Thailand
Search for homes for sale in Thailand and you get portals full of listings with no explanation of what a foreigner may legally own, which of it is freehold, or why the same money buys something completely different in Bangkok than on Koh Samui. This is the explanation first.
Foreigners cannot own land in Thailand. They can own a condominium unit freehold, in their own name, provided it sits inside the 49% of the building set aside for foreign ownership. Everything else — villas, townhouses, houses on plots — is land, and is bought through a long lease or a company structure instead. Almost every difference between the markets below comes back to that single distinction.
A listing described as freehold is not automatically freehold for you. In a condominium the foreign quota may already be full, in which case the same unit is sold leasehold. On a villa, freehold usually refers to the Thai entity holding the land, not to you. The question worth asking on every property is the same: what exactly will be registered in my name, and for how long?
Bangkok is a transport-driven city market with year-round tenants and no season. Phuket is the deepest resort market with the most freehold condominium. Samui is villa country with thin condominium supply, so most foreign buyers end up leasehold. Hua Hin is built for retirees rather than holidaymakers. Pattaya has the largest supply and the most resale competition. Chiang Mai is the cheapest and has no coast at all. The headline price per square metre tells you almost none of this.
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See if you qualify →Yes, with limits. Foreigners can own condominium units freehold within each building's 49% foreign quota. Land — and therefore villas and houses — cannot be owned outright by foreigners, and is bought through long leases or company structures instead.
Chiang Mai has the lowest entry pricing of the destinations foreigners commonly buy in, followed by Pattaya. Both are considerably cheaper than Phuket or Bangkok, for very different reasons.
It depends entirely on which market and which structure. Freehold condominium in a transport-linked Bangkok location behaves nothing like a leasehold villa on an island with a three-month season. Treat them as different asset classes, because they are.
Thai law allows up to 49% of the saleable area of a condominium building to be owned by foreigners. Once that is used up, remaining units can only be sold to Thai buyers or on a leasehold basis, even if the building is otherwise identical.
You will not find a development named or a price quoted here. That belongs in a private conversation where it can be set against what you can actually spend.