You booked a condo and the bank said no. Do you get the booking money back?
In principle yes, where it is a condominium booking, because the Contract Committee Announcement on the condominium booking business of B.E. 2567 forbids an operator from writing a clause that forfeits the booking money except where the consumer is the party in breach, and a bank refusing you credit is not you breaching anything. Where it is a house in a development or a resale house, the answer depends mainly on what the contract says.
The gap between those two paragraphs is why two people in the same situation get different outcomes, and it is something most buyers never learn until after the money has left the account.
Why this is in the news this week
The Real Estate Information Center published a piece on 3 September 2026 describing a new trap in the market: property sells, but it cannot be transferred. It quotes an executive at a development company saying sales are still running ahead of target while registered transfers fall well short of it. The causes the article names are the economy and purchasing power, restricted access to credit, and over the longer term a shrinking birth rate.
That needs unpacking, because sales and transfers are not the same number in this business.
Sales are the units customers have booked and signed a sale and purchase agreement for. A developer counts that as a sale immediately. Transfers are the units where ownership has actually been registered at the land office, which is the moment the large money genuinely reaches the seller. Between those two points sits the step where the buyer applies to a bank and waits to be approved.
So when sales run high and transfers run low, it means a great many people walked halfway and then could not continue. From the developer's side that is cash flow not arriving on schedule. From the side of each individual buyer, it is a sum of money already handed over, with the question of whether it comes back still open.
Where the market has recovered and where it has not is covered in has the Thai housing market recovered.
Three different sums of money that all get called "the booking money"
Before answering whether it comes back, you have to be clear about which of the three you actually paid, because the law treats them differently and sellers habitually use the words loosely enough that buyers cannot tell them apart.
| The money | When it is paid | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Booking money | The day you decide on that unit, before the sale and purchase agreement | Holding the unit off the market while the details are still being agreed |
| Earnest money, the deposit | At the signing of the agreement | Security for performance, and the one the law does allow to be forfeited if the payer is at fault |
| Down payment | In instalments after signing, up to transfer day | Part of the purchase price itself, not security for anything |
This matters because when things go wrong the seller will say the booking money is forfeit under the contract, when in fact what you paid may already have been counted as two or three instalments of down payment, which is an entirely different thing. A down payment is money towards the price of the home, paid early. It is not security. Keeping it therefore takes considerably more explaining than keeping a booking fee does.
The practical advice is to keep every receipt and to read what the receipt says, rather than going by what the sales staff called it.
What the 2567 announcement changed
The Contract Committee issued its announcement making the condominium booking business a contract-controlled business on 30 August 2024, published in the Government Gazette on 3 October 2024, taking effect 120 days after publication, which put it into force early in 2025. Consumer Protection Board officers were inspecting operators' booking contracts against it by early February 2025.
The parts that bear directly on a buyer:
- No clause may let the operator forfeit the booking money in whole or in part, except where the consumer is in breach. This is the heart of it, because booking contracts used to say, in one short line, that failing to sign the agreement within the deadline forfeits the booking fee, without any interest in why.
- The booking money may not be converted into earnest money or a down payment unilaterally, which was the way round the rule above: rename the money, then say it is forfeitable.
- No fee may be charged for transferring the booking rights to someone else.
- No termination without written notice, unless the consumer has breached an essential term.
- The contract must be in Thai, in characters no smaller than 2 mm and no more than 11 characters to the inch, made in two copies, one handed to the consumer immediately on signing.
That last item sounds like a formality and is more important than it looks, because the single most common problem when a dispute starts is that the buyer has no contract in hand. The sales office kept both copies and said they would send one along later, and then did not.
So where does a refused loan sit? The announcement bans forfeiture except where the consumer is in breach, so the question becomes whether a bank declining credit amounts to the consumer breaching. By its nature it does not, because approving a loan is the bank's decision, not something the buyer did or failed to do. A clause forfeiting the booking money because the loan was refused therefore conflicts with the announcement.
To be straight about this: the announcement states the prohibition in general form, that forfeiture is barred except on consumer breach. It does not spell out "refused loan" as a named case. Concluding that a refused loan means the money comes back is reading that prohibition against the facts, rather than quoting a line from the text. If it happens to you and the seller will not refund, call the Consumer Protection Board on 1166, which costs nothing, and keep your own copy of the contract to hand.
What about a house in a development, or a resale house?
The 2567 announcement above applies to the sale of condominium units with a booking. It does not cover buying a house in a development or a resale house from a private owner. Those go back to the general rules in the Civil and Commercial Code.
Section 378 sets out what happens to earnest money, in the absence of any other agreement:
- It is returned, or applied as part payment, when the obligation is performed.
- It is forfeited if the party who gave it fails to perform, or performance becomes impossible through circumstances that party is answerable for.
- It is returned if the party who received it fails to perform, or performance becomes impossible through circumstances that party is answerable for.
The words to read carefully are "in the absence of any other agreement". Those three rules are defaults the parties are free to write over. If a contract says plainly that a refused loan forfeits the money, that agreement operates within the ordinary limits of the law. This is the real difference between booking a condominium and buying a house: for the condominium booking, the announcement removes that freedom to write the clause. For the house, it is still there.
