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Traditionally, ownership of an Apartment in Thailand has been all but impossible. Why? Predominately because the Building Permit was issued for the entire building, not for each/every apartment within the building. As a result, those interested in purchasing an Apartment had to engage via a complicated contractual structure in order to cover all implications, like; a) a Sale & Purchase Agreement, b) a Shareholder’s Agreement, c) a Co-ownership Agreement and d) a Homeowners Association Agreement.

However, there might be an alternative solution on the horizon? Where, the buyer of each individual Apartment owns a fraction or percentage of the permitted building size. Samui Law Firm is currently investigating this option further and we’ll add more information to this post once confirmation about this solution is forthcoming.

Example: an investor purchases a fifty (50) square meter Apartment within a building that was permitted, as dictated by the building permit issued from the Tessaban [the Building Department], to construct a building of up-to five hundred (500) square meters. Therefore, the buyer of the fifty (50) square meter Apartment can be issued with a ‘publicly registered’ ownership document, upon payment of the appropriate transfer fees and taxes, stating that they own ten (10) percent [50m2 of 500m2 = 10%] of the entire building.