by foreigners, whether owners or in the course of acquiring, stays within the limit.

What this means in practice, according to the law firm ThaiLawOnline (October 2026): a unit already held by a foreigner is already counted in the 49%, and it stays there if it is re-registered in the name of another foreigner. The seller’s foreign exchange form does not pass to the buyer, and on the day of transfer the Land Office asks for a letter from the juristic person confirming the quota position, even when the seller is a foreigner.

Selling to a Thai buyer remains possible: the unit then leaves the quota and frees up room for other foreigners. The choice of buyer does not change the law that applies to the seller; it can change the asking price, and sometimes the line of costs, as we will see below.

What do listings say about the gap between the foreign quota and the Thai quota?

That it exists, and that it varies widely between cities and buildings. Our survey of 20 October 2026 counts 34,891 condominium units for sale in Bangkok: 43.8% offered under the foreign quota, only 31.7% under the Thai quota, the rest with no regime stated. The foreign quota is on offer in 1,289 buildings, 67.8% of those whose regime is known, and the map is very uneven: 93% of buildings in Ratchathewi, 90% in Watthana and 88% in Khlong Toei offer it, against 39% in Prawet.

The price gap shows first between buildings: those offering the foreign quota have a median of 22 floors and ask THB 111,589 per square metre (£2,500); those selling only under the Thai quota, 8 floors and THB 77,094 (£1,700). But this gap mixes the address and the building. Like for like, across the 1,089 Bangkok buildings that sell under both regimes, a foreign-quota unit is listed a median of only 1.6% higher, and it is dearer in just 55% of cases.

Elsewhere, the gap varies more. Asking prices per square metre, foreign quota against Thai quota, within the same building:

In Pattaya, 56.5% of units for sale are offered under the foreign quota. Our data measure neither the legal quota still available in a building nor the final price of a resale, and they do not separate new units from resales. The forms of ownership themselves, freehold, leasehold or a company, are set out in our article on ownership in Thailand.

Which documents should you prepare before finding a buyer?

Three documents are worth requesting early, because they take time.

The certificate of no outstanding common fees. Section 29 of the Condominium Act makes registration of the transfer of ownership of a unit conditional on a recent certificate showing no outstanding debt for the fees covered by section 18, subject to the exception provided for before the condominium juristic person is registered. The manager issues it within fifteen days of the request once those debts have been paid in full.

The juristic person’s quota letter. No provision we read requires it of the seller by name, but practitioners describe it as requested in practice by the Land Office on the day of transfer. It is requested from the manager at the same time as the certificate.

The foreign exchange form from the purchase. The Foreign Exchange Transaction Form, or the bank’s credit advice for a transfer below US$50,000, proves that the purchase funds came from abroad. The official portal thailand.go.th stated in 2023 that the form accompanies transfers of US$50,000 or more intended for a purchase, a bank certificate being sufficient below that. The foreign buyer, for their part, produces the evidence for their own category of acquisition; the seller keeps theirs for repatriation.

What does a resale cost the seller, and why does the date matter?

The seller’s taxes are set by the Revenue Code and explained by the Revenue Department. They are not calculated on the contract price alone: the unit’s official appraised value serves as the base, either on its own or compared with the price. What the texts say, for an individual seller:

The acquisition date matters, without telling the whole story. For sales falling under article 4(6) of Royal Decree No. 342, a sale within five years of acquisition comes within the scope of specific business tax, subject to the exceptions provided for in that text; paying it exempts the sale from stamp duty, which is otherwise 0.5%. Among those exceptions, article 4(6)(ค) covers a home used as a main residence, with the seller entered in the house registration for at least one year from acquisition; another covers acquisition by inheritance. We found no source specifying how the main-residence exception applies to the register for foreigners, known as ท.ร. 13 (Tor Ror 13).

Length of ownership also sets the deduction for withholding tax. Royal Decree No. 165 provides 92% for one year of ownership in the tax sense, 84% for two, 65% for five and 50% from eight. For this withholding, the count follows calendar years, part years included, up to a limit of ten; it differs from the date-to-date count used for the five-year period of specific business tax. Net income is divided by this number of years, the tax calculated on one year and then multiplied. Revenue Department instruction ป.100/2543, points 5 and 6, provides, for property acquired without commercial or profit-making intent, a withholding cap of 20% of the price used for tax purposes, defined here as the official appraised value; it does not set a general cap on all the seller’s levies. The final amount is for the Land Office or a tax adviser to establish: this article gives no calculation of it.

