Paying for a Thai condo as a Russian buyer: the Land Department reads a bank document, not a receipt.

What does Thailand's Land Department need to see before it registers a condo to a foreign buyer?

Evidence that the purchase money was brought into Thailand in foreign currency, in an amount not less than the price of the unit. In practice that evidence is the Foreign Exchange Transaction form, the FET, issued by the Thai bank that received the money.

The statute is narrower than most summaries of it. Section 19 ter of the Condominium Act B.E. 2522 asks the transferee for evidence of foreign currency brought into the Kingdom in an amount not less than the price of the unit. It never uses the word FET. The FET is simply the document Thai banks issue that satisfies it.

The route itself sits in Section 19 of the Act, which lists the five categories of foreign nationals who may hold a unit. The fifth category is the one almost every overseas buyer uses: a foreign national who brings foreign currency into the Kingdom, or withdraws from a non-resident baht account, or withdraws from a foreign currency deposit account. What each provision actually says: Condominium Act Section 19, explained.

So the question is not whether the seller was paid. It is whether a Thai bank can produce a dated record that foreign currency arrived from abroad for this unit, in this buyer's name.

Which bank issues the FET, and what has to be on the wire?

The receiving bank in Thailand issues it, not the bank the money left. The inward transfer has to arrive in foreign currency, not in baht sent from abroad, and it has to name the buyer and the unit.

The three things the wire has to carry:

• The remitter name must match the buyer's passport name exactly. This is the part that decides whose evidence it is.
• The purpose of remittance must state the purchase. Naming the unit number and the project is the wording Thai banks look for.
• Source of funds disclosure, if the sending bank asks for it.

The document is issued in hard copy with bank stamps, and it is normally collected in person at the branch with a passport. The Foreign Exchange Transaction form operates under the Bank of Thailand's foreign exchange regulations, so it is a regulated bank record rather than a courtesy letter. The full workflow: the Thailand FET certificate guide.

None of this is a judgement about any particular bank or any particular sender. Checks apply on both ends of an international transfer, and they change. Confirm what your own bank will and will not do, in writing, before you commit to a closing date.

Can a crypto transfer evidence the purchase?

No. The evidence the Land Department reads is a record issued by a Thai bank about foreign currency it received from abroad. A crypto transfer does not produce that record, so it cannot evidence the purchase.

That is the whole of the point, and it is procedural rather than an opinion about anything else. The form exists because a licensed Thai bank received an inward foreign-currency remittance and wrote down that it did. Nothing that never passes through that step produces the document.

Practitioner guidance on Thai condominium purchases makes the same observation, and it is consistent with what the Act asks for: evidence of foreign currency brought into the Kingdom, recorded by the bank that received it.

What if the money arrives as cash, or from somebody else's account?

Neither produces the document. The form records an inward transfer that a Thai bank received from abroad, so banknotes carried in personally do not generate one. And a transfer sent by another person carries that person's name, not the buyer's.

Read the two failure modes side by side.

This page does not tell you how to arrange your funding. It tells you what the registration file has to contain. Whether a given route is open to you is a question for your own bank and a qualified adviser, and it should be answered before money moves.

What happens if the transfer is under USD 50,000?

The receiving Thai bank issues a credit advice letter instead, and the Land Department accepts it for the same purpose. The USD 50,000 line is how banks apply the Bank of Thailand's reporting requirements, not a figure written into the Condominium Act.

For a single inward transfer of USD 50,000 or equivalent and above, the receiving bank issues the FET as a matter of routine. Below that, the same bank issues the credit advice letter, sometimes called a bank confirmation letter.

Splitting a larger transfer to sit under the line is the wrong instinct. It creates more paperwork, not less, and the credit advice route involves more branch-level discretion. One transfer covering the full purchase price is what the Land Department wants to read. If the price genuinely sits below the threshold, get the bank's written confirmation that it will issue a property-purchase credit advice letter before the wire leaves.

Handling can differ by bank and by branch, so confirm the threshold and the paperwork with the receiving bank in writing.

Why does the funding route have to be settled before a contract is signed?

Because the document is slower than the payment. Bank-side processing typically runs 3 to 7 business days after the money lands, wire transit adds 2 to 5, and the form is a gate on closing day. A deposit paid against a route that produces no document is money at risk.

Build a minimum 14 day buffer between initiating the transfer and the closing date. Three weeks is safer.

The FET is also not the only dated gate. The foreign quota letter, issued by the building's juristic person, records how much of that building's floor area is already registered to foreign owners against the 49% ceiling in Section 19 bis. In practice it is read twice: a letter dated within about 30 days at due diligence, and a fresh one dated within 7 days of the transfer appointment. The detail: the foreign quota letter, explained, and the wider document sweep in the Thailand condo due diligence checklist.

So the order of operations is the opposite of the one most buyers use. Settle how the purchase money will reach a Thai bank, and confirm it with that bank, before you sign anything or pay a reservation deposit. What you owe back home once you own it: Russian tax and reporting on property abroad.

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