Villa or condominium in Phuket: which suits a foreign buyer

The Condominium Act is the only Thai law that lets a foreigner own property outright, and it covers one format: the condominium unit. Foreign owners together may hold up to 49 per cent of the space of all the units in a building. Inside that share, the unit is yours, saleable and inheritable like any property.

A villa sits on land, and land is closed to foreign ownership. So a foreign buyer takes a lease of the land, registered at the Land Department for up to 30 years. Offers of “30 plus 30 plus 30” mean thirty registered years and a promise to agree more later. Some estates, Kamala Residences among them, offer villas both ways. Where a villa is called freehold, ask exactly what makes it so: a villa registered as a condominium unit falls under the Condominium Act and its quota, while land held by a Thai person or a Thai company for your benefit carries legal risk. Either way, independent Thai counsel reads the structure before any deposit.

The full picture, with every section of the law quoted, is in our piece on leasehold and freehold in Phuket.

In a condominium, the juristic person, the owners’ body every Thai condominium must have, runs the lifts, the pool, the gardens and the security, paid for by a common fee per square metre. New buildings usually also collect a one-off sinking fund for major repairs. Our guide to buying costs sets out both.

A villa is a house with a pool in a hot, wet climate. Someone has to keep the water clean, the garden cut back and the damp out, whether you are there or not. Inside a managed estate a service fee covers part of that; on a standalone villa, all of it is yours to arrange. Ask what the estate fee covers, in writing, before comparing prices.

The Hotel Act B.E. 2547 (2004) defines a hotel as accommodation run as a business to give temporary stays for payment, and excludes accommodation let only by the month or longer (Section 4). Running a hotel without a licence is an offence (Section 15), with the penalties above set out in Section 59. Nothing in the definition separates a villa from a condominium.

The difference is practical. A condominium also answers to its own building rules, which can forbid short lets whatever the law allows. The Act lets a Ministerial Regulation exclude some other accommodation, and owners of small houses sometimes rely on that; whether a particular villa qualifies is a question for Thai counsel before you buy it, not after.

We publish no rental figure for any Phuket home. If letting is part of your plan, ask the operator or the building for that home’s own record, low season included.

Section 544 of the Civil and Commercial Code says a tenant cannot transfer the lease to someone else unless the contract allows it. So the assignment clause in a villa lease is your exit, and it should be read before the architecture. Every year you hold the lease, the next buyer receives a shorter term, and buyers price that in.

A freehold condominium has no clock. Its buyers are wider too: anyone who could have bought it new can buy it from you, subject to the building’s foreign quota.

A finished condominium you can walk today: Twinpalms Residences MontAzure on the Kamala beachfront, completed in 2019. A villa estate on registered lease: Avadina Hills by Anantara above Layan. Both tenures side by side, at matching specification: Kamala Residences.

Every branded residence on the island above THB 20 million, with its format and tenure, is on our Phuket register, and the villas alone are on the Phuket villa page.