The headline price is not the price. Thailand charges four things at the Land Office when property changes hands, and who pays which of them is not fixed by law - it is part of the deal you strike, not a number you look up.
The whole lot comes to roughly 2% to 6% of the price, but that figure is the total across both sides of the table. Your own share is usually nearer 1% to 2%, because custom puts the business tax, the stamp duty and the withholding tax on the seller and leaves the buyer with half the transfer fee. Which half of what you actually pay is the part to settle in writing, before you sign anything.
What is charged at the Land Office
Calculated on the government's appraised value or the declared sale price, whichever is higher. The appraised value is usually the lower of the two, which is why declaring a false price is both common and a bad idea.
Transfer fee
- Rate
- 2% of the appraised value
- Who usually pays
- Usually split 50/50, but some sellers expect the buyer to cover it all - pin it in the contract
Specific business tax
- Rate
- 3.3%, if the seller has owned it for less than 5 years
- Who usually pays
- The seller
Stamp duty
- Rate
- 0.5%, and only when business tax is not charged
- Who usually pays
- The seller
Withholding tax
- Rate
- 1% for a company. A progressive scale for an individual.
- Who usually pays
- The seller
Lease registration
- Rate
- 1.1% of the total rent over the whole term
- Who usually pays
- Split, or the lessee
Nothing in Thai law says who pays the transfer fee. It is split by custom, which means it is split by whoever raises it first.
The costs that are not taxes
- Legal fees
- ฿40,000 to ฿100,000
- Due diligence, contract drafting, and someone at the Land Office who is working for you. The least optional cost in the process.
- Agency commission
- Paid by the seller
- 3% on a sale is the norm here. It comes out of the seller's proceeds, not out of your budget.
- Annual land and building tax
- 0.02% to 0.3% a year
- Low by European standards. Residential property below 50 million baht is taxed very lightly.
- Getting the money in
- A Foreign Exchange Transaction form
- Transfer the funds into Thailand in foreign currency and have the bank issue the FET form. Without it you may not be able to take the proceeds out again when you sell.
Getting the money in, and out again
Send the purchase funds to Thailand in a foreign currency and let a Thai bank convert them to baht here. Above roughly USD 50,000 the bank must issue a formal Foreign Exchange Transaction form and report the transfer to the Bank of Thailand; below that you get a credit note or confirmation letter pointing at the same transfer, which the Land Office accepts just the same. If you pay in tranches, make sure each one is coded as a property purchase and keep every confirmation, not just the last.
The reason to care is the far end. When you sell and want to move the proceeds out of Thailand as foreign currency, the bank wants to see the original form proving the money came in as foreign currency in the first place, alongside the sale contract and the tax receipts. You can freely send out at least as much as you documented coming in; without the paper, you are arguing to release your own money.
So keep it. Store the original with the transfer receipt and the sale contract, on paper and backed up, for the entire time you own the place. Lose it and the issuing bank can usually still find the record - they hold them for about ten years - and reissue a certified copy for a small fee, around ฿500 to ฿1,000. A bank that has since closed or purged its files leaves you with no such fallback, which is why prevention beats the cure by a wide margin.
Financing, honestly
Assume you are buying in cash. That is less advice than a description of the market.
Thai banks lend to Thai nationals. One or two - UOB is the name that comes up - will lend to a foreign buyer with no work permit, but only around 60% of the value, only on a completed freehold condominium, and realistically only in Bangkok or Phuket. A leasehold house on Koh Lanta is not the asset any of them had in mind, and a property held through a Thai company is harder still.
So what people actually do is release equity on a home they already own, or agree staged payments with the seller. Seller financing over one to three years does happen here, on land especially, and it is worth asking about. Get it drafted properly and registered against the title: an informal payment plan with no security is a handshake with a stranger.
What would a real purchase here cost you?
Every listing shows its price in baht and in the currencies our buyers actually earn in. Ask us and we will walk you through the full landed cost of a specific house.
General orientation only, and not legal, tax or financial advice. Thai property law changes, and every transaction turns on its own facts. Always engage a qualified Thai property lawyer, who is not the seller's, before you commit to anything.