One row decides this, and it is not the cost of a coffee
Both countries let a foreigner own an apartment. Neither lets a foreigner own land on ordinary terms. That much is common knowledge and it is where most comparisons stop.
Here is the part that is not common knowledge. In Thailand, a condominium unit held within the foreign quota is ownership with no end date stated in the Act. In Vietnam, article 20(2)(c) of the Law on Housing limits a foreign individual’s ownership to not more than 50 years, extendable once for not more than 50 years.
If you are renting for three years while you work out whether a place suits you, that row is irrelevant. If you are buying somewhere to retire into, or to leave to someone, it is the only row that matters — and no monthly-budget table on the internet will tell you about it.
The caps look alike and count different things
The second correction, and it changes what you ask when you are standing in a sales office.
Thailand’s cap, at section 19 bis of the Condominium Act B.E. 2522, is 49 per cent of the total floor area of all the units in one condominium. Vietnam’s cap, at article 19 of the Law on Housing, is 30 per cent of the number of apartments in one apartment building — plus a separate limit of not more than 250 houses in an area of ward-equivalent population.
So in Thailand size consumes quota: a large unit eats several small ones’ worth of the foreign allowance, and a building can be well under half its units in foreign hands and still be at its ceiling. In Vietnam size is irrelevant to the cap; only the count is.
The practical version: in Thailand ask the juristic person how much foreign-held floor area remains, as at a stated date. In Vietnam ask how many of the apartments are already foreign-held. Asking the Thai question in Vietnam, or the reverse, gets you a number that does not answer anything.
Work the Thai side on a specific building: the foreign ownership quota calculator. The whole Thai comparison in one place: condo vs house in Thailand.
The side-by-side
| Thailand | Vietnam | |
|---|---|---|
| Governing law for foreign home ownership | Condominium Act B.E. 2522, as amended by Acts No. 2 (1991), No. 3 (1999) and No. 4 (2008) | Law on Housing No. 27/2023/QH15, passed 27 November 2023, in force 1 January 2025 |
| Can a foreigner own an apartment? | Yes - Condominium Act s.19, in five listed categories | Yes - Law on Housing art. 17, for foreign organisations and individuals permitted to enter |
| The building-level cap | 49 per cent of the TOTAL FLOOR AREA of all units in that condominium (s.19 bis) | Not more than 30 per cent of the NUMBER OF APARTMENTS in one apartment building (art. 19) |
| A separate cap on houses | None stated - the general land position under the Land Code applies instead | Not more than 250 houses in an area with a population equivalent to one ward (art. 19) |
| How long the ownership lasts | No end date stated in the Act for a unit held within the quota | Not more than 50 years for a foreign individual, extendable once for not more than 50 years (art. 20(2)(c)) |
| The route most buyers use | s.19(5): bringing in foreign currency, or drawing on a foreign currency or non-resident baht account, of not less than the unit price. Evidence under s.19 ter | Purchase from a developer or from another foreign owner in a project where foreign ownership is permitted (art. 17) |
| A long-stay visa route | Destination Thailand Visa: 5 years, multiple entries, 180 days per entry, one extension not exceeding 180 days per entry; financial evidence not less than 500,000 THB; fee GBP 300 | E-visa: maximum 90 days, single or multiple entry, issued by the Vietnam Immigration Department. Longer stays run through a temporary residence card |
| Who the long-stay route is aimed at | Three named categories: workcation (remote worker, digital nomad, foreign talent, freelancer), Thai soft-power activities, and spouse and under-20 children of a holder | Not category-based in the same way - the e-visa is an entry permission rather than a status framework |
| Where the law is published | Department of Lands publishes the Act with its ministerial regulations | Cong Bao No. 37+38 of 8 January 2024, on the Government's own file server |
Every entry above was read on 7 September 2026 from the source named in it. No winner is declared and none is implied: these are two different legal designs, and which one suits you depends entirely on the time horizon in the row about ownership term.
Vietnam's own 2025 numbers, with no Thai column beside them
What follows is deliberately half a table, and the missing half is the point.
