Chinese buyers in Thailand's condominium market: the quota, the FET, and the checks that decide it.

What can a foreign buyer own in a Thai condominium building?

A unit, as registered freehold, in their own name. Section 19 of the Condominium Act B.E. 2522 lists the five categories of foreign nationals and foreign juristic persons who may hold ownership of a condominium unit. The title document is the same Chanote a Thai owner receives.

There is no separate foreign title instrument. What differs is the entry in the building's foreign ownership register, which is what the 49% ceiling is measured against. Land outside a condominium is a different question and a different regime.

The plain-English version: Thailand foreign freehold, explained.

How much of a building can foreign owners hold?

Not more than 49% of the area of all the units in that condominium. The ceiling is in Section 19 bis, measured as at the time the condominium was applied to be registered under Section 6. It is a percentage of floor area, not of doors.

Two consequences follow, and both are practical rather than legal.

• Size decides consumption. A building of 5,000 m2 of saleable area has 2,450 m2 on the foreign side. A 120 m2 unit uses nearly two and a half percentage points of the ceiling; a 49 m2 unit uses just under one.
• Per building, not per development. One tower on a two-tower site can sit at the ceiling while the other has room. They are separate buildings for this purpose.

The arithmetic worked through: the foreign quota letter, explained.

How large a share of Thailand's foreign condominium transfers do Chinese buyers take?

The largest single share by nationality. REIC recorded 906 units transferred to Chinese nationals in the first quarter of 2026, out of 3,241 transferred to foreign nationals in total, which is about 28% of units, and reported Chinese nationals as the largest group by units and value across the first half.

The quarterly figures, as REIC reported them and The Nation published them:

Two things the table does not say. The 906 units were 38.8% fewer than a year earlier, against a fall of 17.3% in foreign transfers overall. And in the second quarter REIC put the average transfer to a Chinese buyer at THB 3.8 million, over an average floor area of 38.2 m2. The share is a fact about a national statistic, not a prediction about any building.

Does a buyer's nationality change the 49% quota?

No. The register counts the floor area of units held by foreign owners, whoever they are. Nationality, visa status and country of residence do not move the number. What consumes the ceiling in a popular building is foreign-owned floor area of every origin, including buyers from China.

So the question to ask about a specific unit is never whether the building is popular. It is how many square metres of headroom the juristic person's letter reports today, and whether this particular unit is already registered to a foreign owner. If it is, a transfer to another foreign buyer leaves the building's foreign-owned area unchanged, and a near-full building can still be open to you.

Ask the juristic person directly, in writing, and read the letter as arithmetic: the foreign quota letter, explained.

Why does the remitter name on the wire matter in Thailand?

Because Section 19 ter asks a foreign buyer to evidence foreign currency brought into the country of not less than the price of the unit, and the receiving Thai bank's Foreign Exchange Transaction form is that evidence. It names the sender, so the sender should be the buyer.

The mechanics, in order:

• The money is sent in foreign currency, not in baht from abroad.
• The receiving Thai bank issues the document, not the sending bank.
• A single inward transfer of USD 50,000 or more gets a FET form as a matter of routine. Below that, the same bank issues a credit advice letter, which the Land Department accepts for the same purpose.
• The sender name is expected to match the buyer's passport name, and the purpose field should name the unit and the project.

Where the money is sent from does not change any of this. The funding question that comes before it, for a mainland buyer, is on funding an overseas purchase from China. The document itself: the FET certificate, explained.

What should a buyer check before signing in Thailand?

Five documents and one sequence. The funding route first, then a dated foreign quota letter for that building, whether the unit already sits on the foreign side of the register, the Chanote, and the juristic person's debt-free certificate before the Land Office appointment.

1. The funding route, confirmed in writing, before a deposit.
2. The foreign quota letter, naming the building, stating total saleable area, area registered to foreign owners, the resulting percentage, a date and a signature. Get one at due diligence and a fresh one dated within seven days of closing.
3. The unit's own status: ask the juristic person whether this unit is already registered to a foreign owner.
4. The Chanote, checked at the Land Office, for what is transferred and from whom.
5. The debt-free certificate from the juristic person, without which the transfer does not proceed.

The full document sweep: the Thailand condo due diligence checklist. The ordered version for a buyer working from China: the checklist, in order.

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