How to Check a Property Developer in Thailand Before You Buy

Buying off-plan means buying a promise. Until the building is finished and the unit is registered in your name at the Land Office, what you hold is a contract with the developer and receipts for the money you have already sent. Some countries protect off-plan buyers by law, through mandatory escrow accounts or bank guarantees. Thailand does not, so who is building matters as much as what is being built. This guide covers what to check, where the information comes from, which questions to put to the developer in writing, and which parts belong to your lawyer.

This guide explains the subject in general terms and is not legal or financial advice. Thai law and the practice of government offices change, and what holds for one project may not hold for another. The documents for the project you choose should be reviewed by an independent Thai lawyer who acts for you, not for the developer.

Warning signs you can spot before any paperwork

Some problems are visible before you have seen a single document. Treat any of the following as a reason to slow down:

• A "guaranteed return" with no clear answer to who guarantees it, from what money, and what happens if they cannot pay.
• Time pressure: "this price is only valid today", "this is the last unit", or a request for a reservation deposit before you have seen a draft contract.
• A request to pay into the personal account of a salesperson, an owner or an "associated company".
• Refusal to give your lawyer a copy of the land title, the building permit or the draft contract.
• Insistence that you use the developer's lawyer "to save time".
• A gap between the contract and what the salesperson tells you, answered with "that goes without saying".

A guaranteed return is only worth as much as the ability of whoever gives it to keep paying. How to look at rental income, and what we mean by an "agency estimate", is covered in our guide to rental yield. As for payments, money for the unit goes only to the account of the company that signs your contract, and only as a documented transfer from abroad. Why that matters for registering the unit in your name is explained in our guide to transferring money to Thailand.

Start with the buildings they have already finished

Renderings look good for everyone. A building that was handed over a few years ago shows you what buyers actually received and how the developer looks after what it builds. Ask your manager for a list of the developer's completed projects and pick at least one similar to what you are considering. If you are in Thailand, a morning is enough to see it. If you are not, ask for a live video walkthrough rather than an edited clip, so that you can ask to see what matters to you.

What to look at in a completed building:

• Whether it was handed over roughly on time, and if not, how long the delay lasted and how the developer kept buyers informed.
• The state of the common areas: facade, lifts, pool, parking, cracks and signs of leaks.
• Who runs the building now: the owners' juristic person with an independent management company, or an entity linked to the developer.
• Whether the building is registered as a condominium and the units have been transferred to their buyers.
• Whether owners have open disputes with the developer over defects, service charges or facilities that were promised and never built.

A short conversation with the building manager or a resident is worth a lot. Ask what the developer fixed after handover, how quickly it responded to complaints, and whether they would buy from it again.

A developer with no completed projects

A new developer is not necessarily a bad one, but your risk is higher, because you are judging it only on paper and on the people behind it. In that case, its finances (see below) matter even more, as do the identity and track record of the main contractor, and what the contract says will happen if construction is delayed or stops.

The paperwork your lawyer checks

This part is for an independent Thai lawyer with access to official records. Your role is to make sure each item is covered and that the answer comes back in writing.

Land title and encumbrances

The first question is who owns the land under the project, and on what document. For a condominium, you would expect a full title deed, known as a Chanote, in the name of the developer's company. If the land is held by an individual, by a different company, or under a weaker document than a Chanote, you need to understand why and how the rights will pass to the project before you pay anything.

The second question is what is registered against the land. Developers often mortgage the land to a bank to finance construction. That alone is not a red flag, but your lawyer should establish how the mortgage is released from your unit when it is transferred to you, so that it does not stay attached to it. Beyond mortgages, the lawyer looks for seizures, servitudes, registered road access and boundary disputes. All of this sits in Land Office records, which is why the check is done there and not from a scan the developer sends.

If you are buying a villa or house on leased land, the questions are different. We cover them in our guide to freehold, leasehold and the foreign quota.

Building permit and environmental approval

A building needs a permit from the local authority. Ask for a copy and have your lawyer confirm that it is valid, that it was issued to the company selling you the unit, and that it matches what is being sold: number of floors, number of units and use. An extra floor in the brochure that is not in the permit, or a building the permit does not mention, is a reason to stop and ask before you reserve.

For larger projects and certain locations, such as the coast, Thai law also requires an environmental impact assessment (EIA) to be approved before construction begins. Exactly when one is needed depends on the size and location of the project, and the rules change, so we do not quote thresholds here. Ask whether the project needs an EIA and whether it has been approved. If units are on sale while the EIA is still under review, you are buying a promise, and the contract should say what happens if approval never comes.