Vietnam’s National Statistics Office published its socio-economic report for the fourth quarter and full year 2025 on 6 January 2026. On its own figures: average population 102.3 million, up 0.99 per cent on 2024; GDP growth 8.02 per cent; average income of employees 8.4 million VND per month, up 8.9 per cent; consumer price index up 3.31 per cent over the year.
We could not obtain the equivalent Thai figures on the same day. The Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council refused automated requests at two addresses, and the National Statistical Office yearbook page we could open returned migration registration tables rather than population totals — a near-miss of exactly the kind that produces a confident wrong number when nobody checks what they actually pulled.
So there is no Thai column here and no cost-of-living comparison anywhere on this page. A one-sided figure presented as a comparison is worse than an admitted gap, and pairing a sourced Vietnamese number with a Thai number from memory is how this page would have become the thing it is meant to replace.
Where the two are the same
Rarely written, and here it is genuinely most of the picture.
Both countries take the same basic approach: apartments yes, land essentially no, with a numerical ceiling applied at the level of the individual building so that no single development becomes majority foreign-owned. Neither treats a foreign buyer as a threat to be excluded, and neither treats one as a citizen. The design intent is visibly the same on both sides of the border.
Both also make the building, not the country, the unit that matters to you. Your purchase does not fail because a national quota is full; it fails because the particular building you chose is at its limit. In both places the question is asked of the development, and in both places you should ask it in writing before you pay anything.
And both publish their law where you can read it. That is less common than it should be, and it means neither side of this comparison has to rest on a law firm’s summary.
What we could not confirm, and are not going to invent
Any Thai macroeconomic figure. Explained above. Population, GDP and wages are absent for Thailand rather than estimated.
Cost of living, in either direction. No rents, no groceries, no converted salaries. There is no official source publishing the two on a common basis, and everything else is a crowdsourced average with an unknown sample.
The Vietnam e-visa fee. The portal states that the fee is paid through an electronic payment gateway without giving the amount on the page we opened.
Temporary residence card conditions in Vietnam. The immigration page covering the procedure would not render as text on the day, so the eligibility, validity and documents for that route are not described here.
Tax, healthcare and schooling in either country. None of it was verified for this page, so none of it appears.
On the Thai side, the parts we have verified separately: when you become a Thai tax resident, private vs public hospitals and international vs bilingual schools.
Who each suits
No winner. Two designs, two situations.
| Thailand suits you if | Vietnam suits you if |
|---|---|
| You intend to own for longer than you intend to live somewhere, and want no end date on the title | You are buying for a defined period and a 50-year term with one extension is longer than your horizon anyway |
| A multi-year visa framework with 180-day stays fits how you actually move around | A 90-day entry permission fits your pattern, or you will move to a temporary residence card |
| You are buying a large unit and want the quota measured in a way you can calculate yourself | You are buying a smaller apartment, where a count-based cap is less likely to be the binding constraint |
| You want the property and relocation infrastructure - agents, juristic persons, English-language process - that a longer-established foreign market has built | You want a market at an earlier stage and accept the trade-offs that come with it |
| Your decision is dominated by inheritance, succession or a very long hold | Your decision is dominated by work, and housing is something you rent rather than own |
If Thailand is where you are leaning: the visa routes, what foreigners can own, and the cities.
Frequently asked questions
In both, an apartment - and in neither, land, on ordinary terms. Thailand's Condominium Act B.E. 2522 allows an alien to hold ownership of a condominium unit under section 19, capped by section 19 bis at 49 per cent of the total floor area of all units in that condominium. Vietnam's Law on Housing No. 27/2023/QH15 allows foreign organisations and individuals to own housing, capped by article 19 at not more than 30 per cent of the apartments in one apartment building and not more than 250 houses in an area of ward-equivalent population. We read both texts on 7 September 2026 - the Thai Act as the Department of Lands publishes it, and the Vietnamese law in the Cong Bao copy on the Government's own file server.
