Renting out your condo from abroad: management, duties and getting the rent home

Letting a condominium you own while you live abroad is a solvable problem, but not a hands-off one. Thai law gives the owner duties that do not disappear because you are overseas, and the person who collects your rent is rarely the person the immigration office or the Revenue Department will look to. This article sets out your realistic options, what a manager actually does for the fee, and the two obligations — an immigration notification and income tax — that remain yours wherever you live.

It carries no rent, yield or return figure of its own. Where a developer publishes a rental rate card for one of the buildings we list, that is the developer's asking rate — not an achieved rent and not a promise — so nothing here should be read as a forecast of what your unit will earn.

In brief

• Three routes: a developer leasing programme, an independent agent, or self-managing — they trade fee against how much you do yourself.
• A manager finds and screens tenants, collects rent, coordinates repairs, inspects, files the TM30, and hands over — but your legal duties stay yours.
• Managers charge a one-off letting fee plus a recurring share of rent; we publish no fee figure — get written quotes and read the exclusions.
• When a foreign tenant moves in, the TM30 residence notification is due within 24 hours (Immigration Act s.38); appoint your manager to file it.
• Rent is taxable in Thailand (Revenue Code s.40(5), s.41): 30% or actual deduction, progressive 0–35% rates, annual P.N.D. 90; a company tenant withholds 5%.

What are my options for managing a rental from abroad?

There are three, and they trade cost against how much you have to do yourself. The first is a developer rental or leasing programme: several of the developments we list are run by developers who operate their own leasing desk, and some publish a rate card — the developer's asking monthly rate for each floor plan. That is a convenience, not a guarantee; the rate is what the developer advertises, not a rent your unit is assured to achieve, and you should read the programme terms and its fee before you sign.

The second is an independent letting or managing agent — a local firm that finds tenants and looks after the unit for a fee. The third is to self-manage: keep the keys with a trusted contact, advertise the unit yourself and deal with tenants remotely. Self-managing saves the fee but not the duties in the two sections below, which the law places on you as owner however hands-off your day-to-day involvement is. Most owners living abroad choose an agent or a developer programme precisely so that someone in Thailand can act on the ground at short notice.

What does a rental manager actually do?

A manager stands in for you on the ground, and the scope is worth pinning down in writing because it varies widely. At the letting stage a manager typically advertises the unit, screens and selects a tenant, draws up the tenancy agreement, collects the deposit and the first rent, and records the unit's condition and inventory so the deposit can be settled fairly at the end.

During the tenancy the manager collects the rent, pays the building's common-area fee and the utilities from it where you agree that, arranges repairs and responds to the tenant, carries out periodic inspections, and files the TM30 immigration notification when a foreign tenant moves in (see below). Some managers also arrange the annual rental-income tax filing or work with your accountant on it; many do not, so confirm whether tax is inside or outside the fee. At the end they handle the check-out, the inventory reconciliation and the return of the deposit. None of this removes your legal duties as owner — it is help with discharging them, not a transfer of them.

How is a manager paid?

Usually on two bases: a one-off letting or tenant-finding fee charged when a tenant is signed, and a recurring management fee charged as a share of the monthly rent for the ongoing work. We publish no fee figure — the site holds none, rates differ by manager and by building, and a percentage we invented would be worse than none — so ask for written quotes and compare what each fee does and does not cover.

When you compare, read past the headline number. Ask whether the letting fee and the management fee are separate or combined; whether repairs, the common-area fee, marketing and re-letting are inside the fee or billed on top; how and how often you are paid, and in what currency; and what the notice terms are if the arrangement is not working. A low percentage that excludes the things you will actually need is not the cheaper deal.

What must I do myself — the TM30 notification?

When a foreign tenant moves into your unit, someone must notify the immigration office within 24 hours, and by law that duty falls on the property's "house-master" — which normally means you as the owner. Section 38 of the Immigration Act B.E. 2522 (1979) requires the house-master, owner or possessor of a dwelling where a foreigner is permitted to stay to make the notification within 24 hours of the foreigner taking up residence. This is the notification made on Form TM30, which the Immigration Bureau also accepts online at tm30.immigration.go.th. A house-master who does not notify is liable to a fine, not exceeding 2,000 baht under Section 77.

