Who actually buys Thai condos? The nationality table, and what it tells a buyer.

Which nationalities buy the most Thai condos?

China, by a distance: 4,940 of the 14,899 units transferred to foreign buyers in 2025, a third of the total. Then Myanmar with 1,968, Russia 1,172 and Taiwan 1,036. REIC ranks its published table by value rather than by unit count.

REIC publishes the top ten by transfer value. Re-sorted by units, which is the number that matters when you are asking who is taking up a building's foreign quota, the order is China, Myanmar, Russia, Taiwan, France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore, India.

Two notes on reading it. REIC publishes only the top ten by value, so a nationality inside "all others" could in principle exceed India's 237 or Singapore's 269 units without appearing. And South Korea does not appear in any published REIC top ten for 2024, 2025 or the first half of 2026, which is worth knowing if you have read otherwise.

Is foreign demand for Thai condos rising or falling?

Unit volume held in 2025, up 2.2 percent, while value fell 10.7 percent as buyers moved to cheaper units. In the first half of 2026 units fell 8.8 percent. The mix changed more than the total: China shrank, Russia grew sharply, Myanmar reversed.

Foreign buyers took 14.7 percent of all condominium units transferred in Thailand in 2025 and 25.0 percent of the value, up from 12.5 and 23.0 percent in 2024. In the first half of 2026 that share fell back to 11.7 percent of units and 21.7 percent of value.

Underneath the total, the movement is large:

• China is still a third of everything, but fell 12.9 percent in units in 2025 and a further 23.8 percent in the first half of 2026.
• Russia is the 2026 story: units up 50.4 percent and value up 75.9 percent in the first half, moving it to second place.
• Myanmar grew 41.8 percent in 2025 after 146 percent the year before, then fell 34.1 percent in units in the first half of 2026.
• Australia does not appear in the 2025 top ten by value, but did in both 2026 quarters, with units up 63.7 percent in the first half.

A ranking is a snapshot of who bought last year. It is not a forecast, and the reversals above are the reason to treat it as evidence rather than a trend line.

Where does each nationality buy in Thailand?

Bangkok takes about half of all foreign condo transfers, Chonburi about a quarter. REIC names the provinces for three nationalities: Chinese buyers in Bangkok, Chonburi and Chiang Mai; Myanmar buyers in Bangkok, Samut Prakan and Chiang Mai; Russian buyers in Phuket, Chonburi and Hua Hin.

REIC does not publish a province breakdown for Taiwan, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, India or Singapore, so this page does not invent one.

The concentration matters more than it looks. Foreign demand is not spread across Thailand: it lands on a handful of provinces, and inside those provinces on a handful of buildings. That is how a building reaches its 49 percent ceiling while the country as a whole is nowhere near any limit.

What does the nationality mix mean for your own purchase?

It tells you who you are competing with for a building's foreign quota. A foreigner can own a unit only inside the 49 percent of a building's saleable floor area reserved for foreign ownership, and every transfer on this page consumed part of that ceiling somewhere.

The quota is counted per building, by floor area, not nationally and not by unit count. So a national table cannot tell you whether the building you want has room. What it does tell you is where the pressure is: the provinces above, and within them the buildings that market to the nationalities at the top of the table.

Average unit size is the other useful column. Chinese and Myanmar buyers average 33 to 36 square metres; American, British and French buyers average 48 to 57; Indian buyers 76. A building selling mostly small units to buyers from one country will reach its ceiling on a different timetable from one selling large units to a mixed market.

The check is the same whoever you are. Ask the building's juristic person for the current foreign-ownership figure in writing, with a date on it, before you pay anything.

Can your nationality buy a condo in Thailand?

Yes. Thailand's rules do not change by nationality: any foreign national may own a condominium unit on freehold title inside the building's 49 percent foreign quota. What changes by nationality is your own country's rules on sending the money and reporting the asset.

That second half is where the real differences are, and it is why there is a page per nationality rather than one page for everyone. American buyers carry worldwide taxation and account reporting. Indian buyers run on the Reserve Bank's remittance limit. Chinese buyers meet an annual foreign exchange facility that does not list overseas property as a permitted use. The Thai side is identical for all of them.

Written out per nationality:

• Chinese citizens and how Chinese buyers fund an overseas purchase
• The rest of the nationalities REIC publishes: Myanmar citizens, Russians, Taiwanese, French, Americans, British, Germans, Singaporeans, Indians
• Outside the published ten: Australians, Canadians, Danes, Dutch, Norwegians, Swedes, UAE residents
• Or the general answer: can foreigners buy property in Thailand

How reliable are these numbers, and can you cite them?

They are REIC's, compiled from Department of Lands transfer records and published in REIC's own press releases, which are public. This page reproduces the published tables with links. Cite REIC as the source, not this page.

Two limits worth stating. REIC publishes the top ten by transfer value, so nationalities outside it are visible only in the "all others" line. And a transfer record counts a completed registration, not an intention: a unit bought off-plan in 2023 appears in the year it transfers, not the year it sold.

Where this page says a figure was derived, it means simple arithmetic on REIC's own table, shown so it can be checked. Where REIC does not publish something, such as province breakdowns for most nationalities, this page says so rather than filling the gap.

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