This is the difference that should decide a long-horizon purchase and it is the one most comparisons skip. In Thailand, a condominium unit held within the quota is ownership with no stated end date in the Act. In Vietnam, article 20(2)(c) of the Law on Housing limits a foreign individual's ownership to not more than 50 years, extendable once for not more than a further 50. If you are buying somewhere to leave to your children, those are not the same proposition and no amount of cost-of-living arithmetic closes that gap.
They sound alike and they measure different things. Thailand's 49 per cent is a share of the total FLOOR AREA of all units in the building, so a large unit consumes more of the quota than a small one and a building can be far under half its units in foreign hands and still be at its limit. Vietnam's 30 per cent is a share of the NUMBER of apartments in the building, so unit size does not affect it at all. Ask a Thai juristic person how much foreign-held area remains; ask in Vietnam how many of the apartments are already foreign-held. The right question is different on each side of the border.
Thailand's Destination Thailand Visa runs, per the Royal Thai Embassy in London, for 5 years with multiple entries and 180 days per entry, extendable one time for a period not exceeding 180 days per entry, on financial evidence of not less than 500,000 THB and a fee of GBP 300, in three categories: workcation, Thai soft-power activities, and the spouse and under-20 children of a holder. Vietnam's e-visa is valid for a maximum of 90 days, single or multiple entry, issued by the Vietnam Immigration Department. Those are different instruments doing different jobs - one is a multi-year framework for repeated long stays, the other is an entry permission - and a longer-term stay in Vietnam runs through a temporary residence card rather than the e-visa.
We are not answering that, and we would rather say why than guess. A cost-of-living comparison is only worth reading if both sides come from official statistics gathered on the same basis, and on 7 September 2026 we could obtain Vietnam's official 2025 figures from its National Statistics Office and could NOT obtain the matching Thai figures - the NESDC refused automated requests and the statistical yearbook page we could open returned migration registration tables rather than population totals. Rather than pair a sourced Vietnamese number with a Thai one from memory, this page prints Vietnam's figures on their own, clearly labelled as one-sided, and prints no cost comparison at all.
Start from the thing that is hardest to reverse. Visas can be changed and cities can be swapped; a 50-year ownership term cannot be renegotiated after you have bought. If you intend to own something for longer than you intend to live in it, the ownership term is the deciding row. If you are renting for a few years and testing a life, it barely matters and you should be comparing on work, language, healthcare and where your people are - none of which this page ranks for you.
Leaning towards Thailand?
Start from the ownership route that applies to you, then look at what is actually available under it.
General information only, not legal, tax or immigration advice. BAANLYY LLC is a Nevada company and a listing portal: it does not own, lease, manage or control any property listed on this site, is not a party to any lease or sale, and is not a law firm. Thai and Vietnamese housing and immigration law are amended from time to time and their application turns on your particular facts; confirm anything you intend to act on with a qualified lawyer in the relevant country and with the responsible authority. BAANLYY never takes paid placement in editorial content.
Sources
- Condominium Act B.E. 2522 and related ministerial regulations, as published by the Department of Lands ↗Department of Lands, Ministry of Interior · Accessed 7 September 2026
- Law on Housing No. 27/2023/QH15 (Vietnam) - Cong Bao No. 37+38, 8 January 2024 ↗Government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam · Accessed 7 September 2026
- Law No. 27/2023/QH15 (Law on Housing) - passage date, signatory and effective date on the Government legal documents portal ↗Government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam · Accessed 7 September 2026
- Vietnam national e-visa portal - validity, entries and issuing authority ↗Vietnam Immigration Department, Ministry of Public Security · Accessed 7 September 2026
- Socio-economic situation in the fourth quarter and 2025 - National Statistics Office of Vietnam, 6 January 2026 ↗National Statistics Office of Vietnam · Accessed 7 September 2026
- Destination Thailand Visa - validity, entries, period of stay, extension, fee, financial evidence and the three categories ↗Royal Thai Embassy, London (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of Thailand) · Accessed 7 September 2026
Official primary sources are listed above with the date we last checked them. Thai rules, fees, thresholds and procedures change and can be applied differently by individual offices and embassies — confirm the current requirement with the responsible authority before relying on it. General information only, not legal, tax or medical advice. BAANLYY never takes paid placement in editorial content.