Two practical points follow. First, you can appoint your manager or another agent to file the TM30 for you, and an absentee owner should — it is one of the clearest reasons to have someone in Thailand. Second, this matters to your tenant as well as to you: the immigration office needs a current TM30 on file before it will process the tenant's own 90-day report or a visa extension, so a manager who files promptly saves the tenant real trouble. The notification concerns foreign occupants; a Thai tenant is not reported this way.

What tax do I owe on the rent, and who withholds it?

Rent from a Thai property is taxable in Thailand, and living abroad does not change that. Under Sections 40(5) and 41 of the Revenue Code, income from letting property situated in Thailand is assessable income taxable here whether it is paid to you inside or outside the country and regardless of where you are resident. You may deduct a standard 30% of the gross rent for a building under Royal Decree (No. 11) B.E. 2502, or your actual, evidenced expenses instead; the balance is taxed at the progressive personal rates, which run from 0% on the first 150,000 baht of net income to 35% above 5,000,000 baht.

Rental income is declared on the annual personal income tax return (P.N.D. 90), and an individual with letting income also files a half-year return (P.N.D. 94). Watch two withholding points. Where your tenant is a company, it must withhold 5% of the rent and remit it to the Revenue Department (Departmental Instruction Tor. Por. 4/2528), and you credit that on your return; an individual tenant does not withhold. And if you are not a Thai tax resident, tax may also be withheld when the rent is paid to you, which you reconcile on the return — confirm the rate that applies to you. Separately, an annual land and building tax is due on the owner under the Land and Building Tax Act B.E. 2562 (2019), at the residential rate, whether or not the unit is let. Because rates, bands and filing dates change, treat these figures as the position at 25 July 2026 and confirm the current requirement before you rely on it.

How do I get the rent out of Thailand?

Sending your net rent abroad is an ordinary outward remittance your Thai bank handles once the money is in your Thai account; the care goes into the records, not the transfer itself. Keep your tenancy agreement, the rent receipts and any withholding-tax certificates, and file your Thai tax return, so that the funds you remit are clearly documented income on which tax has been dealt with.

The evidence you kept when you bought — the Foreign Exchange Transaction records for the money you brought in — matters most later, when you sell and want to repatriate the sale proceeds in foreign currency; our companion article on currency and timing explains that side. When and how you convert baht back to your own currency is your decision: Suwanvara Property gives no foreign-exchange or investment advice and recommends no bank, service or rate. If managing the exchange matters to you, that is a conversation for your own bank or a regulated provider, and the tax filing itself is best handled with an accountant or with Suwanvara Law Firm under a separate engagement.

General information for foreign buyers and owners — not legal, tax or immigration advice on your situation. Any legal or tax engagement is separate, with Suwanvara Law Firm, and you remain free to appoint another adviser.

This article states no rent, yield, occupancy or return figure and makes no forecast. A developer rate card is the developer's published asking rate, not an achieved rent, a net figure or a guarantee; past rents are not a promise of future ones.

Immigration reporting rules, tax rates, deductions, thresholds and filing dates change, and immigration penalties are at the authorities' discretion — confirm the current position with the Immigration Bureau, the Revenue Department, and with us, before you act.

Continue reading

• Currency and timing: sending your purchase funds to Thailand
• Does buying a condominium give you the right to live in Thailand?

Sources

• Immigration Act B.E. 2522 (1979), Section 38 (checked 2026-07-25)
• Immigration Act B.E. 2522 (1979), Section 77 (checked 2026-07-25)
• Revenue Code, Section 40(5) (checked 2026-07-25)
• Revenue Code, Section 41 (checked 2026-07-25)
• Royal Decree issued under the Revenue Code (No. 11) B.E. 2502 (checked 2026-07-25)
• Revenue Department — personal income tax rates and returns (checked 2026-07-25)
• Revenue Department — withholding tax on rent (Departmental Instruction Tor. Por. 4/2528) (checked 2026-07-25)
• Land and Building Tax Act B.E. 2562 (2019) (checked 2026-07-25)