Selling your Thai property and exiting the investment
Everyone thinks about the entry. Almost nobody thinks about the exit - and the exit is what actually determines the return on the investment. Here are both selling routes, honest timelines, and how the money finds its way back to your account at home. This is a conversation I have with clients before they buy, not three years later.
Two different exit routes
Assignment of the contract before handover
The most interesting route for an investor. You enter early in construction at a low price and sell your rights under the contract before the building is completed. It suits the buyer too: there is nothing to re-register, and in the case of a villa they register the land lease in their own name so their thirty years start fresh.
One condition is non-negotiable: the developer must permit assignment. That clause is checked in the contract before you sign, not when you have decided to exit. I read it on every property bought as an investment, and it is on the checklist in developer payment plans.
Selling a completed property
The conventional transaction: a certificate of no outstanding debt from the management company, a contract, registration of the transfer at the Land Department, settlement. The buyer can be a foreigner - provided there is free foreign freehold quota in the building, within the 49% limit - or a Thai national.
Worth remembering that unpaid building charges follow the property, not the seller. Nothing transfers until they are cleared, so a seller who is vague about that certificate has already told you something.
How long a sale actually takes
I will say this plainly: there is no fast exit on Phuket, not off-plan and not on the resale market. Realistic exposure is several months to a year. A villa is harder to sell than an apartment - fewer buyers and a bigger cheque.
This is not a warning, it is a planning input. If you know from the start that the exit takes six to twelve months, you build that into your horizon and it is simply a fact about the asset, like the maintenance fee. Problems arise only when someone expected to sell in three weeks.
Which locations work, and why, is the subject of the best areas in Phuket to buy property. It is the single most load-bearing decision in the whole investment.
What comes off the sale price
- The registration fee on transfer of title - how it is split between the parties is negotiated and fixed in the contract
- Withholding tax on the income from the sale
- Specific business tax or stamp duty - which of the two applies depends on how long you have held the property; selling in the early years carries the heavier load
- Agency commission - on a sale through an agent this is paid by the owner, usually 5-10%. That is your real exit fee and it belongs in the calculation at the entry, not at the exit
The specific rates and the way they are applied change from time to time, so before a transaction they are confirmed with a Thai lawyer as at the current date - not taken from an article, including this one.
What I will say is that the agency commission is the one line you control at the entry. On the way in, the commission is paid by the developer and the purchase costs you nothing in fees. On the way out, it is yours. Build 5-10% into your model from the beginning and your net result will not surprise you.
Moving the money out
This is where the inbound currency documents you received when you bought come back into play. They evidence the source of the funds and make the outbound transfer considerably simpler. It is precisely why I ask clients to keep them from day one - see transferring money to Thailand.
The other half of the question is the tax authority in your country of residence. Income from the sale is declared there, and tax paid in Thailand may be creditable under a double taxation agreement where supporting documents exist. That side is handled by my tax partner - I am an investment strategist, not a tax adviser - and I introduce clients before the deal rather than after a bank has asked a question. More context in tax in your home country on Thai property.
The investor horizon that actually works
The pattern I consider healthiest: a three to five year horizon, entry during construction at a low price, capital growth of 20-30% to handover, and exit either through assignment of the contract or through a sale in the first years after completion.
Everything else is discipline: do not buy illiquid property, and know in advance who you expect to sell it to. If you cannot describe your future buyer in one sentence, you have not finished choosing the property.
What I do before you buy
For every property I look at as an investment I want an answer to three questions: is assignment permitted, who is the likely future buyer, and what does the net result look like after the exit fees rather than before them. A property that only works on the way in is not an investment, it is a purchase.
In practice that means I turn down more properties than I show. A discounted unit in a location with no rental demand and no resale market is not a bargain - it is capital you cannot get back on a timeline you control. I would rather send you three properties with an honest six-to-twelve-month exposure than thirty with a good price and no buyer behind them.
None of this makes the exit complicated. It makes it predictable, which for an investment is the same thing as making it safe.
The exit is not the frightening part of the deal - it is simply the second half of it, and it wants to be planned in advance. When a property has been chosen with its future buyer in mind, selling stops being a problem and becomes an ordinary procedure with a known timeline. I go through the exit scenario before you place a deposit, and honestly that is probably the most underrated part of my work. Nobody thanks you for it in year one. They thank you in year four.
- Resale and contract assignments — completed units and assignments, often below launch pricing
- Projects I work with — developments where I hold direct terms from the developer
- Yield calculator — run your own numbers in a minute
Legal, visa and tax work is not mine — it belongs to partners I use constantly
I am an investment strategist: I select the property, calculate the net return, check the developer and run the transaction. Anything that needs a legal, immigration or tax qualification goes to specialists I have worked with for years.
- Thai lawyers — document and contract review, land title, registration at the Land Office, wills, powers of attorney, corporate questions
- Visa partners — choosing and filing the right route for your situation: investment-based, LTR, Thailand Privilege, retirement, DTV
- Tax specialists — reporting in your country of tax residence, treaty credit for Thai tax, declarations on foreign assets
- Company formation in Thailand — when a structure is genuinely needed and lawful
- Rental management and concierge — letting the property, transfers, yachts, events
I introduce partners personally, matched to your actual question, so that you speak to the specialist who handles it rather than to a general inbox. Message me and I will make the introduction.
Frequently asked
How quickly can I sell an apartment in Phuket?
What is contract assignment in Thailand?
What taxes apply when selling property in Thailand?
Lyubov Fortunova
Investment strategist and founder of Fortunova Capital Group. I have lived on Phuket for more than five years and run every deal myself: I select the property, calculate the net return, check the developer and hold the process together until the keys are handed over. Lawyers, visa and tax specialists come from my own circle.
“I count net, not dreams”
Could you walk me through the exit scenario for the unit I am considering, including the fees and realistic timing?
I answer personally, within the working day, in any time zone. No calls unless you want them. A question about the article is free and commits you to nothing.
