The Number in the Headlines Is Not the Number on Your Bill
If you have read anything about Thai property costs this year, you have seen the figure 0.01%. The Thai business daily Thansettakij reported it again on 1 July, when the Royal Gazette published the extension. Transfer fee cut to 0.01%. Mortgage fee cut to 0.01%. It sounds like registering a property in Thailand has become almost free.
For a foreign buyer in Pattaya, it has not. The measure is real and it runs to 30 June 2027. It saves Thai buyers a serious amount of money. But the published conditions limit it to a buyer who is a natural person of Thai nationality. Buy a condo in your own name on a foreign passport and you pay the standard 2% transfer fee. On a unit appraised at four million baht, that is roughly eighty thousand baht rather than a few hundred.
Here is what the Land Office actually collects on a Pattaya condo, what changes on 1 January 2027, and how to budget for it.
What the 0.01% Measure Actually Says
The Cabinet approved the extension this year and the Royal Gazette published it. It took effect on 1 July 2026 and runs to 30 June 2027, continuing a similar measure that expired on 30 June 2026.
The Land Department’s public notice sets out the conditions. The transfer registration fee drops from 2% to 0.01%, the mortgage registration fee from 1% to 0.01%. Four things must be true at once:
- The property is a residential building, a commercial building, land with such a building on it, or a condominium unit registered under the law. Bare land does not qualify.
- The sale price, the official appraised value and the mortgage amount must each be no more than 7 million baht.
- The buyer must be a natural person of Thai nationality. The Thai text reads “สำหรับบุคคลธรรมดาที่มีสัญชาติไทย”. Companies do not qualify either.
- Where a mortgage is involved, the transfer and the mortgage must be registered on the same day.
Notice what is not the obstacle. The 7 million baht ceiling covers most of the Pattaya market. According to the Real Estate Information Center’s press release of 11 September 2026, published in Thai, the average condominium transferred to a foreign buyer nationwide in the first half of 2026 was worth 4.3 million baht. The price cap is not what excludes you. Your nationality is.
The Four Charges Collected at Transfer
One condition comes first. A foreigner buying in their own name has to fit inside the building’s foreign quota, capped at 49% of the total unit floor area, and the Land Office asks for evidence that the purchase funds arrived in foreign currency. Our step-by-step guide to buying as a foreigner covers where those checks sit in the sequence. Transfer day itself is one appointment, settled in cashier’s cheques.
Transfer fee, 2%
Calculated on the official appraised value, not on the price you agreed. This is the charge the 0.01% measure reduces for Thai buyers.
Specific Business Tax, 3.3%, or stamp duty, 0.5%
Only one applies. If the seller has owned the unit for less than five years, Specific Business Tax of 3.3% is due on whichever is higher, appraised value or sale price. If five years have passed, or the unit has been the seller’s main home with their name in the house registration book for over a year, stamp duty of 0.5% applies instead. The gap is large, which is why the seller’s holding period is worth asking about early.
Withholding tax
Income tax on the seller, collected at the counter. For an individual seller, the Land Office calculates it on the appraised value using a progressive scale, with a deduction based on years of ownership. For a company seller, it is a flat 1% of the higher of appraised or sale price.
Mortgage registration fee, 1%
Only if a loan is registered against the property, which for most foreign buyers here it is not.
The wider picture, including annual land and building tax and the costs that follow handover, is in our guide to Pattaya property taxes and fees.
The Appraised Value Matters More Than the Price You Agreed
The transfer fee is a percentage of the government appraised value set by the Treasury Department, not of what you negotiated. That figure is usually lower than the market price, which works in your favour at the counter. But it also means you cannot estimate closing costs from the asking price. You need the appraised value for that specific unit, and your lawyer can obtain it before you commit.
It also means a discount does not reduce the transfer fee by the same proportion. Knock 200,000 baht off the price and the fee usually does not move at all, because the appraised value has not changed.
What Changes on 1 January 2027
The Treasury Department works on a four-year cycle for appraised values. The current cycle ends on 31 December 2026, and a new one covering 2027 to 2030 takes its place.
The department’s director-general, quoted by the Thai business daily Bangkok Biznews on 23 September 2026, said the new schedule is expected to be published on 1 December 2026 and to take effect on 1 January 2027, with a nationwide increase of at least 10%. The stated aim is to narrow the gap to market value, now around 30 to 40%, to no more than 20%.
