Is now a good time to buy property in Chiang Mai? What the live listings show

How much property is for sale in Chiang Mai right now?

A focused market. On 17 October 2026 there were 3,402 condo listings for sale up to ฿10M in Chiang Mai, read from four listing portals. 38.3% of listings with a clean price ask ฿2M to ฿3M. Studios ask a median ฿2.25M, one-beds ฿2.65M and two-beds ฿4.59M. That is about a seventh of the Pattaya listing count.

Shares and medians use the 3,323 listings whose price and size look right; 79 rows that looked like typing errors were set aside. These are asking prices. The Chiang Mai price-by-area page reports a different population, one listing per published building, so its medians will not match these. For the same view of the coast: is now a good time to buy in Pattaya.

How fast is the Chiang Mai listing market turning over?

Steadily. Between the 5 October pull and the 17 October pull, 331 listings appeared and 416 of the 3,487 listings on the earlier list were gone. 136 of those 416 came from a portal that could not be read on 17 October, so the like-for-like figure is 280 gone. Any shortlist older than a fortnight needs re-checking.

A listing leaving the pull does not mean it sold. It may have been withdrawn, re-listed under a new advert, or carried by a source that was not read. What the numbers do prove is that a list of Chiang Mai units changes inside two weeks: roughly one listing in ten is new, and roughly one in twelve has gone even on a like-for-like count. That is why every Brinkman Data report is built fresh, on the listings for sale the week you book.

Where in Chiang Mai is the supply?

Two areas carry a third of it. Suthep and Nimman hold 17.7% of the 3,402 listings, and Chang Phueak and Santitham 16.7%. Fa Ham, Nong Pa Khrang, Wat Ket and the east bank of the Ping, and Pa Daet each hold around 8 to 9%. Chang Khlan and the Night Bazaar area hold 5.8%.

Across all clean listings the median asks ฿71,175 per m², and the middle half sits between ฿54,930 and ฿84,848. How the areas compare as places to own: the best areas to buy in Chiang Mai.

How much room is there between Chiang Mai asking prices?

Less than on the coast. Across 2,773 listings in named Chiang Mai buildings with three or more units for sale, 67.0% ask within 10% of their building's median price per m². 16.4% ask 10% or more below it and 16.6% ask 10% or more above it. In Pattaya only 49.6% sat inside that 10% band.

Tight pricing inside buildings means two things. Most units are priced close to their neighbours, so the asking price is a better guide here than on the coast. And the units that do sit well apart are few: 5.5% ask 20% or more below their building's median.

A low ask is a question, not a bargain. The unit may be smaller, dated inside, already let, or a Thai-quota unit a foreigner cannot hold in their own name. Finding the few that are priced apart for a good reason, and dropping the rest, is the work a Brinkman Data report does on every listing.

How many Chiang Mai listings have a rent you can check?

More than in Pattaya, still a minority. 678 of 3,402 listings, 19.9%, have a rent backed by two or more long-let posts for units within 20% of the same size in the same building. 1,725, or 50.7%, have at least one long-let post from the same building. The rest rely on portal asking rents adjusted down, or on estimates.

The checked rents come from long-term letting posts in Facebook rental groups, at the lower end of what similar units ask, with short lets left out. Across 342 building and bedroom groups, that lower-end long-let rent ran at 0.91 of the portal median rent: 0.86 for studios, 0.92 for one-beds, 0.95 for two-beds and larger. Even these posts are asking rents, not signed leases. Area rent levels: Chiang Mai condo rent by area.

How many Chiang Mai condos can a foreigner buy in their own name?

Few listings say. Of the 3,402 listings, 394 (11.6%) say they sell in a foreign name or inside the foreign quota. 496 (14.6%) say Thai quota, or a Thai or company name. 2,468 (72.5%) do not say either way. Ask about every unit before you view it.

A listing's wording is a starting point. The building's juristic office confirms whether foreign-quota space is still available on the day you buy, and your own lawyer checks the title. 17 listings say leasehold. How it works in this city: Chiang Mai freehold condos.

So is now a good time to buy in Chiang Mai?

If you have a clear brief, yes, the listings are workable: steady turnover, prices close to their building, and more rent evidence than the coast. If you are trying to time the market, no listing data can do that. In a tightly priced city the gain comes from unit choice, not from the month you buy.

Four ways to make that unit choice:

• The portals, yourself. Free, and 3,402 listings is a manageable count. Plan time to de-duplicate, place and rent-check each one.
• A local agent. The right person for viewings, negotiation and the paperwork to completion.
• Independent research. Brinkman Data analyses every listing for sale in your city and budget and sends you the five worth buying, with a spreadsheet of every listing. Not an agent, no commission, paid only by the buyer. $499, delivered in 5 days, any city.
• A property lawyer. Title, contract and quota on the unit you choose.

The full comparison is in how to find a property to buy abroad, and what research paid only by the buyer looks like is in what an independent property analyst does. I bought two condos in Chiang Mai with my own money and published both: the first unit and the second unit.

Header photo: Zeroranger, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. All credits: image credits.