That leaves the 2% transfer fee. No text we read sets how it is split: Forvis Mazars describes it as often shared equally, Siam Legal as usually paid by the buyer, ThaiLawOnline as a matter for agreement. On 30 June 2026, the government approved its reduction to 0.01% until 30 June 2027 for individual buyers of Thai nationality buying a home to live in, new or second-hand, where the price and the appraised value do not exceed THB 7 million (£157,200), excluding the sale of a partial share; the measure takes effect on publication in the Royal Gazette. What the measure changes for a seller depends on the split provided for in the contract; its application is to be confirmed at the Land Office.

What happens on the day of transfer?

The two parties, or their attorneys, attend the Land Office for the area where the building stands, with the unit’s title deed, their identity documents, the section 29 certificate, the quota letter and, for a foreign buyer, the evidence of their category of acquisition. The officer checks the documents and the room left in the quota, then registers the transfer; taxes and fees are paid on the spot, with the seller’s withholding deducted from the price. Registration can be quick once the file is accepted; Siam Legal mentions half a day in some cases, with no guaranteed official timeframe identified in the sources consulted.

For a seller based abroad, the appointment date is therefore set around three lead times, which on their own do not measure the total length of the sale: the fifteen days of section 29, the time needed to certify the power of attorney, and the availability of the buyer’s funds. A foreign buyer who still has to bring in the price adds the time of the international transfer, and their own form.

How do you repatriate the proceeds to your home country?

Through an authorised bank, on supporting documents. The Board of Investment, citing the Bank of Thailand, states that the repatriation of investment funds is freely permitted on presentation of supporting evidence. The Bank of Thailand specifies that transactions with an authorised bank are subject to a declaration of their details and that, from US$200,000, supporting documents are normally requested, subject to the exceptions in its rules. That threshold does not guarantee that a smaller transfer will go through without other documents. The joint list of the Thai Bankers’ Association and the International Banks Association, in its June 2020 version, distinguishes the proceeds of a real estate sale, documented by the contract and proof of the transfer or of ownership, from funds previously brought into the country by a non-resident, documented by proof of their entry. The applicable list is to be confirmed with the bank.

This is where the foreign exchange form from the purchase comes back into use. ThaiLawOnline describes it as the document that makes it easier to repatriate the resale price. We did not find, in the sources consulted, any prior-authorisation threshold specific to this case; the bank carrying out the transfer specifies the exact list of its documents.

On the tax side, a tax treaty between Thailand and the seller’s country of residence, where one exists, can determine which state taxes the gain and how double taxation is eliminated. This article does not go into it: its terms, and what the sale changes in a return filed back home, are to be checked with a tax specialist in that country.

What separates a good resale from an average one?

A complete file before the listing. Title deed, fees certificate, quota letter, foreign exchange form, the condominium’s latest accounts: a demanding buyer asks for these documents, and a seller who has gathered them sets the timetable instead of having it imposed.

A buyer chosen with full knowledge. Selling to a foreigner keeps the unit counted in the quota, as practitioners read the law; selling to a Thai buyer widens the pool of purchasers, and opens the transfer fee reduction to some of them. The gaps in asking prices between the two regimes vary from one building to another.

Parameters checked before setting the timetable. The exact acquisition date, the official value in force at transfer and the contractual split of costs are points to check; the 2027 schedule cited here remains an announcement in the sources consulted. The resale market is active: according to the Real Estate Information Center, cited by Naewna, transfers of second-hand condominiums in Bangkok and its vicinity rose 39.4% in number in the second quarter of 2026, year on year.

When we model the case of Jane, a one-bedroom apartment in Watthana

Five points the sources consulted do not settle

• The register for foreigners. How the main-residence exception in Decree No. 342 applies to a seller entered in the ท.ร. 13 register is not specified by any source consulted.
• Bank documents. The exact list of supporting documents for repatriation depends on the bank; the joint list we read dates from June 2020.
• A power of attorney signed abroad. The applicable certification arrangements are to be confirmed with the Thai embassy or consulate in the country where it is signed.
• The 2027 schedule. It has been announced in the press; we have not read an official publication of it.
• The 0.01% reduction. We read the government’s decision, not its publication in the Royal Gazette.

The absence of a source in this list is not an absence of law: these points are to be checked in each file.

How our database places a unit within its building

Our development records show, for each building we track, the units for sale, their quota regime where the listing states it, and the asking price per square metre: enough to place a unit against its neighbours before setting a price. To compare your building with others in its neighbourhood, place it on the map. If the unit was bought off-plan, the handover documents described in our article on buying off-plan are part of the file.

What you can do now

Before putting the unit on the market, gather four documents: the title deed, the exact date of your acquisition, your foreign exchange form or your bank’s credit advice, and a contact at the building’s management for the fees certificate and the quota letter. Look up your unit’s appraised value on the Treasury Department’s website. You will then have what you need to compare offers and have the conditions of the sale checked.