How the condo transfer fee works in Thailand, who pays, and what it costs

Key Highlights

• The standard condo transfer fee in Thailand is 2 percent of the government appraised value, plus a separate mortgage registration fee of 1 percent of the loan amount if you finance the purchase
• On 30 June 2026 the Thai cabinet extended a relief measure that cuts both the transfer fee and the mortgage registration fee to 0.01 percent each, running to 30 June 2027
• The relief applies where both the sale price and the appraised value stay at or under 7 million baht per contract, and the mortgage amount stays at or under 7 million baht per contract
• The relief is written for individual buyers who hold Thai nationality, so foreign buyers and company buyers should budget at the standard rates
• Market practice splits the transfer fee equally between buyer and seller, but Thai law does not fix who pays what, so every line is negotiable in the sale contract

Why does the condo transfer fee catch first time buyers off guard?

Most buyers plan carefully for the deposit and the monthly instalment, then arrive at the land office on transfer day and discover another cash sum that never made it into the budget. That sum is the condo transfer fee together with the taxes and registration charges that all fall due on the same morning.

The reason it is hard to estimate is that these charges are not calculated on the price you agreed with the seller. The transfer fee is calculated on the government appraised value set by the Treasury Department, and the mortgage registration fee is calculated on the loan amount your bank approved. Both are different numbers from the purchase price, so multiplying the asking price by a percentage gives you the wrong answer.

This guide breaks down every line item, explains who normally pays which part, sets out the relief measure that is currently in force, and works through three examples you can adapt to your own numbers.

How much is the condo transfer fee as a share of value?

Without the relief measure, registration charges alone come to roughly 2 to 3 percent of the appraised value. The 2 percent is the transfer fee itself, and the remaining 1 percent or so is the mortgage registration fee that applies to financed purchases.

Add the seller side taxes and the total cost of the deal rises further. A seller who has owned the unit for less than five years pays specific business tax at 3.3 percent of the sale price or the appraised value, whichever is higher, according to Government Housing Bank guidance published in 2026. Where the sale is exempt from specific business tax, stamp duty of 0.5 percent applies instead. Only one of the two is ever charged, never both.

If the unit qualifies for the relief measure that is currently in force, the picture changes completely, because the two largest line items drop to 0.01 percent each. That turns tens of thousands of baht into a few hundred. The conditions are set out further down.

What do you actually pay on transfer day?

Four groups of charges arise on the day ownership of a condominium unit is registered. Each has its own calculation base and its own customary payer, so it pays to separate them from the start.

The transfer fee and the value it is calculated on

The ownership transfer registration fee is 2 percent of the government appraised value, collected by the land office on the day of registration. The base is the Treasury Department appraisal, not your agreed purchase price.

Appraised values usually sit below market value, which works in your favour here, but it also means you cannot budget accurately until you have that figure in hand. The fastest route is to ask the district land office where the building sits, or to look the figure up through the Treasury Department. A small application fee of 5 baht also appears on the receipt.

The mortgage registration fee applies only if you borrow

Buy in cash and this line disappears entirely. Finance the purchase and the bank will register a mortgage over the unit on the same day the title transfers. The fee is 1 percent of the mortgage amount, not of the unit price.

The common mistake is to apply the 1 percent to the purchase price. Your approved loan may be lower than the price because of loan to value limits, or higher than you expected if a renovation facility was bundled in. Always take the figure from the bank approval letter.

Stamp duty, specific business tax, and withholding tax

These sit on the seller side by convention, but as a buyer you should understand them because they shape the negotiation. Stamp duty is 0.5 percent of the sale price or the appraised value, whichever is higher, and it applies only where the transaction is exempt from specific business tax.

Specific business tax is charged at 3.3 percent and arises when the seller has held the unit for less than five years. A seller who has held it for more than five years, or whose name has been on the house registration document for that unit for more than one year, falls into the exemption and pays stamp duty instead. This is why two identically priced resale units can carry very different closing costs.

The final item is withholding tax on the seller's income, also collected at the land office. The Revenue Department sets out a five step method. Start from the appraised value, deduct a flat rate expense allowance based on the number of years held, divide the balance by the years held to get annual income, apply the personal income tax rates, then multiply the result back by the years held. The flat rate allowance starts at 92 percent for one year of ownership and falls to 50 percent from eight years onwards. Years held are capped at ten, and any part year counts as a full year.

Because the final step depends on the personal income tax bands, this guide does not publish a single worked figure for withholding tax. The Revenue Department publishes a free calculator for property sale taxes on its website, and that will give you a figure that matches your own case.

Who pays which part, and what can you negotiate?

Thai law does not dictate who pays the transfer fee. What people follow is market practice, and market practice is a starting point for negotiation rather than a rule.

