Buying, selling, renting, mortgages, law and tax, written so you can decide when you finish reading
The real cost is not the rent but the rent plus key money, fit-out, and the rent during fit-out. And the most important principle is that the lease must outlast the time the fit-out takes to pay back.
A home pays for units consumed. A business at the threshold also pays a demand charge based on the highest 15-minute power of the month, and the minimum bill is tied to 70 percent of the highest demand in the last 12 months.
A landlord cannot raise the rent while a lease runs unless a review clause was written in. But staying on after expiry without signing creates a lease with no fixed term, endable on one rent period's notice, and years of tenancy add nothing to that.
Ask what the floor carries per square metre and the clear height under the beams before you ask the rent, because neither can be changed after signing. Two buildings at the same rent can hold nearly twice as much as each other, and the cheaper one may be unusable if your goods are too heavy for its slab.
Ask how far apart the area you pay for and the area you can use really are, because offices quote rent on space that includes common areas. Two buildings at the same rate are not the same price, and the service charge, after-hours cooling and parking all sit outside that headline figure.
It counts. The Contract Committee Announcement of B.E. 2568 caps advance rent and deposit combined at three months of the monthly rent, or one year where rent is charged annually. But that ceiling binds only a lessor letting three or more residential units.
They have not stopped wanting to buy. Banks have tightened lending and incomes have not kept pace with prices. Rental demand is up 4 per cent nationwide and 9 per cent in Bangkok, and the share of visitors registering rental interest reached 15.6 per cent against 8.7 in the first half of 2025.
There are three steps: a written demand sent by registered post, a complaint to the Office of the Consumer Protection Board on 1166, and a consumer case in court. Section 18 of the Consumer Case Procedure Act B.E. 2551 exempts consumers from all fees at filing, and a claim can be filed orally with a court officer recording it.
A tenant behind on monthly rent cannot be evicted on the spot. Section 560 of the Civil and Commercial Code requires written notice giving at least 15 days to pay. Changing the locks, cutting utilities or holding the tenant's belongings is criminal trespass under Section 362, punishable by up to a year in prison or a 20,000 baht fine.
Nightly letting of a condominium unit is operating a hotel business without a licence under the Hotel Act B.E. 2547: up to one year in prison or a THB 20,000 fine or both, plus up to THB 10,000 per day while it continues. The exemption needs four rooms or fewer, twenty guests or fewer, and notification to the registrar.
Renting in Thailand carries no nationality restriction, because a lease is not an acquisition of ownership. A lease over three years must be registered and cannot exceed 30 years, deposit plus advance rent is capped at three months where the landlord lets three or more units, and the house master must file the TM30 within 24 hours.
Notification of a foreigner's accommodation must be filed within 24 hours of them taking up residence, by the house master under Section 38 of the Immigration Act B.E. 2522, with a fine of up to THB 2,000 and a fresh filing required every time the tenant returns. This guide explains why the foreign tenant is the one who suffers, and how an owner should set the process up.
