Completed or off-plan in Phuket: which purchase are you actually making

It carries a different risk rather than simply more of it. With a completed home the risks are visible and priced: you can see the build quality, read the juristic person's accounts, learn what the service charge has actually done since handover, and ask existing owners what the building is like to live in. With off-plan the central risk is that you are buying a promise, so the things that protect you are the developer's covenant, the protection on your deposits, and what your contract says happens when the schedule moves. On Phuket specifically that matters more than usual, because record 2024 launches left 10,466 unsold units worth THB 88 billion island-wide by mid-2025 and sell-out periods stretching from 14 to 28 months. A developer selling slowly is a developer under pressure.

Four things, all in writing. Where your deposits sit, whether in escrow, in a developer account, or released against construction progress. The developer's covenant, which is a very different question for a listed company that publishes accounts than for a single-project company incorporated for the development. What happens contractually if completion moves, rather than what you are told verbally about it. And whether you can assign the contract before completion, at what fee and to whom, because that is your exit if your circumstances change. Then confirm the foreign freehold quota position for your specific unit, since the quota is 49 per cent of the building's sellable area and can be committed before you reach transfer.

Almost everything that decides whether a branded residence holds its value. You can inspect the actual construction rather than a specification sheet. You can see how the common areas and landscaping have worn, which is where developers economise. You can read the juristic person's accounts and the sinking-fund position, meet the management company, and find out what the service charge was estimated at and what it actually became. You can stand in the specific unit and see the specific view rather than the one in the marketing images. And you can ask existing owners, who have no commission at stake. None of that exists before handover.

Yes, and it is a search rather than a browse. Completed stock trades between private owners, so there is no price list, no central inventory and no developer paying an agency to bring you, which is exactly why most of the island's marketing energy points at what has not been built yet. Availability is irregular because supply depends on owners choosing to sell. The compensation is that the asymmetry runs in the buyer's favour: the most examined product on the island receives the least attention.

Neither as a rule, because they answer different questions. If the purchase has to be defensible on evidence, or if you are buying at a distance and cannot easily return to inspect, completed stock is the stronger position and is closest to how we work in Bangkok, where most of our practice is resale and rental in finished buildings. If you want a specific unit, a specific aspect, or the newest product, and you can carry construction risk and a longer wait, off-plan is a legitimate choice made with open eyes. Our own Phuket selection deliberately spans both, and each project page states which it is and how far our confidence in it goes.