Thai law lets a foreign heir keep an inherited condominium only if that heir personally qualifies to own one, and only if the building still has room inside its 49 percent foreign quota. Both tests are applied to the person whose name would go on the title, not to the estate. That distinction is the whole subject, and it is the reason an estate that divides between several heirs at once needs to be planned for before the unit is bought, not after the owner has died.
Test one: the heir
The heir must personally qualify to own a condominium unit under Section 19 of the Condominium Act. Qualifying is about the heir's own status and the origin of the purchase funds, not about who the previous owner was.
Test two: the building
Registering the unit in that heir's name must not take the building above 49 percent foreign ownership of its total floor area. A building that had room when the unit was bought may not have room a decade later.
The 60 days, and the year
A foreign heir who cannot register the home must tell the authorities within 60 days and sell within one year. The year starts at death, not at probate.
Read the full explanation
A foreigner who acquires a unit by inheritance and does not qualify to register it must notify the competent authority in writing within 60 days of acquiring it, and dispose of the unit within one year. The year runs from acquisition, not from probate, not from the day the family gets around to it, and not from the day a lawyer is finally instructed. In practice a good deal of that year is consumed by the estate process itself, which is why the paperwork prepared in advance matters more here than in most jurisdictions.
Where the money came from
There is a reading of the law that would let a foreign heir keep the home. It rests on one source from 2013 that we could not corroborate, so plan on the strict position.
Read the full explanation, and the argument we could not verify
Most foreign buyers acquire under Section 19(5), the route that requires purchase funds to be remitted into Thailand in foreign currency and evidenced by the bank's Foreign Exchange Transaction form. There is a reading, argued by Tilleke & Gibbins in the Bangkok Post’s Corporate Counsellor column, that foreign heirs step into the deceased’s rights under that same subsection, and can therefore keep the unit without being forced to sell it.
That reading would change the picture for a great many owners. It is also dated 1 November 2013, and we have not been able to corroborate it against a current independent source. So it is set out here as a question worth putting to a Thai lawyer by name, rather than as an answer to rely on. Plan on the conservative position. Be pleased if counsel confirms the generous one.
An estate that divides, and a law that does not
Thai law tests individuals, one registration at a time. An estate that divides among several heirs at once meets that law awkwardly.
Read the full explanation
Islamic inheritance distributes an estate in fixed proportional shares among several specified heirs at the same time. It does not pass an asset whole to one person and leave the others to be compensated elsewhere. That is a structural fact about the estate, and it is the point at which the two systems meet awkwardly, because Thai condominium law has no view on estates at all. It tests individuals, one registration at a time, against a building quota that is finite and shared with every other foreign owner in the building.
A unit that would pass cleanly to one heir can fracture when it divides among six, because each of them faces both tests separately.
The practical consequences are worth stating plainly. Several heirs may each need to qualify. The building’s remaining foreign quota is consumed by each registration, so the last heir in the queue can fail a test the first one passed. And where the unit cannot be divided in registration, the estate may end up selling an asset the family intended to keep, inside a one-year window, which is not a window that produces good prices.
None of this is an argument against buying. It is an argument for knowing the building’s quota headroom before committing, and for writing the Thai will at the same time as the purchase contract rather than years later. Both are ordinary, inexpensive steps. Neither is usually raised by the person selling the unit.
The tax, which is the smaller problem
Nothing is owed below THB 100 million from any one person. Above that, 5 per cent to parents and children, 10 per cent to anyone else, and a spouse pays nothing. This is the easy part.
Read the full explanation
Thai inheritance tax applies only to the part of a legacy from any one testator that exceeds THB 100 million. Above that threshold the rate is 5 percent for ascendants and descendants and 10 percent for other heirs, and a spouse who inherits is exempt. Immovable property is within scope, and the tax applies regardless of nationality. Figures per PwC’s Thailand tax summary, last reviewed 24 August 2026.
For most buyers this is the least troublesome part of the subject. The threshold is high, the rates are modest by international standards, and the liability is calculable in advance. The registration tests are the part that decides whether the family keeps the asset at all.
What to actually do
- Ask for the building’s remaining foreign quota, in writing and dated, before you commit to a unit. It is a fact the seller’s side holds and rarely volunteers.
- Keep the Foreign Exchange Transaction form from the purchase, and keep it somewhere the family can find it. It is the document that evidences how the unit was acquired.
- Have a Thai will drafted covering the Thai asset, alongside a home-country will, drafted so that the two do not revoke one another.
- Where the estate will divide among several heirs, put the division to a Thai lawyer and to your own adviser together, before the purchase rather than after.
