Can Russians buy property in Thailand? Yes, a condominium. The FET document is the part to plan.

Can Russians buy property in Thailand?

Yes, a condominium unit. The Condominium Act lets a foreign national hold freehold title to a unit inside the 49 percent of a registered condominium's unit floor area reserved for foreign ownership. The rule is identical for every foreign nationality. Land is closed to foreign individuals, which closes a house on its own plot too.

Thailand does not sort foreign condominium buyers by nationality. A Russian buyer, a British buyer and a Singaporean buyer meet the same quota, register at the same Land Office and receive the same unit title. Nothing in the Act gives any nationality a better or a worse position.

The quota is measured on floor area across the whole registered building, not on unit count. A building already at its foreign allocation cannot register another foreign owner until an existing foreign owner sells. Ask the juristic person for the building's current foreign allocation in writing, dated, before any deposit moves. A signed contract in a building that is already full is a contract that cannot be turned into a title.

The full ownership position, quota included: Thailand foreign freehold, explained.

How many Russians are buying Thai condominiums?

A lot, and the number is rising while the wider foreign market is not. REIC recorded 1,172 units transferred to Russian buyers in 2025, worth 4,773 million baht, up 8.6 percent on units and 30.3 percent on value. In the first half of 2026 Russian units rose 50.4 percent and value 75.9 percent year on year, second only to China.

The quarterly detail runs the same way. REIC recorded 383 units and 1.66 billion baht transferred to Russian buyers in the first quarter of 2026, up 33 percent on units and 69 percent on value year on year, which put Russia second by value for the quarter.

Read that against the total. Foreign condominium transfers nationwide fell 8.8 percent on units in the first half of 2026. So the Russian share of a smaller market is rising on both measures, which is a different thing from a market that is rising for everyone.

What that means for a buyer is competition for a fixed ceiling. Every transfer consumed part of some building's 49 percent allocation, and in the provinces where Russian buying concentrates that ceiling is the scarce thing, not the listings.

The full published table by nationality: who buys Thai condos, by nationality.

Where in Thailand do Russian buyers actually buy?

Not Bangkok. REIC names Phuket, Chonburi and Prachuap Khiri Khan, which is to say Phuket, Pattaya and Hua Hin. In the first quarter of 2026 Russian buyers took 156 units in Phuket worth 1.06 billion baht, which was 44 percent of the value of all foreign condominium transfers in Phuket that quarter.

That Phuket figure also held 64 percent of all Russian transfer value in Thailand for the quarter, so the national number is largely a Phuket number with a Chonburi tail. The concentration is not new either: REIC figures reported in February 2023 already had Russian buyers at about 40 percent of foreign condominium transfers in Phuket.

Three consequences for underwriting, in order.

• Your comparable set is a resort market. Benchmark against the catchment you are actually buying in, not against a national average that is half Bangkok.
• Quota pressure is local. In the buildings that sell hardest to foreign buyers, the 49 percent allocation is the binding constraint, and it is checkable in advance.
• Seasonality is real. A resort catchment's rental pattern is not a city's, and a twelve month assumption built from a high season month will not survive contact with the year.

The Phuket catchments, ranked: the best areas to buy in Phuket.

What does Thailand require on the money side of the purchase?

Evidence that the purchase money arrived in Thailand from abroad in foreign currency. For an inward remittance at or above the reporting threshold the receiving Thai bank issues a Foreign Exchange Transaction document in the buyer's own name, and the Land Office wants that document at transfer. It is also what supports taking the proceeds out later.

Two details decide whether the document is usable. It must be in the buyer's own name, and the stated purpose must be the purchase of the unit. A remittance that lands in someone else's name, or that arrives already converted into Thai baht offshore, is the common way a completion stalls at the counter.

One factual point about crypto, because it comes up constantly in the relocant communities and it is a paperwork point rather than a payment suggestion. A crypto transfer does not produce the bank documentation a Land Office works from, so it cannot evidence that foreign currency came into Thailand from abroad. That is a fact about what the file needs, not a recommendation about how to pay for anything.

Banks and payment providers run their own checks, and those checks differ between institutions and change over time. Confirm your own position with your own bank, in writing, before you commit to a price or a completion date. This page states published requirements and does not describe routes around any restriction.

How the document works, including off-plan instalments: the FET certificate guide.

Does buying a condominium in Thailand give a Russian citizen a visa?

No. Property ownership in Thailand carries no visa, no residency and no right to work. Entry is a separate system. Russian citizens have a 30 day visa exempt entry from 15 September 2026, reported as extendable once by up to 30 days, after a Cabinet decision of 19 May 2026 ended the 60 day arrangement.

The underlying 30 days comes from a bilateral agreement dating to 2005. The September 2026 change is reported by travel and visa press rather than lifted from a primary Thai government page, so treat the detail as directional and confirm the current position with a Thai embassy or consulate before you travel or plan a stay around it.

The practical point for a buyer is sequencing. Property and immigration are separate systems in Thailand and should be planned separately. A purchase decision that quietly assumes a stay length is two decisions stacked on one assumption.

What does a Russian owner pay in Thailand, and on the way out?

The closing stack is a 2 percent transfer fee on the appraised value, then either specific business tax at 3.3 percent or stamp duty at 0.5 percent, plus withholding. Specific business tax applies where the seller has held the property less than five years, stamp duty where the holding is longer. None of these rates changes with nationality.

You see one of specific business tax or stamp duty, never both. Who pays which line is negotiable in the sale and purchase agreement, so read it rather than assuming the local convention, and price the answer into your offer rather than discovering it at the Land Office.

The exit runs on the same paper trail as the entry. The document that evidenced money coming in is what supports the proceeds going out, which is why it is worth getting right on day one rather than reconstructing it years later.

The full stack: Thailand property tax for foreigners. The exit in detail: selling a Thai condo as a foreigner.

Header photo: Unknown, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. All credits: image credits.