What a licensed condominium is, and what it is not
In Thailand the word condominium is not a marketing term for a nice apartment block. It is a legal status a building either holds or does not, and it decides whether you can own a unit in your own name at all. I have seen buyers discover the difference after paying a deposit, which is a bad moment to learn it.
What a condominium actually is in Thai law
A condominium is a building that has been registered under Thailand's condominium legislation and issued a condominium licence. That registration does something specific: it divides the building into individually owned units, each with its own title document and its own defined share of the common property, and it creates a legal body to run the whole thing. Before registration the building is one asset belonging to one owner. After it, it is a set of separately owned properties.
Everything a foreign buyer cares about follows from that division. Your unit has a title. The title states its area and its share. The share carries a vote, a liability for charges and a claim on the common parts. And because the unit is a distinct piece of property rather than a slice of someone else's building, it can be sold, mortgaged locally, inherited and registered in your name at the Land Department.
The licence, and why there is no foreign freehold without it
Foreign freehold ownership of an apartment in Thailand exists only inside a registered condominium. There is no other route to it. If a building has not been licensed as a condominium, there are no separate unit titles to issue, and therefore nothing to register in a foreigner's name. Whatever you are offered instead will be a lesser instrument: a long lease, a share in a company, a contractual right against the developer, or in the worst cases a receipt and a promise.
This matters most off-plan, because the licence is typically issued at or near completion rather than at launch. So the honest question is not whether the building has a licence today but whether it is being built to obtain one: the right land title underneath, the right permits, a design that matches what was approved, and a developer who has taken a project through that process before. I check that record before a deposit, not after. What to verify is set out in how to check a Phuket developer.
Apart-hotel, serviced apartment, unlicensed block
Plenty of attractive buildings on Phuket are not condominiums, and some of them are perfectly reasonable purchases for the right buyer. What they are not is freehold. An apart-hotel is built and licensed as hotel accommodation, operated commercially, and sold to investors as a unit inside a rental operation. A serviced apartment building is often owned entirely by one company. An unlicensed residential block is simply a building that never went through condominium registration.
- Condominium. Individual unit titles, foreign freehold available inside the quota, an owners' body, registered common property.
- Apart-hotel. Usually leasehold or a contractual interest, income tied to the operator's programme, hotel rules rather than residential ones.
- Unlicensed block. No unit titles to register. Whatever ownership is described, it is not freehold in your name.
- Company-held apartment. Ownership sits in a Thai company rather than with you, which brings a separate set of questions and costs.
When an apart-hotel still makes sense
If your goal is purely income, you have no intention of living there, and you are content to sit inside someone else's operating programme, an apart-hotel can work. Entry is often lower and the operation is handed to you complete. The trade is control and exit: you are dependent on one operator, the resale pool is narrower, and you are comparing yourself against every other unit in the same programme. My rule is simply that the buyer should know which instrument they bought. The format comparison is in condo or villa in Phuket, and the ownership routes themselves in freehold versus leasehold.
Common property, the juristic person and the general meeting
Registration splits the building in two. Your unit is yours: the interior, within the boundaries the title describes. Everything else is common property, owned jointly by all unit owners in proportion to their shares. That includes the land, the structure, the roof, the lifts, the corridors, the pool, the gardens, the parking and the building services. You cannot sell your share of it separately, and you cannot opt out of paying for it.
The common property is run by a juristic person: a legal entity created by the registration, made up of all the owners, with a manager appointed to handle day-to-day operations and a committee elected from the owners. It collects the common area charges, maintains the building, holds the sinking fund and enforces the house rules. It is, in effect, the operating company of your building, and the quality of it shows up in your returns within about two years.
- Common area charges. Budgeted per square metre and billed to every owner. On Phuket I work with around 80 baht per square metre a month.
- Sinking fund. A one-off contribution at purchase, typically around 1,000 baht per square metre, held for major works.
- The general meeting. The owners' annual meeting, where the budget, the fee level, the manager and major expenditure are decided by vote.
- Your vote. Weighted by your ownership share, not one per head. Larger units carry more of the decision.
The 49% foreign quota
In a registered condominium, foreigners may hold freehold title to units representing up to 49% of the total saleable floor area of the building. The remaining 51% must be held by Thai nationals or Thai entities. The quota is a property of the building, not of you, and it is tracked by the juristic person and the Land Department unit by unit.
Practically, this means that before anything else I check whether the specific unit you want has foreign quota available, and I ask for that in writing. Quota is allocated as units sell, and in a popular project the foreign side fills first. If it is gone, what remains is a Thai-quota unit, which a foreigner can take on a registered lease but not own freehold. That is a different asset with a different resale profile, and it should be a decision rather than a surprise. The wider ownership picture is in what foreigners can actually buy in Thailand.
None of this needs to be taken on trust. The licence, the title, the quota position, the juristic person's accounts and the house rules are documents that exist and can be read before you pay. Legal points on a specific building go to the agency's vetted lawyers, whose contacts I give personally. The set I work through before a deposit is in the condo due diligence checklist.
- Investment property selection — net yield calculated on specific units
- Projects I work with — developments where I hold direct terms from the developer
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
What is a condominium in Thailand?
Can a foreigner own a condo in Thailand?
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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”
Send me the building you are looking at and I will tell you what it is legally, whether foreign quota is available on that unit, and what the juristic person's numbers look like.
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.
