uBkk Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Condominium’

A condominium is an apartment structure in Thailand is a multi unit building registered under the Thailand Condominium Act in which each unit is owned independently by the people living in it, but also containing shared common areas. Condos in Thailand are regulated in the Condominium Acts and registered with the Thailand Land Department. Each condominium unit has a condominium unit title deed. This document states the owner of the unit, the exact size, voting right in the condominium juristic person’s conference and if there are any third party rights registered against the unit such as a rental agreement or mortgage. The unit title agreement is an important document officially administrated at the local land office where the condominium is located.

Non-natives are under the Thailand condominium act allowed to own condominium apartment units (condos) freehold in Thailand. There is after all one restriction which aims to limit non-native freehold ownership of condos in Thailand; not more than 49% of the all-out floor space of all units in a condominium building combined can be foreign owned. In case of 100 equal units 49 can be foreign owned, the other 51 must be owned by Thai citizens.

The units in a condominium project exceeding the 49% foreign freehold ownership allocation may be sold under a registered leasehold to non-natives. There is no restriction for foreigners renting or leasing real estate in Thailand. The arrangement for hire, contract or rental surpassing 3 years must be registered in the foreigner’s name on the condo unit title agreement.

The main condition under the Condominium Act for the purchase of a freehold condo by a foreigner (non resident) in Thailand is that the full purchase price for the condominium unit (which may not be less that the appraised value) for the condo unit must have been remitted into Thailand in foreign currency (see current exchange rates Bank of Thailand). The handling bank in Thailand must transfer the amount of foreign currency into Thai baht and will issue a Foreign Exchange Transaction form for amount exceeding 20,000 USD or for lesser amounts a credit note and confirmation message of the transferred amounts on demand. Without evidence of remittance of the full purchase price into Thailand in foreign currency the land department cannot register ownership in the foreigner’s name.