Two caveats. That percentage is an estimate given before publication, and it is a national average, so no Pattaya address can be read off it. The revision itself is not a rumour, though. It is the scheduled end of a fixed four-year cycle.
In practice, from January 2027 the same condo at the same price is likely to carry a slightly higher transfer fee, because the base has gone up. The same applies to the seller’s taxes and to the annual land and building tax. If you are close to signing on something in Pattaya’s condo market, keep the transfer date in view.
The Thai Spouse Case, and Its Own Trade-Off
The nationality condition raises an obvious question for the many buyers here married to a Thai national. If the Thai spouse is the buyer, the measure does apply, because the buyer is a Thai natural person.
That is relevant for anyone looking at a house rather than a condo, since a foreigner cannot normally own land in their own name. But the saving should never drive the structure. When a Thai spouse buys land, the Land Office normally requires a joint declaration that the funds are the spouse’s personal property, and signing it has real consequences for the foreign partner. Putting money into a Thai name so that someone else holds the asset for you is a nominee arrangement, and nominee holdings are illegal under Thai law.
Decide the ownership structure on its own merits, with a lawyer who acts for you and not for the seller. Nothing here is tax or legal advice, and your own case should be confirmed with a qualified professional before you sign.
Who Pays What
Thai law does not say who pays the transfer fee. It says the fee is due. Everything else is contract.
The common starting point in the resale market here is a 50/50 split of the transfer fee, with the seller carrying Specific Business Tax or stamp duty and the withholding tax, since those are taxes on their gain. Developers set their own terms, and they vary a great deal from one project to the next.
Either way, get the split written into the reservation agreement and the sale and purchase agreement in numbers, not in a verbal assurance at a viewing. Vague wording at reservation becomes an argument on transfer day, when you have least room to walk away.
Putting a Number on It
Take a resale condo bought in your own name within the foreign quota, agreed at 4.5 million baht, appraised at 3.2 million, with a seller who has owned it for six years.
The transfer fee is 2% of 3.2 million, so 64,000 baht. Assuming the 50/50 split, that is 32,000 baht to you. Because the seller has held the unit more than five years, stamp duty of 0.5% applies rather than Specific Business Tax, and stamp duty plus withholding tax sit on their side of the table. Your share is therefore around 32,000 baht, plus the building’s own transfer paperwork charges.
Change one variable and it moves. Had that seller owned the unit for three years, Specific Business Tax of 3.3% on 4.5 million baht would be 148,500 baht, and a seller facing that number often tries to push part of it into the negotiation.
These are round numbers for illustration, not a quotation. The rates and exemptions that apply to a specific transaction should be confirmed with a lawyer or a tax adviser.
Three Questions We Get Asked Most
Can a foreign buyer use the 0.01% transfer fee reduction?
No. The published conditions limit the measure to a buyer who is a natural person of Thai nationality, so a foreign individual buying a condo in their own name pays the standard 2% transfer fee. Companies are excluded too. The measure runs from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, with a ceiling of 7 million baht on the sale price, the appraised value and the mortgage amount.
Is the transfer fee based on the price I pay or on the government appraised value?
On the government appraised value set by the Treasury Department, which is normally lower than the market price. Specific Business Tax and stamp duty are calculated on whichever is higher, the appraised value or the sale price. A new four-year schedule of appraised values is expected to be published on 1 December 2026 and to take effect on 1 January 2027.
Who pays the transfer fee in Pattaya, the buyer or the seller?
Thai law does not assign it. It is decided in the contract. A 50/50 split of the transfer fee is a common starting point in the resale market, with the seller usually carrying Specific Business Tax or stamp duty and the withholding tax. New developments set their own terms. Get the split written into the agreement in figures before you pay a reservation deposit.
Before You Budget
Closing costs here are stable and known in advance, so they are easy to budget once you have the right figures. The problem is that the headline figure circulating in 2026 belongs to a different buyer than you, and budgeting on it leaves a gap at the wrong moment.
Ask for the appraised value and the seller’s holding period before you reserve anything, and get the fee split in writing. If you are weighing a specific unit and want the likely Land Office bill worked out on real numbers, send us the details and we will go through it with you.
