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Clickbait content. The usual misinformation about foreign quota, build quality, developers etc.

Thai Condos are not an investment vehicle, they are to live in. Capital gains, yields etc are largely irrelevant. They are cheap to buy, cheap to maintain, renovate.

Thailand has one of the highest percentage of home ownership in the world. Condos are largely a residential market, they don't buy them to beat the dow jones

I'm sure @newnative will be along soon to disagree with @Peterw42

1 hour ago, johng said:

I'm sure @newnative will be along soon to disagree with @Peterw42

Wrong. That was me who hit the green 'Agree' thingy on Peterw42's post. There may have been one or two but, off-hand, I can't think of any of his posts that I have not been mostly in agreement with regarding real estate in Thailand. I find his posts well-worth reading and he invariably has the definitive take when a real estate question comes up.

I have not bothered, by the way, to watch the video on this thread so I have no idea what it says. I will say that I would never do, or not do, anything regarding real estate based on a Youtube video. Instead, I follow what has worked many times for my spouse and myself.

What has worked for us, by the way, may not work for you, but I post our experiences, often as an alternative take on real estate here. Sometimes I will disagree with a thread, as I did when someone posted that condo buidings in Thailand go crashing to the ground when they hit the age of 30. Later, someone else amended that to 20 years. I posted that I have lived in several condos that age that are still standing, and in good shape.

Sometimes I also pass along cautions, usually regarding something I have learned first-hand, the hard way. For example, I have suggested, if you want to buy off-plan, to only buy off-plan from a good, well-financed, reputable builder with an excellent track record of successful, completed projects. We bought one condo from an unknown, first-time builder and, though it got built, it could have just as easily been a disaster for us. Had we had the money, we also might have bought at Waterfront, as we were newbies at the time and didn't know any better. Of course, anything I post can be totally ignored, and feel free to.

With the exception of a few condos we bought to rent out, all of the condos and houses we have bought, both here and in the US, have been bought to live in. And, we did just that. Starting with the first condo we bought in Rayong, our Bangkok getaway condo, and up to our current house in Pattaya, which we are living in now while we build a new house--which we will also live in when it is done, while selling the current house. We buy to have a roof over our heads, to have a place with our things, to have a place we can do what we want with, and to save on rent. As I have said many times, we buy even though we know we might lose money. We like to own and life is short. That's us, just us.

It's true that in most cases we have not lived too long in the properties we buy. Both in our years in the US and in our first years here, we were strapped for cash, so we made some extra money by selling the properties we had fixed up, after we lived in them awhile.

I've often posted that if you are here just short-term or your time here is uncertain, rent can be a better choice, and, unlike the US, rents are very reasonable here. Also, if you don't want the responsibility of owning or want to move around and try new places, or different projects. Some prefer to rent and use the chunk of money they would have spent on a property to invest in something else--nothing wrong with that.

Owning, I think, can have advantages if you know you will be here a number of years and you like owning your space and being able to do what you want with it, and have your own quality furniture, appliances, art, and electronics, rather than the usual not-so-good rental stuff. It's really whatever floats your boat, and it's definitely not one size fits all.

21 minutes ago, newnative said:

only buy off-plan from a good, well-financed, reputable builder with an excellent track record of successful, completed projects.

What are, in your opinion, the top-tier ones?

16 minutes ago, Yumthai said:

What are, in your opinion, the top-tier ones?

I wouldn't hazard a guess regarding 'top-tier'. After our first experience with the unknown developer, we only bought off-plan from large, Bangkok-based developers with a portfolio of completed projects. We successfully bought off-plan condos, in Pattaya and one in Bangkok, from Lumpini, Sansiri, Raimon Land, and SC Asset. We bought condos in 3 different projects from Lumpini. They all completed their projects either early or on-time.

Were we buying today, which we aren't, we would not just be looking at the developer's reputation. We would also be looking at how many units the new project will have and how many of the units in the project are in the 30 sqm range. We would also be looking at how resident entry and registration will be handled, swimming pool size, number of parking places, view, location, etc.

I find many of the new projects have too many units, too many small units, too few parking spaces, and too small a pool or pools for the number of units, for my taste. The smallish rooftop pool with 6 or so deck chairs around it, in a 500+-unit project, looks great in the sales brochure but would not suit me--I want a big, uncrowded pool and a place to sit when I get out.

We almost always buy to live in and I don't want to live in a project over-run with illegal daily renters so I would be looking for a smaller project with fewer but larger units, ocean view, good parking/unit ratio, large pool and gym, and the most advanced technology in place to deter daily renters.

Never buy Click bait title ... with below within 7 seconds of vid.

.... ....