Cost item	Who pays under market practice	Why
Transfer fee	Split equally between buyer and seller	Common market practice rather than a legal rule
Mortgage registration fee	Buyer, in full	It arises from the buyer's own loan
Specific business tax or stamp duty	Seller	It arises from the sale proceeds
Withholding tax	Seller	It is a tax on the seller's income
Application and minor registration fees	Whichever party handles the paperwork	Usually absorbed by the party filing the documents

For new units bought from a developer, the sale and purchase agreement usually states the split already. Some projects run a free transfer fee promotion to close the sale. Read it closely and check whether free covers only the buyer's half of the transfer fee, or the mortgage registration fee as well. The difference between those two readings runs into tens of thousands of baht.

For resale units everything is open. A seller who has owned for less than five years carries a much heavier tax burden and will often try to shift part of it across. The way to keep the negotiation short is to have the contract list each charge line by line, rather than saying that transfer day costs are shared equally, because each side tends to mean a different set of items by that phrase.

Three worked examples at 2, 3, and 5 million baht

All three examples use the same assumptions. The appraised value equals the sale price, and the buyer borrows 90 percent of the price. This isolates the gap between the standard rates and the relief rates. Your own case will differ once the real appraised value and the real approved loan amount are known.

Example 1, a 2 million baht unit with a 1.8 million baht loan

Item	Standard rates	With the relief	Difference
Transfer fee	2 percent of 2 million baht, 40,000 baht	0.01 percent, 200 baht	39,800 baht
Mortgage registration	1 percent of 1.8 million baht, 18,000 baht	0.01 percent, 180 baht	17,820 baht
Total	58,000 baht	380 baht	57,620 baht

Example 2, a 3 million baht unit with a 2.7 million baht loan

Item	Standard rates	With the relief	Difference
Transfer fee	60,000 baht	300 baht	59,700 baht
Mortgage registration	27,000 baht	270 baht	26,730 baht
Total	87,000 baht	570 baht	86,430 baht

Example 3, a 5 million baht unit with a 4.5 million baht loan

Item	Standard rates	With the relief	Difference
Transfer fee	100,000 baht	500 baht	99,500 baht
Mortgage registration	45,000 baht	450 baht	44,550 baht
Total	145,000 baht	950 baht	144,050 baht

The gap scales directly with price, and it vanishes the moment the value crosses the 7 million baht ceiling. Units priced near 7 million baht therefore deserve careful arithmetic before you settle on a final figure with the seller.

Which relief measure applies now and who qualifies?

On 30 June 2026 the Thai cabinet approved a one year extension of the reduction in registration fees for residential property. It runs from the date of publication in the Royal Gazette through to 30 June 2027.

Rates and the price ceiling

The measure cuts the ownership transfer fee from 2 percent to 0.01 percent and the mortgage registration fee from 1 percent to 0.01 percent. The ceiling is a sale price and an appraised value of no more than 7 million baht per contract, together with a mortgage amount of no more than 7 million baht per contract.

It covers detached houses, semi detached houses, townhouses, commercial buildings, land with structures, and condominium units, whether new or resale, but not sales of a part interest. The Ministry of Finance estimated the measure would support around 540,810 million baht of annual property transaction value and add as much as 1.06 percent to annual GDP compared with no measure at all.

Who qualifies and who does not

The measure is written for individual buyers holding Thai nationality. Foreign buyers and corporate buyers should budget at the standard rates of 2 percent for the transfer fee and 1 percent for mortgage registration. On a 5 million baht purchase that is a difference of roughly 144,000 baht, so it is worth settling before you commit to a price.

The second condition is that the transfer and the mortgage must be registered in the same transaction. If they are split across different days for any reason, the relief on the mortgage side may not apply as expected. Line up the date with your bank and the seller from the outset.

Ways buyers lose the relief without realising

• The appraised value comes in higher than expected and pushes the deal over 7 million baht even though the sale price does not, since the condition covers both figures
• A renovation facility is added to the loan and lifts the mortgage amount above 7 million baht even though the unit price sits below it
• The mortgage registration is scheduled for a different day from the transfer, so the two are not registered together
• The unit is bought through a company for other tax reasons, which falls outside a measure written for Thai individual buyers
• The transfer happens after the measure ends, which at present means after 30 June 2027

Confirm the current status of the measure with the district land office or your lender before you finalise a budget, since the detail of the published regulation and its effective date can change along the way.

What should foreign buyers budget for on top?

For expat buyers the relief measure is the single largest budget difference, and the safest assumption is that you pay the standard 2 percent and 1 percent. Build that into the offer you make rather than discovering it at the land office.

