The Condominium Act is the specific Thai law that regulates foreigners’ possibilities to buy a condominium and own it in his/her name. The act contains 62 sections and the first version was approved in 1979. It was revised in 1991 and again as recently as in 1999. Due to all the complications relating to foreigners’ scope of getting access to land ownership in Thailand, it may indeed be beneficial to know the basics of this law.
In general, the Condominium Act states that ownership and administration of condominiums in Thailand works out in a manner very similar to that in most Western countries. The below summary of contents and implications follow the original 1979 version, with the latest revisions of the 1999 version being added.
In Section 4, the term “condominium” is defined as a building that can be separated into units for individual ownership which include personal and common properties. The owner of a unit has the exclusive ownership right in his personal property and the co-ownership right in the common property; the rules for such common property are defined by the regulations in Section 13 of the Act. Section 9 makes clear that the land title deed is required to be registered as a condominium at the local Land Department.
The most extensive and important chapter of the Act is Section 19, which stipulates the right for alien physical or juristic persons to own condominium units. The fifth item in the chapter was clarified in the revised version of 1999 [Section 3] in that defining aliens as a physical or juristic persons “deemed by Thai law to be aliens, who have brought into the Kingdom foreign exchange or withdrawn the money from the non-resident Baht account or withdrawn the money from the foreign currency deposit account”. In the 1999 revision, [Section 5] it is moreover said that aliens are required to present evidence of the foreign currency having been accurately brought into the country and subsequently withdrawn; the amount must at least correspond to the purchase price of the condominium unit to be acquired.
In practice, in order to smoothly get the condominium registered at the local Land Department, this has come to mean that the amount per transaction transferred from a foreign bank account in foreign currency must equal or exceed 20.000 US dollars. This will enable you to get the important Foreign Exchange Transaction Form (“Tor Tor Sam”) from the receiving Thai bank (read more under Investing in Thailand).
In Section 19 bis, revised in 1999 [Section 4], a limitation for foreigners to own condominiums in Thailand in their own name is laid down. The total area (personal and common property) of a condominium building may not be owned to more than 49 percent by foreigners when registering the condominium at the local Land Department. Hence, it is not the number of condominium units that can have a maximum of 49 percent foreign ownership but the proportion of the total space. However, condominiums sited in some specific areas in Bangkok and Pattaya are exceptions to this rule, provided they comprise a land area of less than five rais (8,000 square metres).
Section 33 of the Act states that a registered condominium shall be considered a juristic person “who has the administration and management to achieve the registered objectives by means of the resolution passed by co-owners”. Furthermore, in Sections 35—36, it is stated that a person shall be appointed as manager in order to represent the juristic person. According to Sections 37, a management committee not exceeding nine members can be appointed by co-owners in order to oversee the administration of the condominium.
Section 42 makes clear that the first general meeting is to be held within six months from the date the condominium was registered. Thereafter, the consecutive general meetings shall be held at least once a year. According to Sections 43—45, at least one third of the co-owners must be present at each general meeting. Resolution of the general meeting must be approved by the majority vote of the present co-owners in the meeting, where the vote by one individual owner is equal to his ownership ratio of the common property. Finally, Sections 48—49 point out that some specific resolutions concerning the common property require the majority vote of all co-owners in the condominium, whereas others require three-fourths of all co-owners’ vote.