Buying is always better, IF, you know what you're doing. If you have to ask ... yea, don't buy.

On 1/20/2026 at 11:21 PM, Peterw42 said:

Thai Condos are not an investment vehicle, they are to live in.

I agree, but why is it that Thai property is referred to as an "investment" for expat retirees? It's certainly a misleading statement.

On 1/21/2026 at 5:22 AM, newnative said:

only buy off-plan from a good, well-financed, reputable builder with an excellent track record of successful, completed projects.

Wow. That's the worse advice one can post. So many have lost a lot of money buying off the plan in Thailand. There are no reputable developers. It's Thailand.

On 1/21/2026 at 1:43 PM, KhunLA said:

Never buy Click bait title ... with below within 7 seconds of vid.

.... ....

Buying is always better, IF, you know what you're doing. If you have to ask ... yea, don't buy.

Buying is not always better if you know what you are doing.

The best reason to buy a property here is because you want to own a property here.

13 hours ago, KhunHeineken said:

Wow. That's the worse advice one can post. So many have lost a lot of money buying off the plan in Thailand. There are no reputable developers. It's Thailand.

Thank goodness I took my advice, rather than yours. Using just Pattaya, which I know best, I bought off-plan from Lumpini 3 times, SC Asset 2 times, Sansiri 1 time, and Raimon Land 2 times. All of these developers met the criteria from my post--large, well-financed companies, good track record of completed projects, etc.

So, 8 condos bought off-plan from 4 good, reliable developers. Each condo we bought was completed on or before the scheduled delivery date, most were done before that date. All 8 were sold at a profit. I doubt my experience is out of the ordinary. I also doubt that other off-plan buyers of Pattaya condos by these reputable builders have lost 'a lot of money' on the condo they purchased off-plan.

When you quote me, it might be helpful, and more fair, if you use the entirity of what I have posted on a subject, such as off-plan buying, rather than just picking out one sentence. Let's also remember that the thread is about considering a condo purchase, so the OP is interested in buying a condo, which is what I was addressing.

For the record, below is what I actually said about purchasing off-plan. You'll note that nowhere do I recommend purchasing a condo off-plan, nor do I ever recommend purchasing a condo, period. Rather, I say "...if you want to buy off-plan...". Note the 'IF'. What I said in my earlier post:

Sometimes I also pass along cautions, usually regarding something I have learned first-hand, the hard way. For example, I have suggested, if you want to buy off-plan, to only buy off-plan from a good, well-financed, reputable builder with an excellent track record of successful, completed projects. We bought one condo from an unknown, first-time builder and, though it got built, it could have just as easily been a disaster for us. Had we had the money, we also might have bought at Waterfront, as we were newbies at the time and didn't know any better.

2 hours ago, newnative said:

Thank goodness I took my advice, rather than yours. Using just Pattaya, which I know best, I bought off-plan from Lumpini 3 times, SC Asset 2 times, Sansiri 1 time, and Raimon Land 2 times. All of these developers met the criteria from my post--large, well-financed companies, good track record of completed projects, etc.

So, 8 condos bought off-plan from 4 good, reliable developers. Each condo we bought was completed on or before the scheduled delivery date, most were done before that date. All 8 were sold at a profit. I doubt my experience is out of the ordinary. I also doubt that other off-plan buyers of Pattaya condos by these reputable builders have lost 'a lot of money' on the condo they purchased off-plan.

When you quote me, it might be helpful, and more fair, if you use the entirity of what I have posted on a subject, such as off-plan buying, rather than just picking out one sentence. Let's also remember that the thread is about considering a condo purchase, so the OP is interested in buying a condo, which is what I was addressing.

For the record, below is what I actually said about purchasing off-plan. You'll note that nowhere do I recommend purchasing a condo off-plan, nor do I ever recommend purchasing a condo, period. Rather, I say "...if you want to buy off-plan...". Note the 'IF'. What I said in my earlier post:

Sometimes I also pass along cautions, usually regarding something I have learned first-hand, the hard way. For example, I have suggested, if you want to buy off-plan, to only buy off-plan from a good, well-financed, reputable builder with an excellent track record of successful, completed projects. We bought one condo from an unknown, first-time builder and, though it got built, it could have just as easily been a disaster for us. Had we had the money, we also might have bought at Waterfront, as we were newbies at the time and didn't know any better.

I'm correcting myself about the OP of this thread being interested in buying a condo, as I got it mixed up with another thread on condo buying. I would not change any of my advice regarding buying condos off-plan, however, if someone is considering an off-plan purchase.

17 hours ago, KhunHeineken said:

I agree, but why is it that Thai property is referred to as an "investment" for expat retirees?

