Buying a Condo in Thailand: the 49% Quota and the FET Form

How does the 49% foreign quota actually work?

The foreign-ownership limit is measured by the total area of units in the registered condominium, not by the number of apartments. Verify the registered condominium concerned and its current foreign-held area with the juristic person. Do not infer separate quotas merely because a development has several physical towers.

Section 19 provides different eligibility categories. A buyer relying on the funds-based category needs the corresponding evidence; other categories, including qualifying permanent residence, require their own documents. Ask counsel to identify the category before the bank prepares the file. A visa or everyday residence in Thailand should not be confused with qualifying permanent-resident status.

The quota is enforced at the counter, not on the brochure: a registration that would push the building past 49% is refused, whatever the contract says and whatever has been paid. That is why the quota is verified before the deposit, never assumed.

How do you check the quota before you pay a deposit?

The instrument is a letter from the condominium juristic person — the legal entity that manages the building and keeps its ownership register. The juristic person certifies, in writing, the share of the building's unit floor area currently registered to foreigners and that registering your unit to a foreigner keeps the building within 49%. If an off-plan condominium has not yet been registered, ask the developer for the proposed quota allocation and have counsel address registration and eligibility in the contract.

Ask the receiving Land Office which quota confirmation it requires and how recent it must be. A letter records a position at its issue date; it does not reserve capacity indefinitely. Obtain evidence before committing and arrange an updated confirmation for the transfer.

What the quota letter states, at minimum:

• The foreign-held share of the building's combined unit floor area, as a figure, at the date of issue.
• That the unit being bought can register to a foreigner without exceeding 49%.
• The issue date and the signature of the juristic person's manager — the letter is evidence, so it carries its source like any other document.

What is the FET form, and who issues it?

FET (Foreign Exchange Transaction) is a name commonly used for bank evidence of a foreign-exchange transaction. For a condominium purchase, the useful question is which evidence the receiving Land Office accepts for your eligibility and funding route. Ask the receiving bank to confirm the document it will issue before you transfer.

Do not treat an amount quoted on an old checklist as a universal rule for every bank and transaction. Ask whether a transaction record, confirmation letter, credit advice or account-withdrawal evidence is required, and reconcile the accepted documents to the purchase.

For an agreed remittance route:

• Confirm the transfer currency, account and purpose wording with the receiving bank before sending.
• The transfer instruction names the buyer and states the purpose — the purchase of the named unit in the named project.
• Request the bank evidence agreed for this transaction and retain its references.
• Each document records the amounts in both currencies, the sender, the receiver and the purpose — the fields the Land Office reads at registration.
• At the transfer, the FET evidence is presented alongside the quota letter, and the originals stay in your file: the same papers serve again at resale.

Where does the FET chain break?

Most FET problems are made on the day the money is sent, months before anyone reads the form. The breaks repeat, and each is preventable in the transfer instruction itself.

The common breaks, each in one line:

• The buyer's name appears nowhere — not as sender, not as receiver, not in the purpose — so the bank record and the person registering the unit do not connect.
• The purpose field says nothing about a condominium purchase, so the money entered Thailand but nothing ties it to this unit in this project.
• The transfer used a currency or account route that was not checked in advance against the buyer's eligibility and the receiving office's evidence requirements.
• A payment has no corresponding bank record, leaving the purchase-price reconciliation incomplete.
• The documents do not add up to the registered price — several transfers, one missing paper, and the file falls short at the counter.

Is the 75% foreign quota the law?

A proposed increase is not evidence of the quota available for your purchase. Use the applicable statutory limit and current official confirmation. If a seller relies on a different percentage, ask independent counsel to identify the enacted provision, its commencement date and its application to this registered condominium before paying.

The practical rule: a purchase is planned against the law in force on the transfer day, and a proposal has no headroom to sell. If the quota changes, it will change on the date an amending act says so — and this page will be re-reviewed and dated when it does.

What happens to the quota and the FET at resale?

The next foreign buyer's eligibility and quota position must be checked for their transaction. Keep your own purchase, banking, registration and sale records: ask the remitting bank which documents it requires to transfer sale proceeds abroad. Do not describe one historic FET form as the universal condition for every resale or outward remittance.

This is why the money trail is a document to keep, not a formality to survive. The papers issued around your purchase are the papers a bank reads years later before wiring the proceeds home — and a verified file kept for ten years means the evidence is still evidence the day you sell.

What does a verification check on the money and the quota?

A verification records the quota and the evidence appropriate to the buyer’s eligibility. The quota letter is obtained, dated and entered with its issuer and reference; the FET chain is reconciled against the price — which transfers exist, which documents cover them, whether the names and the purpose connect the money to the buyer and the unit. What is missing is recorded just the same, with a named consequence, before the agreed payment becomes non-refundable.

Together the entries form the evidence ledger — the list of source documents behind each finding, with issuing office, reference number, date and reviewer. For a simple freehold condo resale, that structured review is the first fixed tier of the published grid: €990 (THB 38,610), delivered in 10 business days from confirmed payment.

What Suradeed is, and is not

Suradeed is not a law firm and gives no legal advice. Every legal finding and recommendation in a verification certificate is produced and signed by a licensed Thai law firm, which is responsible for it. Suradeed defines the verification protocol, coordinates the work, controls its quality and delivers the result.

The checkout shows one quoted price: it includes the partner firm's fee, which Suradeed collects as payment agent for the firm, and Suradeed's platform and coordination fee. Your invoice records both components separately. Suradeed accepts no commission or referral benefit from any seller, developer, agent or broker — independence is contractual.

On this subject that work is concrete: the quota headroom is verified against the juristic person's own letter, the FET chain is read document by document, and the findings belong to the partner firm that signs them. Where a Suradeed summary sits next to the signed certificate, the summary is attributed to Suradeed and the certificate to the firm.

Sources

• Thailand government — Condominium transfer and buyer eligibility
• Bank of Thailand — Exchange-control regulations
• Bangkok Bank — Incoming transfers and condominium purchase documents