Two further points shape the timeline. Ownership of condominium units by foreign nationals is capped at building level, so the remaining quota in that specific building matters as much as the unit itself. Ask for the quota position in writing from the juristic person before you place a deposit, and treat a verbal assurance as unconfirmed.

There are also documentation requirements around bringing purchase funds into Thailand in foreign currency before registration can proceed for a foreign buyer. Requirements differ by bank and by case, so speak to your bank and a Thai qualified adviser early. Getting this wrong delays the transfer date rather than the price.

How do you prepare so transfer day finishes in one visit?

What usually delays a transfer is not money, it is one missing document. For condominium units the item people forget most often is the debt free certificate from the juristic person, which has to be requested in advance and has a limited validity period. Request it close enough to the transfer date that it is still valid on the day.

Money has its own rhythm too. Many land offices will not take large amounts of cash, so prepare cashier cheques as agreed and keep some cash aside for minor fees. Beyond the condo transfer fee itself, the juristic person collects its own charges on the same day, typically the initial sinking fund contribution and common area fees paid in advance. Those have nothing to do with the Land Department but they land on the same morning.

For the full picture of cash needed from reservation through to move in day, read our guide on how much money you need to buy a condo alongside this one.

How do you find units that fit the budget you calculated?

Once you know that the 7 million baht ceiling changes your closing costs entirely, filtering by price from the start saves a great deal of time. On PropertyScout you can filter by price range, location, and listing status on a single page, and every listing shows when it was last updated.

Related pages for this topic.

• The Bangkok condos for sale hub, useful for filtering to the price band that qualifies for the relief
• Our guide on how much money you need to buy a condo, for the full first cash outlay
• Our guide on how condo common area fees are calculated, for the charges the juristic person collects on transfer day
• Our checklist for inspecting a second hand condo, for cases where the seller is a private individual
• Our comparison of new and second hand condos, for how holding period affects the seller's tax position and your negotiation

Frequently asked questions about the condo transfer fee

How is the condo transfer fee calculated and who pays it

The transfer fee is 2 percent of the government appraised value at the standard rate, and market practice splits it equally between buyer and seller. The mortgage registration fee of 1 percent of the loan amount falls on the buyer who is financing, and the seller side taxes fall on the seller. All of it can be renegotiated in the contract, because Thai law does not fix the split.

Is the fee based on the sale price or the appraised value

The transfer fee uses the government appraised value. Stamp duty and specific business tax use the sale price or the appraised value, whichever is higher. The mortgage registration fee uses the approved loan amount. Those are three different numbers, so check all three before budgeting.

Do cash buyers pay a mortgage registration fee

No. That fee arises only when the unit is pledged as security for a loan. With no loan there is no mortgage registration, so a cash buyer faces the transfer fee and the minor registration charges only.

Can foreign buyers use the 0.01 percent relief rate

The measure is written for individual buyers holding Thai nationality, so foreign buyers should budget at the standard rates. Confirm the current wording with the district land office or a Thai qualified legal adviser before placing a deposit, since these measures are amended from time to time.

What does a developer's free transfer fee promotion actually cover

It depends entirely on the wording in the sale and purchase agreement. Some cover only the buyer's half of the transfer fee, others also cover mortgage registration. Ask for it in the contract as a listed item rather than relying on what you were told in the sales gallery.

If the appraised value pushes the deal past 7 million baht, is there partial relief

No. The ceiling of 7 million baht per contract applies to both the sale price and the appraised value, and it works as a pass or fail test rather than a sliding scale. Check the appraised value before agreeing a final price if the unit sits close to the ceiling.

Summary

The condo transfer fee is not one number. It is a set of four charges, each with its own calculation base. Budgeting accurately means getting the appraised value and the approved loan amount first, then applying the rates that fit your situation.

If your unit sits under the 7 million baht ceiling and the buyer holds Thai nationality, the measure extended to 30 June 2027 reduces the two largest charges to a few hundred baht. That difference is large enough to change which units make your shortlist, so run the numbers before you commit rather than after.

Next step, browse verified listings on PropertyScout and filter to the price band you have just worked out. If you would rather talk it through, work with an agent who speaks your language and have them check the transfer day cost list with you before you place a deposit.

Important note. Prices and availability change and nothing here is guaranteed. Property information is general guidance only. This content is not legal, tax, or financial advice. Fee rates and the conditions of government measures can change, so confirm with the land office, the Revenue Department, or a qualified professional before you decide.

Sources used in this article. Government Housing Bank 2026 for fee and tax rates, the Department of Lands 2026 for the conditions of the fee reduction, the cabinet resolution of 30 June 2026 for the extension of the measure, and the Revenue Department for the method of calculating withholding tax on property sales.