What ownership costs, year by year

What does the first year of owning a Thai condominium cost?

More than any year that follows, because it carries the transfer-day charges and the set-up. The transfer-day charges come first: the 2% transfer fee on the appraised value, and, on a developer sale, specific business tax and corporate withholding that customarily sit with the seller. Thai law caps what a developer may pass to a buyer at half the transfer fee, so the buyer's customary share on new stock is 1% of the price. Our estimator computes all four charges from the same constants the listing pages use, and it labels the result indicative for the good reason that the charges are levied on the state's appraised value rather than on the price.

Then the set-up. A one-time contribution to the condominium's fund is payable on first transfer under section 40 of the Condominium Act; the amount is set by the building's own regulations. Not one of the 23 developments on our books publishes a numeric figure for it, so this site prints no sinking-fund number anywhere — two of them mention it only as something a promotion covers, which is not the same as publishing a rate.

Several developers also collect twelve months of common fee in advance at handover, and the promotions on our sheets differ project by project: most state that transfer-day expenses are covered but carve out the mortgage registration fee, three carve out the common fee instead, and one states expressly that transfer expenses are not included. We render each one in the developer's own words on the listing, because any summary line would be wrong for at least three of them.

Finally the things nobody puts on a sheet: furniture where the unit is not handed over furnished, utility meter deposits, and a first fit-out or clean.

How much is the condominium common fee?

฿45 to ฿70 per square metre per month across the 13 of our 23 developments that publish a rate. The common fee is charged per square metre of your unit per month and funds the building's operation — security, cleaning, lifts, common-area utilities, management. It is the single largest recurring cost of ownership, and it is due whether the unit is occupied, empty or being renovated.

Thirteen of our 23 developments publish a rate, and those rates run from ฿45 to ฿70 per square metre per month. Ten publish nothing, and we leave their annual estimate blank rather than filling it with a plausible number. Where a rate is published, the arithmetic is simply rate × area × 12: a 30 m² unit at ฿55 is ฿19,800 a year, indicative, on the developer's published rate and this unit's stated area.

Two things that rate does not promise. It is a published rate, not a fixed one — the co-owners' general meeting sets and revises fees, and a building whose reserves are thin will eventually raise them or levy a special assessment. And a low fee is not automatically good news: it can equally mean a building that is under-collecting for the maintenance it will need in year ten.

What tax, insurance and repair costs recur every year?

Land and building tax, your own contents cover, and a maintenance provision. Land and building tax has been assessed annually under the Land and Building Tax Act B.E. 2562 (2019) since 2020. It is charged on the appraised value, at rates that depend on how the property is used, and the classification of a unit that is let is a matter for the local authority that issues the assessment. We do not print a rate here for that reason: the assessment arrives from the district office, and it is the district office's classification that decides it.

The building's own insurance for the common property is arranged by the juristic person and paid from the common fee. Your contents, fit-out and any liability of your own are not covered by it, and a policy for those is your decision and your cost.

Then maintenance. Air-conditioning servicing, appliance replacement, repainting, the water heater that fails in year six. None of this is dramatic, and all of it is easier to carry as a small annual provision than as a surprise. Renovation beyond ordinary repair usually needs the juristic person's consent under the building's regulations.

• Common fee — monthly rate per m², due whether or not the unit is occupied
• Contribution to the condominium fund — one-time at first transfer, rate set by the building
• Land and building tax — annual, assessed by the local authority on appraised value
• Contents and fit-out insurance — the juristic person insures the building, not your things
• Maintenance and replacement — a small annual provision, not an event
• Letting costs, if you let: commission, furniture, tenancy turnover, empty months
• Special assessments — the general meeting can levy them, and eventually will

What extra costs appear only if you let the unit?

Vacancy first, then commission, furnishing and income tax on the rent. Vacancy is the cost most often left out of a spreadsheet, because it is the one number a seller has no reason to raise. Every month without a tenant is a month of common fee, utilities standing charges and no income, and it is not an unusual event between tenancies — it is the ordinary rhythm of letting.

Add letting commission, furnishing and its replacement, the wear a tenancy puts on a unit, and income tax on the rent under section 40(5) of the Revenue Code. Our own yield calculator deliberately has no growth field and treats every one of these as a figure you enter rather than one we supply, because we hold no data that would let us supply them.

The honest arithmetic on this site stops at a gross figure. A net figure needs costs no rate card documents — sinking fund, vacancy, letting and management fees, repairs, insurance, income tax — and a common fee, where a development publishes one, is a single line among them rather than a net yield. We would rather show the gross figure and name what it excludes than produce a net number by assumption.