It's for the ones that scrimped together enough to get a 1-2Mb condo and they want to feel good about most of their money tied up there.

2 hours ago, gargamon said:

It's for the ones that scrimped together enough to get a 1-2Mb condo and they want to feel good about most of their money tied up there.

And for those that were not able to scrimp enough together to get a 1-2M baht condo, there's the 3K a month fan-rooms

7 hours ago, newnative said:

Thank goodness I took my advice, rather than yours. Using just Pattaya, which I know best, I bought off-plan from Lumpini 3 times, SC Asset 2 times, Sansiri 1 time, and Raimon Land 2 times. All of these developers met the criteria from my post--large, well-financed companies, good track record of completed projects, etc.

So, 8 condos bought off-plan from 4 good, reliable developers. Each condo we bought was completed on or before the scheduled delivery date, most were done before that date. All 8 were sold at a profit. I doubt my experience is out of the ordinary. I also doubt that other off-plan buyers of Pattaya condos by these reputable builders have lost 'a lot of money' on the condo they purchased off-plan.

When you quote me, it might be helpful, and more fair, if you use the entirity of what I have posted on a subject, such as off-plan buying, rather than just picking out one sentence. Let's also remember that the thread is about considering a condo purchase, so the OP is interested in buying a condo, which is what I was addressing.

For the record, below is what I actually said about purchasing off-plan. You'll note that nowhere do I recommend purchasing a condo off-plan, nor do I ever recommend purchasing a condo, period. Rather, I say "...if you want to buy off-plan...". Note the 'IF'. What I said in my earlier post:

Sometimes I also pass along cautions, usually regarding something I have learned first-hand, the hard way. For example, I have suggested, if you want to buy off-plan, to only buy off-plan from a good, well-financed, reputable builder with an excellent track record of successful, completed projects. We bought one condo from an unknown, first-time builder and, though it got built, it could have just as easily been a disaster for us. Had we had the money, we also might have bought at Waterfront, as we were newbies at the time and didn't know any better.

So, no developers have absconded with off the plan money from purchasers in Thailand. Really?

4 hours ago, gargamon said:

It's for the ones that scrimped together enough to get a 1-2Mb condo and they want to feel good about most of their money tied up there.

Ahhhh, the old, "rent is dead money" theory. It's not true in Thailand. In Thailand, buying is dead money. 🙂

Renting leaves the purchase price of the condo back in your home country, earning 5% interest, or more, which more than covers the rent on the exact same condo that you are renting, which is for sale. 🙂

21 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

The best reason to buy a property here is because you want to own a property here.

Why would one want to own a property here? You don't really own it anyway. 🙂

1 hour ago, KhunHeineken said:

Why would one want to own a property here? You don't really own it anyway. 🙂

Why would anyone want to own anything anywhere? Keep renting brother.

2 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

Why would anyone want to own anything anywhere?

Well, in many countries, a foreigner can actually own the property, but not in Thailand. 😂

3 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

Keep renting brother.

Amen. 🙂

17 minutes ago, KhunHeineken said:

Well, in many countries, a foreigner can actually own the property, but not in Thailand. 😂

Amen. 🙂

But that was not the question. The question was: Why would anyone want to own anything anywhere?

It's cheaper to take taxies than buy a car, why buy a car?

And my wife can own property, so what's the difference?

2 hours ago, KhunHeineken said:

So, no developers have absconded with off the plan money from purchasers in Thailand. Really?

Quote me where I said that. Your comprehension skills seem to be poor, at best. Or, more likely, you're just pretending to be dense. The whole point of what I said in regard to off-plan buying was to NOT buy from an unknown developer, from a developer with unknown or shaky financing, from a developer with no strong record of completed projects, etc., etc. One who might, in your words, 'abscond'.

Now, why am I giving that advice? I gave two examples in my post, which you must have missed. The first was a buy we made off-plan with an unknown developer, with unknown finances, and with no record of completed projects--it was actually their first project, I think. The project got done but it could have gone the other way--and lost us a fair amount of money. The second example was Waterfront--we liked the project and very well might have bought a condo off-plan, but we didn't have the money at the time. Lucky break, that. We were new in Thailand then and we were still learning--and still are.

Today, with more experience, we would never buy off-plan except from a big, well-established, well-financed developer with a good track record of completed projects. We would likely limit ourselves to the condo developers I mentioned in my earlier post, if we would ever buy off-plan again.

When I post here on real estate, it is sometimes to advise and caution, based on our real-world experiences here, of which we have had quite a few, with, if I am counting correctly, 22 condos and 5 houses, with a 6th house under construction. And, as I have said many times before, readers are certainly welcome to not read my posts at all and/or disregard everything I say--that might just fit you to a T.

