Thailand’s 49% condo quota: the official text, and where to read it.

19 bis

the section that holds the 49%

31 pp

official consolidated Thai PDF

4

amending Acts in that text

You searched for the official source, not another summary. So here it is first, and the explanation second. Every statutory statement below was read out of the consolidated Thai text of the Act on 22 September 2026, and every one names the section it comes from. If you want the provisions explained one by one, that is the Section 19 explainer. If you want the building-level check, that is the foreign freehold quota page.

Which Thai law sets the 49% foreign ownership limit for condominiums?

The Condominium Act B.E. 2522 (1979), Section 19 bis. Section 19 lists who may own a unit, Section 19 bis caps how much foreign owners may hold in total, and Sections 19 ter and 19 quater set the paperwork and the Land Office check. The current wording of Section 19 bis comes from the Condominium Act (No. 4) B.E. 2551 (2008).

The Act was given on 21 April B.E. 2522 and published in the Royal Gazette, Volume 96, Part 67, Special Issue, page 29, on 30 April B.E. 2522. That is the citation every later amendment hangs from. The provisions that decide foreign ownership sit together, from Section 19 to Section 19 undecim:

• Section 19: the five categories of foreign nationals and foreign juristic persons who may hold a unit.
• Section 19 bis: the 49% ceiling, on unit area, fixed at registration.
• Section 19 ter: the seller declares the foreign-held area already in the building; the buyer shows the evidence, including, for the foreign-currency route, funds brought in of not less than the price of the unit.
• Section 19 quater: the competent official checks the documents and the ratio, then registers.
• Section 19 quinque: when a foreign owner must sell, and how fast.

Each of those is taken apart on the Section 19 explainer. This page does one job: it points you at the official text itself.

What does Section 19 bis say, word for word?

Foreign owners under Section 19 may together hold units “not exceeding forty-nine percent of the area of all the units in that condominium at the time of applying to register the condominium under Section 6”. That English is my own rendering. The Thai sentence below, from the official consolidated text, is the law.

The full provision, as it appears in the consolidated Thai text:

Rendered into English, sentence for sentence: “In each condominium, the foreign nationals or juristic persons specified in Section 19 may hold ownership of units, when combined, not exceeding forty-nine percent of the area of all the units in that condominium at the time of applying to register the condominium under Section 6.”

Three words carry the whole rule. ร้อยละสี่สิบเก้า is forty-nine percent. เนื้อที่ is area, not number. ห้องชุด is the unit, the privately owned part. Nothing in the sentence counts doors, and nothing in it counts the lobby.

Where can I download the official Condominium Act PDF?

The Department of Lands hosts the consolidated Thai text, prepared by the Office of the Council of State, as a 31-page PDF with every amendment footnoted. The Council of State also runs its own Thai law search. Both are government sources, and both are in Thai. The links are in the table below and in the sources at the foot of this page.

Is there an official English version of the Condominium Act?

Not one that governs. The Act was enacted and published in Thai, and the Thai text is the law. English versions online are translations, several by law firms, useful for reading and not for settling a question. Where a translation and the Thai text disagree, the Thai text wins.

The disagreements are not trivial. Translators render the inserted sections in at least two ways: Latin ordinals (19 bis, 19 ter, 19 quater) and renumbering (19/2, 19/3, 19/4). Both point at the same provisions. The trap is Section 19(2), a sub-clause inside Section 19 about investment-promotion entrants, which has nothing to do with the ceiling. A document that cites “Section 19(2)” for the 49% has cited the wrong line.

If a number on a listing or in a contract matters enough to act on, check it against the Thai PDF, or have a Thai lawyer who acts only for you check it. Why the numbering differs, in full.

What does “49% of the total floor area” actually mean?

It means 49% of the combined area of all the units in the building, the privately owned rooms, as registered. Common property is outside the count, and so is the number of units. Section 4 of the Act defines the unit and the common property as two separate things, and Section 19 bis counts only the first.

Section 4 defines a unit (ห้องชุด) as the part of a condominium that can be separately owned by each person, and common property (ทรัพย์ส่วนกลาง) as every part of the building that is not a unit, the land it stands on, and anything held for the owners’ common use. The corridors, the pool and the car park are the second. The 49% is a slice of the first.

The denominator is frozen at a date: the time the building was applied to be registered under Section 6. What moves is the foreign-held side, every time a unit changes hands between a Thai and a foreign owner.

Has the 49% rule been amended?

The consolidated text records three Condominium Amendment Acts, of B.E. 2534, 2542 and 2551, and one 2017 Act on the criminal liability of juristic-person representatives. The 2551 Act set Section 19 bis in its current form. In the text hosted by the Department of Lands, read on 22 September 2026, the figure is forty-nine percent.

Who checks the 49% limit when a condo is sold to a foreigner?

The Land Office official, under Section 19 quater. The seller declares the building’s existing foreign-held area under Section 19 ter, and the official registers the transfer only if the documents are correct and the foreign total, the buyer included, stays within Section 19 bis. In practice the building’s quota letter supplies that figure.

The Act puts the declaration on the transferor, not on the building. The letter from the condominium juristic person stating the current foreign ratio is how that declaration is evidenced in practice, and Land Offices ask for it. What the foreign quota letter states, and how fresh it has to be.

The buyer’s half of Section 19 ter is the money. For the foreign-currency route, the evidence has to show funds brought in of not less than the price of the unit. The bank document that shows it is the FET. How the FET is issued, and the wire wording that makes it match.

What happens if the building is already at 49%?

A Thai-to-foreign transfer in that building cannot register, because Section 19 quater lets the official register only while the foreign total stays within Section 19 bis. A unit already in foreign hands can still pass to another foreign buyer, since the foreign-held area does not grow. A registered lease is the other structure, and a different asset.

The full set of options, and why a building near the ceiling is an exit problem as well as an entry one, is on the quota letter page. Freehold and lease compared side by side: freehold vs leasehold in Thailand.