The foreign quota in a Thai condo building, and why the same flat has two prices
I run small events on Koh Samui and I have been here six years. I bought a condo last year and I want to explain one mechanic that confused me for months, because I have now heard three other people be confused by exactly the same thing.
In a Thai condominium building, only 49 percent of the total floor area can be owned by foreigners. That share is called the foreign quota. The rest is Thai quota.
What that means in practice: two identical units, same floor, same view, can carry different prices. The one inside the foreign quota costs more, because a foreign buyer can hold it in their own name. The one in Thai quota is cheaper and requires a different structure, usually a company or a long lease, which is a different set of costs and a different set of risks.
Things I did not know to ask:
Whether the unit being shown to me was actually in the foreign quota right now. Agents sometimes say the building has quota available without checking whether this specific unit is inside it.
What happens to the price when quota is nearly full. In a popular building the last foreign quota units carry a real premium and everyone in the sales office knows it except you.
That the funds have to arrive from abroad in foreign currency and be documented for the transfer. Not difficult, but it has to be planned, not discovered at the end.
I spent a lot of evenings on https://thailand-real.estate/es/ comparing buildings and areas before I even started talking to agents, mostly so that when someone quoted me a price I had some idea whether it was a quota premium or just an optimistic number.
If anyone here is looking at Thailand and has questions about the quota, ask. It is much simpler once someone draws it for you, and nobody drew it for me.