Which means that if you are about to put money down on a house, what protects you is not the statute. It is the sentence you ask them to add to the contract before you sign.
The sentence worth asking for before any money moves
Ask for a condition stating that if the buyer applies to a financial institution for a loan and is not approved, the seller will return the booking money and everything paid so far, within a stated number of days, with the buyer producing the bank's written refusal as evidence.
What that sentence needs to pin down:
- How many banks. Sellers usually want two or three applications before accepting that the loan has failed, which is a fair request. Agree the number at the start rather than arguing about it later.
- Within how many days, both for the buyer to apply and for the seller to refund.
- How much comes back. All of it, or less named deductions. If anything is to be deducted it has to be itemised, not left as a vague "administrative costs".
- What evidence. A written refusal is a document banks will issue on request. Name it, so the requests for further paperwork do not become endless.
If the seller will not put that in writing, that is itself information.
What to do before you put money down
- Pull your own credit bureau report first. You can request it yourself at some banks and at the National Credit Bureau's offices for a few hundred baht, and it tells you in advance where the trouble is. Far better than discovering it when the bank declines.
- Get a pre-approval before booking. Many banks will give an indicative figure. It does not bind them, but it tells you whether you are looking at homes in a price range that is actually reachable.
- Take on no new debt while the application is pending. This catches more people than anything else. A car, a phone contract or a new credit card while you wait changes your debt to income ratio, and an application that would have passed stops passing.
- Do not change jobs while the application is pending, for the same reason. Length of employment is one of the things the bank weighs.
- Allow for a valuation below the agreed price. The bank lends against its own valuation, not against what you agreed with the seller, and the gap is cash you have to find. Why valuations differ between banks is in why banks value the same house differently.
- On a resale condominium, ask about outstanding common fees. Transferring a unit requires a debt-free certificate from the juristic person, so if the previous owner is behind, transfer day cannot proceed even with the loan approved. The detail is in what unpaid condo common fees lead to.
The whole path from budget to transfer day is in the first home buying guide, and transfer day itself is in transferring a house or condo at the land office.
If the loan has already been refused, work in this order
- Get the refusal from the bank in writing. Do not accept it over the phone. That document is the starting evidence for every step that follows.
- Read your own contract again, both for what it says about a refused loan and for what your receipts call the money you paid.
- Send a written demand by registered post with return receipt, stating the amount, the dates paid, the reason and a deadline to refund. The return slip is your proof it arrived.
- Complain to the Consumer Protection Board on 1166, or through its online complaint system. It costs nothing, and operators respond to it faster than most people expect.
- If it is still unresolved, bring it as a consumer case, where the consumer is exempt from court fees under section 18 of the Consumer Case Procedure Act B.E. 2551, meaning you do not need the filing fee in hand in order to sue.
If you are looking for a house or townhouse with the documents already checked, see houses for sale and townhouses for sale, and if you need somewhere to rent in the meantime, condominiums to let.
Frequently asked questions
Booked a condo and the loan was refused. Does the booking money come back?
In principle yes, because the Contract Committee Announcement of B.E. 2567 forbids forfeiting the booking money except where the consumer is in breach, and a bank declining credit is not the buyer breaching. If the seller refuses, complain to the Consumer Protection Board on 1166.
Does that announcement cover houses in a development?
No. The 2567 announcement covers the condominium booking business. Buying a house in a development or a resale house falls back on the general rules and on what the contract says.
What is the difference between booking money, earnest money and a down payment?
Booking money holds the unit before the agreement is signed. Earnest money is security for performance, which the law does allow to be forfeited if the payer is at fault. A down payment is part of the purchase price paid early, and is not security at all.
What does section 378 say about earnest money?
Absent any other agreement, it is returned or applied as part payment on performance, forfeited if the party who gave it fails to perform, and returned if the party who received it is the one who fails.
Why do the words "absent any other agreement" matter?
Because they mean section 378 is a default the contract can write over. For a house the contract governs. For a condominium booking, the announcement removes that freedom.
What should be added to the contract before any money moves?
A condition that a refused loan means everything paid is returned within a stated number of days, on production of the bank's written refusal, with the number of applications required and any deductions named.
What turns an approvable applicant into a refused one?
Taking on new debt while the application is pending, such as a car or a new credit card, and changing jobs during the wait, because both alter the debt to income ratio and the length of employment the bank weighs.
What is the first thing to do after a refusal?
Get the refusal in writing from the bank, because that document is the starting evidence for reclaiming the money and for every complaint step after it.
Key takeaways
- News on 3 September 2026 described a market that sells but cannot transfer, because many buyers stall at the financing step.
- Sales and transfers are different numbers, and the loan application sits between them.
- Booking a condominium and being refused a loan should mean the money comes back, because the 2567 announcement bars forfeiture except on consumer breach.
- That announcement covers condominium units, not houses in a development or resale houses, which depend on the contract.
- Section 378 on earnest money is a default the contract can override, since it opens with "absent any other agreement".
- Booking money, earnest money and a down payment are three different things. Go by the receipts, not by what the sales staff call them.
- Before paying, ask for a refund-on-refusal clause in writing, and take on no new debt and no new job while the application is pending.