Understanding Property Tax in Thailand: A Guide for Foreigners

Last updated on July 23, 2026

Property tax in Thailand splits into two things people constantly confuse: the annual tax you pay every year for owning land or a building, and the one-time taxes you pay when a property changes hands. They are set by different laws and calculated in completely different ways. This page keeps them separate so you know which one you are dealing with.

The Annual Tax: Land and Building Tax

The Land and Buildings Tax Act B.E. 2562 (2019) took effect on 1 January 2020 and replaced the old House and Land Tax and Local Development Tax. It is collected by the local municipality, assessed on the government-appraised value, and due in April each year. The rate depends on how the property is used.

The Act sets ceiling rates, and the actual rates are set lower by Royal Decree and can change year to year, so always confirm the current year’s figure. The ceilings are:

• Agricultural use: up to 0.15% of the appraised value.
• Residential use: up to 0.30%.
• Other uses (commercial and industrial): up to 1.2%.
• Vacant or unused land: starts at the “other” rate and rises by 0.30 percentage points every three years, up to a cap of 3%, to discourage leaving land idle.

The applied residential rates in practice have been far below the ceiling, in the range of 0.02% to 0.10% for most homes. There is also a significant exemption for owner-occupiers: for an individual whose name is on the house registration and the title, the first 50 million THB of the combined land-and-building value of a primary home is tax-free (10 million THB if you own only the building on leased land). The exemption applies to one dwelling per person.

The One-Time Taxes: When Property Is Transferred

These are paid at the Land Office when the transfer is registered, and they are usually the larger cost. There are up to four:

• Transfer fee: 2% of the appraised value.
• Specific Business Tax (SBT): 3.3% of the higher of the appraised value or the actual sale price, but only if the seller sells within five years of acquiring the property. A seller who has held the property for more than five years, or who has had their name on the house registration for at least one year, is exempt.
• Stamp duty: 0.5%, charged only where SBT does not apply. You never pay both.
• Withholding tax: for an individual seller, a progressive amount calculated on the appraised value and the number of years of ownership; for a company, 1% of the higher of the appraised or sale price.

Who pays what is a matter of negotiation, not law: the Land Office simply collects the total from whoever presents to pay. In practice buyer and seller often split the transfer fee, with the seller carrying the SBT or stamp duty and the withholding tax, but this should be written into the sale contract so there is no argument on the transfer day.

A Worked Example

Take a condominium with an appraised value of 5 million THB, sold by an individual who bought it two years ago (so SBT applies). The transfer fee is 2%, or 100,000 THB. SBT is 3.3%, or 165,000 THB. No stamp duty, because SBT applies. Withholding tax is added on top, calculated on the appraised value and the two-year holding period. The total is well over a quarter of a million baht, which is exactly why the split needs to be agreed in writing before you sign.

How ThaiLawOnline Can Help

Before you buy or sell, we calculate the exact transfer taxes on your specific property and holding period, write the cost split into the sale contract, and check the annual Land and Building Tax position so there are no surprise arrears attached to the title. We also handle the transfer itself at the Land Office. See our property packages and our legal fees.

One thing we check every time and clients rarely think to ask: whether the seller falls inside or outside the five-year SBT window. The difference between 3.3% SBT and 0.5% stamp duty on a multi-million-baht property is real money, and it sometimes makes sense to time a sale around it. Contact us for a calculation on your property.