Phuket and Bangkok: two different property markets in Thailand

Thailand often appears in a buyer's conversation as one market. In practice it is at least two, with opposite logic: resort property earns from a visitor and lives by seasons; capital-city property earns from someone living in the city and works year-round. Mixing them into a single yield figure is the most common error in the calculation.

Phuket: income made by the season

• High and low season differ by multiples. The annual yield here is an average of very different months, and any promise of even income should raise a question.
• Management is compulsory. Nightly letting is an operating business: cleaning, check-ins, booking channels. Either a management company does it for a share, or you do.
• Developer-guaranteed yield is a common format on the island. Look not at the percentage but at the length of the guarantee, at what secures it, and at the price of the property: the guarantee is usually already included in it.
• A short-let licence. Without one, nightly letting is a breach rather than a grey area. That is a question about the project, not about your apartment.

Bangkok: income made by work and transport

The capital market is closer to any large city: the tenant lives and works, the lease is long, there is almost no seasonality. Different factors apply here.

• Walking distance to a skytrain or metro station is the main price factor in rent. A difference of five hundred metres changes both the rate and how quickly a tenant is found.
• Business clusters set demand: near them an apartment lets longer and more steadily.
• The volume of new supply. The capital builds densely, and in some corridors new blocks outnumber the growth in tenants — that presses on the rate before it presses on the price.
• Less operational work. An annual lease does not require daily management, and the manager's share of income is lower.

What they share

• The 49% quota. One rule across the country: foreign ownership is possible only within that share of a building's area, and in popular projects it runs out.
• The five-year mark on sale. A special tax on quick resale applies equally to the island and the capital.
• Maintenance charges. Higher at a resort — the owner pays for infrastructure that guests use.

How to choose between them

If the property is for yourself with occasional letting, that is a resort conversation, and what to calculate is the cost of ownership net of your own stays rather than a yield. If the property is for the rental flow, the capital's logic is more predictable.