Thailand land & building tax: the annual property tax condo owners actually pay

What the Land & Building Tax is

Before 2020, Thailand’s recurring property taxes were a patchwork of the old House and Land Tax and the Local Development Tax — narrow, inconsistently enforced, and easy for owner-occupiers to escape. The Land and Building Tax Act B.E. 2562 (2019) swept those away and replaced them with a single, broad-based annual property tax that took effect on 1 January 2020.

Three things define it. It is annual — you owe it every calendar year you own the property, not just once. It is local — assessed and collected by the authority where the property sits (the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration in Bangkok; the municipality or Subdistrict Administrative Organisation elsewhere). And it is value- and use-based — the bill is the property’s official appraised value multiplied by a rate that depends on how the property is used. That last point is the key: the same building is taxed very differently depending on whether it’s a home, a business, or sitting empty.

The four use categories & their ceiling rates

The Act sorts every property into one of four use categories, each with a maximum (“ceiling”) rate written into the law — section 37 of the Act (Land and Building Tax Act B.E. 2562, Fiscal Policy Office). The rates actually charged are set lower by Royal Decree and have been adjusted over time, but the ceilings frame the whole system:

• Agricultural use — ceiling 0.15%. Farmland and similar; individuals get large exemptions and the lowest effective rates.
• Residential use — ceiling 0.30%. Homes and condos. This is the category that matters to almost every BAANLYY reader, and its real rates are far below the ceiling.
• Other use (commercial / industrial) — ceiling 1.20%. Offices, shops, hotels, factories, and units run as a short-stay rental business.
• Vacant or unused land — ceiling 3.00%. The penalty bracket: land left idle is taxed hardest, and the rate ratchets up the longer it stays empty, to discourage land-banking.

For a condo owner, the practical takeaway is to make sure your unit is correctly classed as residential — the difference between the 0.30% residential ceiling and the 1.20% commercial ceiling is enormous. How you actually use the unit (live in it, long-let it, or run it as nightly accommodation) drives that classification. For the short-let rules that can tip a unit into the commercial bracket, see our short-term rental law guide.

How condos are taxed — primary home vs everything else

Within the residential category, the single biggest variable is whether the unit is your primary residence. Thailand decides that not by where you sleep but by a document: the house registration book (tabien baan) — see our yellow book & pink ID card guide for how foreigners get onto one. If your name is recorded on the tabien baan for the unit, generous exemptions apply — the thresholds below are set by the Act and the Ministry of Finance / Ministry of Interior announcements issued under it (Act and subordinate legislation, Fiscal Policy Office):

This is where many foreign owners land. Getting onto a Thai house registration as a foreigner is possible but not automatic, and plenty of expats never do it — so their condo is treated as “other residential” and taxed from the first baht. The amounts are still modest, but it’s worth knowing why your neighbour with a tabien baan might pay nothing while you get a bill. To understand how foreigners hold units in the first place, read foreign condo ownership & the 49% quota.

The progressive residential rate bands

For residential property that is taxed (i.e. the portion above any exemption, or the whole value for a non-primary home), the rate climbs in steps with appraised value. The bands are set by the Royal Decree Prescribing Land and Building Tax Rates B.E. 2564, which still governs the 2569 (2026) tax year (rate decree, Fiscal Policy Office):

These are a long way below the 0.30% residential ceiling, which is why an ordinary condo’s annual tax lands in the hundreds or low thousands of baht rather than anything painful. The government has also issued temporary reductions by Royal Decree in some years: a 90% cut for the 2020–2021 pandemic years, and a 15% cut for tax year 2566 (2023). That 15% cut is the last across-the-board reduction ordinary homes have had. One further reduction decree — Royal Decree Reducing Land and Building Tax (No. 2) B.E. 2567 — took effect on 1 January 2568 (2025), but it extends relief to specific categories of land rather than discounting household bills. As of September 2026 no reduction decree has been issued for tax year 2569 (2026); a further cut has been publicly discussed but not enacted, so treat 2569 as a full-rate year until a decree says otherwise. Treat the bands above as the framework, and confirm the current year’s decree and your own assessment notice before you budget exactly.

When the bill comes and how you pay

The Act sets an annual rhythm: the local authority appraises and issues an assessment notice early in the year, and payment is due by April. In practice the government has repeatedly extended these deadlines every year since 2020, and 2569 (2026) is another extension year: a Ministry of Interior announcement moved assessment notices to April 2026 and the payment deadline to June 2026, with instalments in June, July and August. So the statutory April in the Act and the June date on your bill are both real — the Act sets the rhythm, the annual extension sets the date you actually pay. The extension reaches you through your own local authority, so the dates that bind you are the ones printed on your assessment notice.

• Who bills you: the BMA district office in Bangkok, or your local municipality / SAO elsewhere. In many condos the juristic person helps relay notices, but the legal liability is the owner’s.
• What it’s based on: the appraised value on record for your unit, not your purchase price.
• If you pay late: penalties and a monthly surcharge apply, and they compound — so don’t ignore a notice.
• If no notice arrives: you’re still responsible. If you own a unit and have heard nothing, ask the juristic person or the district office rather than assuming you owe nothing.

Because the tax follows the owner of record on 1 January, timing around a purchase matters — sort out with the seller and your lawyer who carries the tax for the year of transfer. For everything else that lands on a condo owner monthly, see condo fees & the sinking fund and utility bills in Thailand.

A worked example

Take a Bangkok condo with an appraised value of THB 5,000,000, owned by an individual who uses it as a second home / investment (their name is not on the unit’s tabien baan), so it’s “other residential” and taxed from the first baht:

Now change one fact. If the same owner makes this their primary residence and gets onto the house registration, the unit can fall under the primary-home exemption — and a 5,000,000 baht value sits well within the exempt threshold, dropping the bill toward zero. That’s the whole game in a residential condo: the rate is tiny, but the primary-residence status is what decides whether you pay the small amount or nothing at all. Scale the value up and the progressive bands kick in, but for the vast majority of units the annual number stays comfortably modest.

Don't confuse it with these other costs

The Land and Building Tax sits alongside several other property costs that owners routinely mix up. Keeping them straight saves a lot of budgeting confusion:

• Transfer fees & taxes (one-time): the 2% transfer fee, Specific Business Tax or stamp duty, and withholding tax are paid once, at the Land Office, on the day ownership changes. See property transfer fees explained.
• Land & Building Tax (annual): the recurring government property tax this guide covers — paid every year you own.
• Condo common-area fees & sinking fund: paid to the condo juristic person, not the government, for running and maintaining the building.
• Income tax on rent: if you let the unit out, the rental income is separately subject to personal income tax — a different tax again, and one that requires its own Thai tax ID (TIN). See tax for expats.

A condo owner who lets out a unit can therefore touch all four: a one-time transfer bill at purchase, the annual Land and Building Tax, monthly condo fees, and income tax on the rent. None of them replaces the others. For the bigger picture of what owning versus renting really costs, weigh it up with renting vs. buying in Thailand.

Frequently asked