Condominium registration and the right to sell units

A residential building becomes a condominium when it is registered as one at the Land Office, and only then can individual units be transferred to buyers. In a project under construction, registration has not happened yet, which is normal: the developer sells under contract and undertakes to register. What your lawyer checks is that nothing known stands in the way, whether in the land, the permits or the mortgage, and who will apply and when. In a finished building, the question is simpler: is it already registered, and what is the state of the foreign quota? If a completed building is still not registered, ask for a written explanation. How the quota works and how it is shown on our project pages is covered in the foreign ownership guide.

The contract

A contract for the sale of a condominium unit in Thailand must follow a form set by the authorities, and terms that disadvantage the buyer beyond what that form allows may be unenforceable. That does not mean you can skip reading it. Schedules are attached to the standard form, and that is usually where the important detail lives.

For the purpose of checking the developer, look at three things. Is the company signing the contract the same one that owns the land and holds the permit, and if not, how are they connected? Do payments go only to an account in the name of the selling company? Are the specification and floor plans attached as schedules, so that they cannot change without your consent? What happens if construction runs late, from penalties and interest to cancellation and refunds, is covered in the list of questions for your lawyer in our guide to developer payment plans, so we will not repeat it here.

Escrow

Thailand has a law that allows a buyer's money to be held in escrow by a licensed institution until the developer performs, but for new condominiums it is not mandatory and applies only if both sides agree. Do not assume your money is protected this way. Ask the developer directly whether it offers escrow, with whom, for which payments, and when the funds are released to it. A no does not rule the project out, but it puts more weight on every other check in this guide.

Financial strength: what to ask and how

Nobody will show you a developer's bank balance, but you can learn a good deal. Thai companies are registered with the Department of Business Development (DBD) at the Ministry of Commerce, where you can obtain a company certificate, a list of shareholders and the annual financial statements the company has filed. If the developer's parent company is listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), its reports and material announcements are public. Your lawyer and your manager can help you obtain these documents and make sense of them.

Questions worth sending to the developer in writing:

• How is construction financed: own capital, a bank loan or buyers' payments? If there is a loan, from which bank?
• How many projects is the company building at the same time, and what stage is each one at?
• What share of the units in this project has already been sold?
• Who is the main contractor, and has it built completed projects for this developer?
• Are there open court cases against the company or the people who control it?

The sales question matters because a developer that can only keep building with new buyers' money is exposed to any slowdown in the market, and that slowdown lands on your completion date. A vague answer to any of these questions is an answer in itself. A serious developer is used to banks and investors asking the same things and will either answer or explain why it cannot. Court cases are something your lawyer checks independently, without relying on what the developer says.

What our website shows, and what it doesn't

Where the fields are filled in our database, each project page shows the construction status and the planned completion quarter or year. Some developers also have a page of their own; we publish one only where we have a description and several of the developer's projects on the site. It carries the description, details such as the year founded and the number of completed projects where we know them, and the developer's projects listed on the site. A developer without a page is not a warning sign; it simply means we have not yet gathered enough about it.

A completion date on a project page is what the developer has announced, not a commitment from us, and nothing on the site replaces your own checks. You can start from the project catalogue or the full project list and open the developer's page where there is one.

Why your lawyer must be your own

An independent Thai lawyer acts for you, not for the developer or the seller. They search Land Office records, confirm that permits are valid, check the company and any court cases, and read the contract against the mandatory form. A lawyer in your home country can help you understand the documents, but Thai records need someone qualified to work with them in Thailand.

To avoid a one-line "all fine", give your lawyer the topics in this guide as a checklist and ask for a written opinion, in English, that addresses each one, even where the answer is "no issue found". Where this step fits into the purchase as a whole is set out in our guide to buying property in Thailand.

How ROMA ThaiProperty helps

We request the documents a developer can provide before reservation, such as the draft contract, specification, payment plan and, where possible, copies of the land title and permit, and pass them to the lawyer you choose. We tell you what we know about the developer from experience: which of its projects our clients have already received, how it behaved at handover, and where you can see a building it has completed. Where needed, we recommend an independent Thai lawyer and help you put your questions to the developer in writing. We do not give legal opinions or replace your lawyer, but if something in the checks concerns us, we will say so plainly.

Where to go next

If you have not chosen an area yet, start with Pattaya new developments, Phuket new developments or projects in Bangkok. If you are weighing off-plan against a finished unit, our off-plan or ready guide compares the risks, and several checks in this guide are much simpler once the building is standing. Buying without travelling? See the guide to buying remotely.