Property transfer fees & taxes in Thailand: what it really costs to transfer a condo

The four charges on transfer day

Forget the single “closing cost” number you might be used to back home. In Thailand, the costs of transferring a condominium are a stack of up to four distinct government charges, each with its own rate, its own calculation base, and its own trigger:

• Transfer fee — 2% of the official appraised value. Almost always applies — though a temporary cut to 0.01% runs to 30 June 2027 for Thai-national individual buyers of a home priced at THB 7 million or less (section 02).
• Specific Business Tax (SBT) — 3.3% of the higher of appraised or sale price. Applies when the seller owned the unit less than 5 years.
• Stamp duty — 0.5% of the higher of appraised or sale price. Charged only when SBT does not — you pay one or the other, never both.
• Withholding tax — a prepayment of income tax on the seller, scaled by ownership length (individuals) or a flat 1% (companies).

The grand total typically falls between roughly 2% and 6%+ of value — a wide range, because the seller’s holding period flips SBT on or off and reshapes the withholding tax. Before you can budget, you need to know two things: the unit’s appraised value and how long the current owner has held it. For the full transaction sequence around these costs, see the condo buying process guide.

The transfer fee — 2%

The transfer fee (registration fee) is the most predictable cost: 2% of the official appraised value of the unit, collected by the Land Department when ownership is registered into the buyer’s name. Note the base — it’s the government-assessed appraised value, not your contract price, and the appraised figure is often lower than what the unit actually sold for.

One thing to watch: a temporary reduction is active right now, and most BAANLYY readers do not qualify for it. Two Ministry of Interior notifications signed 30 June 2026 cut the transfer fee to 0.01% (and the mortgage registration fee to 0.01%) from 1 July 2026 through 30 June 2027 — but only where the buyer is a natural person of Thai nationality buying a home to live in, and only where the price, the appraised value and the mortgage amount are each THB 7 million or less. A foreign buyer pays the standard 2%, as does any buyer above the THB 7 million band, and the measure does not change SBT, stamp duty or withholding tax for anyone. The cut has been renewed year by year (2024, 2025, 2026) rather than made permanent, so don’t assume a rate — confirm what is in force on your transfer day with the Land Department’s notice, the Land Office or your lawyer before you close. By convention the 2% is split 50/50 between buyer and seller on a resale, though that split is negotiable.

Specific Business Tax & the 5-year rule

Specific Business Tax (SBT) is the charge that punishes quick flips. It runs at an effective 3.3% — a 3% base rate plus a 10% municipal surcharge levied on that tax — calculated on the higher of the appraised value or the actual sale price.

When SBT doesn’t apply, the much smaller 0.5% stamp duty takes its place. That single 5-year threshold is the biggest swing factor in a seller’s transfer bill — it’s why holding a unit just past the five-year mark can meaningfully cut the cost of selling. Investors weighing a resale should read our renting vs. buying analysis and the foreign-ownership breakdown.

Stamp duty — 0.5% (the SBT alternative)

Stamp duty is charged at 0.5% of the higher of the appraised value or the sale price — but only when SBT is not payable. The two are mutually exclusive: a seller pays SBT (3.3%) or stamp duty (0.5%), never both. In practice this means a long-term owner selling after five years pays the small 0.5% stamp duty, while a short-term flipper pays the far heavier 3.3% SBT instead.

Because stamp duty only appears when SBT is off, you can read it as the “reward” rate for having held the property long enough — one more reason the holding period drives the whole calculation.

Withholding tax — the seller's income tax

Withholding tax is a prepayment of income tax on the sale, collected at the Land Office and charged to the seller. How it’s calculated depends on who the seller is:

• Individual seller: the Revenue Department applies a standard expense deduction set by years owned — from 92% deducted (only 8% of the appraised value taxable) at 1 year, down to 50% deducted (50% taxable) at 8 years or more, per the official schedule below. The taxable remainder is then divided by the years owned, taxed at Thailand’s progressive personal-income-tax rates as if it were a single year’s income, and that per-year tax figure is multiplied back by the years owned to reach the final withholding amount.
• Company seller: a flat 1% of the higher of the appraised value or the sale price — simpler, and often lower for higher-value units.

Because the deduction percentage falls as ownership lengthens while the resulting amount is also spread over more years before tax and then multiplied back, this is a rate-smoothing mechanism, not a simple discount — longer ownership does not reliably mean a smaller bill, and the two effects can offset each other depending on the numbers. We could not find any published cap limiting the total to a fixed share of the sale price, so don’t assume one; treat every figure below as illustrative and have the Land Office or your lawyer compute the exact amount before transfer day. If you’re a resident weighing your wider tax position, see our tax for expats guide.

Who pays what — the negotiation

Here’s the part that catches buyers off guard: who pays these charges is negotiable, and it all comes down to what’s written in the sale and purchase agreement. There is a customary split, but no law forces it:

• Transfer fee (2%): conventionally split 50/50 between buyer and seller.
• SBT / stamp duty & withholding tax: conventionally the seller’s cost, since they tax the seller’s gain and holding period.
• Hot vs. soft market: a confident seller may push costs onto the buyer; a motivated seller may agree to pay everything to close.
• New developer units: the developer sets the terms — sometimes “buyer pays all transfer costs,” sometimes a shared formula. Read the contract.

The lesson: treat transfer costs as a negotiable line item, not a fixed tax bill. Agree the split in writing before you sign, and make sure the contract spells out exactly who pays each of the four charges.

A worked example

Take a Bangkok condo with an appraised value of THB 5,000,000 and an identical sale price of THB 5,000,000, sold by an individual who has owned it for 3 years (so SBT applies). The Land Office charges would be roughly:

So the fixed, knowable charges alone come to THB 265,000 (transfer fee + SBT), plus roughly THB 47,500 in withholding tax in this specific 3-year scenario — about THB 312,500 total, or roughly 6.25% of value. Now flip one variable: if the same seller had owned the unit for more than 5 years, SBT (THB 165,000) would be replaced by stamp duty of just 0.5% = THB 25,000, and the withholding tax recalculates on a different deduction and divisor entirely — a swing of well over THB 140,000 on the SBT/stamp-duty line alone, on a single five-year threshold. That’s the holding period doing the heavy lifting, and it’s exactly why this guide won’t give you one all-purpose “total percentage” figure.

One more variable this example deliberately holds fixed: at THB 5,000,000 the unit sits inside the THB 7 million band for the temporary fee cut, so the buyer’s nationality changes the transfer-fee line. A foreign buyer — the case this guide is written for — does not qualify and pays the full 2% = THB 100,000 shown above. A Thai-national individual buying the same unit as a home pays 0.01% = THB 500 for as long as the measure runs (to 30 June 2027) — a difference of THB 99,500 on an identical transaction. SBT, stamp duty and the withholding tax are the same either way.

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