Currency and timing: sending your purchase funds to Thailand

How your money reaches Thailand decides whether you can register the unit at all. The amount matters; so does the currency it arrives in, the rail it travels on, and the paperwork the receiving bank can issue afterwards. Get those right and transfer day is routine — get them wrong and the Land Department can decline to put the unit in your name.

This article is about the currency and the timing of the transfer — the choices you make before the money moves. The mechanics that follow — whose name, how many instalments, keeping the paperwork — are covered in the companion guide on sending purchase funds into Thailand, and we link it below rather than repeat it here.

In brief

• Send foreign currency and convert it at the Thai bank — baht sent from abroad usually will not qualify.
• A service that pays out baht locally may not generate the FET evidence; confirm with your receiving bank first.
• The FET form is issued for inward transfers of USD 50,000 or more; below that, a credit advice.
• From 29 Dec 2025, inward transfers of USD 200,000+ for real estate face documentary verification (BoT Circular 8434/2568).
• When to convert is your decision — we give no FX or investment advice; start early and keep every document.

Why must the money reach Thailand from abroad in foreign currency?

Because the inward foreign-currency remittance is what qualifies most foreign buyers to own the unit, and the receiving bank's record of it is the proof. Section 19(5) of the Condominium Act B.E. 2522 (1979) lets an alien who brings foreign currency into the Kingdom hold a unit, and §19 ter requires that evidence to be produced when ownership is registered. In practice the Land Department wants to see that at least the purchase price entered Thailand from overseas, in a foreign currency, in connection with your purchase.

The consequence is simple to state and easy to get wrong: money already sitting in Thailand in Thai baht generally will not qualify, however legitimately it arrived, and neither will foreign currency that was converted to baht before it reached a Thai bank. The qualifying step is a foreign currency arriving in Thailand and being exchanged into baht here.

Should I send foreign currency or Thai baht?

Send foreign currency, and let the conversion to baht happen at the receiving bank in Thailand. Instruct your sending bank to remit in US dollars, euros, pounds, Singapore dollars or another major currency the Thai bank will accept, rather than buying baht at your end and sending baht. The conversion inside Thailand is precisely the event the receiving bank documents on the Foreign Exchange Transaction form, and it is that document the Land Department reads.

This is also why the cheapest-looking route is not always the usable one. A transfer that delivers baht into a Thai account has, from the Land Department's point of view, skipped the qualifying step — because no foreign currency was exchanged in Thailand for it to record.

Does a Wise or app transfer produce the FET evidence?

Not automatically — because services such as Wise usually convert your currency abroad and pay out Thai baht through a local partner, so the money can arrive in your account as a domestic baht deposit rather than an inward foreign-currency transfer. Wise itself states that it uses local banking partners to deliver funds within Thailand and does not directly generate an FET form, and that a buyer must request the FET or credit advice from their receiving Thai bank, whose process differs from bank to bank.

That does not make such services unusable, but it makes one step non-negotiable: before you send anything, ask your receiving Thai bank, in writing, whether it will issue a Foreign Exchange Transaction form or a foreign-exchange credit advice for the way you intend to transfer — and whether that document will name the foreign currency, the amount, the sender and the condominium purpose. If it will not, the conventional and lowest-risk route is an ordinary telegraphic (SWIFT) transfer sent in foreign currency, converted at the Thai bank on arrival. We name these services only as facts, not as a recommendation, and we take no view on which is cheaper for you on any given day.

When should I convert the currency — and do you advise on the rate?

When to convert is your decision, and we do not advise on it. Suwanvara Property gives no foreign-exchange or investment advice, recommends no bank, transfer service or rate, and takes no view on where an exchange rate will go. What we can do is flag the timing facts, so the decision is an informed one.

The exchange rate moves between the day you agree a price in your own currency and the day the baht is needed at the Land Department, and you carry that movement — a home-currency budget can be worth more or fewer baht by transfer day. You may remit in several instalments rather than one, so the timing need not be a single all-or-nothing decision. And a first-time inward transfer, and opening a Thai bank account as a non-resident, both take longer than people expect, so start early: a rate you like is no help if the funds and their paperwork are not in place by the transfer date.

If managing that movement matters to you, that is a conversation for your own bank or a regulated foreign-exchange provider — not for us.

What evidence do I collect, and what checks are new?

The receiving Thai bank's Foreign Exchange Transaction form for a transfer of USD 50,000 or more, and a credit advice or confirmation letter for anything below that. That USD 50,000 figure is the Bank of Thailand's reporting level for inward foreign-currency transfers; either document states the amount, currency, sender, recipient and purpose, and either is what the Land Department accepts. Ask the bank for the document as each transfer lands, rather than reconstructing it months later.

There is also a newer layer to plan for. Under Bank of Thailand Circular No. 8434/2568, in force from 29 December 2025, an inward foreign-currency transfer of USD 200,000 or more is subject to documentary verification for each transaction, and Thai real-estate purchases are one of the categories that require full supporting documents. In practice your bank may ask for the sale and purchase agreement or evidence of the purpose before it releases or documents the funds — so tell your bank the purpose in advance, and keep the contract to hand. Keep every FET form and credit advice permanently: the same evidence supports repatriating the proceeds in foreign currency when you eventually sell.

Because exchange-control rules, thresholds and each bank's procedure change, treat the figures here as the position as at 25 July 2026 and confirm the current requirement with your Thai bank before you transfer.

General information for foreign buyers — not legal, tax or financial advice. Any legal work is a separate engagement with Suwanvara Law Firm; you remain free to appoint another adviser.

Suwanvara Property does not provide foreign-exchange or investment advice and recommends no bank, transfer service or exchange rate. When and how you convert currency is your own decision.

Exchange-control rules, bank procedures and reporting thresholds change — confirm the current position with your Thai bank, and with us, before you transfer.

Sources

• Condominium Act B.E. 2522 (1979), §19(5) and §19 ter (checked 2026-07-25)
• Bank of Thailand — foreign exchange regulations (reporting level) (checked 2026-07-25)
• Bank of Thailand Circular No. 8434/2568, effective 29 December 2025 (checked 2026-07-25)