3 hours ago, KhunHeineken said:

Why would one want to own a property here? You don't really own it anyway. 🙂

If you buy a condo in foreign quota, you certainly do own it. Which is one of the reasons, among several others, why I always recommend buying in foreign quota.

On 2/2/2026 at 11:36 AM, Yellowtail said:

The question was: Why would anyone want to own anything anywhere?

The question really should be, "Why do people think they actually own the property?" 😂

On 2/2/2026 at 11:36 AM, Yellowtail said:

It's cheaper to take taxies than buy a car, why buy a car?

If you divide the price of a new car by the cost of your average Bolt ride to and from your regular places, such as bars, restaurants, shopping centers etc, it would probably end up being over 10,000 journeys, and no taxes, fees, gasoline, insurance, and maintenance to pay for, not to mention the risk of being in a serious accident, in which the farang is always at fault.

On 2/2/2026 at 11:36 AM, Yellowtail said:

And my wife can own property, so what's the difference?

Well, that's a difficult question, but I'll try to answer it for you. Your wife owns it, not you. I think that covers it. 😂

On 2/2/2026 at 1:16 PM, newnative said:

Quote me where I said that.

So they have absconded with the money.

Glad we cleared that up.

So, the advice is, NEVER buy off the plan here.

On 2/2/2026 at 1:34 PM, newnative said:

If you buy a condo in foreign quota, you certainly do own it.

Does it float in mid air????

Who owns the land it "floats" over? 😂

Remember, the x 30 x 30 is a scam. It's not enforceable at Thai law.

Thailand property market facing its worst slump in nearly 30 years.

Plenty or articles similar to the one below.

It's not just about the foreign ownership of property in Thailand law, it's also about Thai property is simply not a good "investment" and I use the word investment loosely.

nationthailand

Thai Property Market Faces Worst Slowdown in Nearly 30 Years

Thailand’s real estate market faces its worst slump since the 1997 crisis, with over 400,000 unsold condos. High debt and rising interest rates hamper recovery.

"Thailand’s real estate market faces its worst slump since the 1997 crisis, with over 400,000 unsold condos. High debt and rising interest rates hamper recovery."

29 minutes ago, KhunHeineken said:

So they have absconded with the money.

Glad we cleared that up.

So, the advice is, NEVER buy off the plan here.

Once again, quote me where I said any of that. And, once again, thank goodness I didn't take your 'advice'. We bought off-plan 10 times, 9 in Pattaya and 1 in Bangkok. One buy, our first, was a bit iffy, the rest were rock solid. None of the builders, even the first, 'absconded with the money'. The condos all got built, almost all were delivered early. We made money on all 10 of them, including the first one.

I don't advise buying off-plan nor do I advise not buying off-plan--that has never changed. It's entirely up to an individual as to whether or not they want to purchase a condo off-plan or not. What I have always advised is this: IF you want to purchase a condo off-plan, I would advise choosing a large, well-financed, experienced builder with an excellent track record of completed projects.

I'm sure I've worded that advice in various ways with different posts but readers, including you, should understand the advice I am giving. I have also listed a number of times some of the builders I think fit that criteria the best. I have also said more than once that I feel there is always some risk with buying off-plan but you can lessen the risk with the developer you choose. And, as always, readers are perfectly free to ignore my advice, and, of course, my posts altogether.

53 minutes ago, KhunHeineken said:

Does it float in mid air????

Who owns the land it "floats" over? 😂

Remember, the x 30 x 30 is a scam. It's not enforceable at Thai law.

In Thailand, the land a condominium sits on is collectively owned by all unit owners as "common property," shared in proportion to their individual unit size, as dictated by the Condominium Act. While you own your specific unit outright (freehold), you do not own the land individually, but rather hold a share in the land title along with other owners.

Key Details Regarding Land Ownership in Thai Condos:

• Common Property: Under the Condominium Act, land is classified as common property, along with structures like foundations, hallways, and swimming pools.

• Proportional Ownership: Each unit owner holds a percentage of the land proportional to the value or size of their unit compared to the total value/size of all units.

• Foreign Ownership: Foreigners can legally own condo units freehold within the 49% quota, and this includes a proportional stake in the underlying land.

3 hours ago, newnative said:

Once again, quote me where I said any of that.

It's your deflection that says it loud and clear to all.

3 hours ago, newnative said:

In Thailand, the land a condominium sits on is collectively owned by all unit owners

Foreigners can't own land in Thailand. Well debated in the past. Done and dusted.

3 hours ago, newnative said:

you do not own the land individually, but rather hold a share in the land title along with other owners.

Rubbish.

You can talk about the floating condo all you like.

Talk about the land.