Guide for Foreigners Buying a Condo in Bangkok

It’s quite easy to buy a condo in Thailand. After you have decided to purchase a condominium in Bangkok and already have selected a condo to purchase the first thing you will need to do is pay a booking fee and sign a MOU or contract with an established agency like Home Finder.

Normally, a booking fee or good faith deposit can be paid via cash, credit card or most commonly via a cashier cheque. The booking fee is usually about 10% of the total value of the condo.

Essential documents for Booking Fee:

1. Copy of passport
2. Personal information form
3. Money

Payment of the booking fee will reserve the condo, which will prevent other potential buyers from viewing and purchasing the unit. It is important to remember that the down payment typically reserves the unit for 14-30 days only, afterwards the rest of the payment must be paid.

After, paying the booking fee, the buyer must head to the bank. The majority of our buyers use CitiBank, however other reputable Thai banks can also be used to purchase a condo. Thai banks do NOT provide loans to expats so in order to purchase a condo the funds must be transferred from abroad.

The Condominium Act of 1991 states that “All non-resident foreigners must remit funds from abroad. The remitted funds will be exchanged to Thai currency. The receiving bank will issue a Foreign Exchange Transaction Form (FET, Tor Tor 3).

In order to get money transferred from abroad the following is required.

Essential Requirements for final payment:

Copy of passport
Contract or MOU
Condo information
Name of remitter must be same as the name of the purchaser
Full address of remitter
Clearly tell the bank the purpose of the funds  (i.e. These transferred funds will be to Purchase Condo Unit No. 145, at Millennium Residence, on behalf of Mr. Smith.)

Please note that according to the Thailand Condominium Act of 1991, foreigners are only allowed to own up to 49% of all the units in a building, which means that some very popular buildings such as Millennium Residence oftentimes can’t be sold once this quota has been hit. At that point in time an interested buyer will be unable to buy a condo from a Thai resident, they must only purchase from a foreigner seller.

For a free consultation on buying property in Bangkok, please call us at 095-774-2820 or send an email to [email protected]