Finding somewhere to live in Bangkok

Condominium or apartment — they are different things

A Thai condominium is a building of individually owned units, so you rent from a private owner and deal with the building's juristic person office for facilities. A Thai “apartment” is a single building owned by one company or family, rented as a business, usually cheaper and plainer. Condominiums give you better facilities and a more negotiable landlord; apartment buildings give you lower rent, simpler paperwork and less flexibility.

• Condominium: individual owner, one-year lease, two months' deposit, facilities included.
• Apartment: single owner, often month-to-month, sometimes no formal lease at all.
• The juristic person office handles the building; the owner handles the lease.
• Listings appear on DDproperty, Hipflat and Livinginsider, and a great deal of stock only ever appears in Facebook groups or on the building noticeboard.

The lease and what to check before you sign

Leases run twelve months as standard, with two months' deposit plus one month in advance payable at signing. A lease longer than three years has to be registered at the Land Department to be enforceable for its full term, which is why almost every foreigner's lease is exactly one year with a renewal clause. Ask to see the title deed (chanote) and the owner's identity card, and check the name on both matches the person signing.

• Chanote (title deed) and the owner's Thai ID card — take copies, immigration will want them later.
• A signed inventory listing every item and its condition, with photographs attached.
• The per-unit electricity rate in writing, and who pays the juristic person's common area fee.
• Early-termination terms: many leases simply forfeit the deposit, and that is normal here.

Utilities and the electricity mark-up

Electricity and water are usually in the landlord's name and rebilled to you. The Metropolitan Electricity Authority's residential tariff is the honest benchmark; some landlords, particularly in apartment buildings, resell at a marked-up flat rate per unit and simply present a total each month. Ask for the rate per unit before signing, and ask whether the meter reading appears on the bill.

• Ask what you will be charged per unit and compare it to the MEA residential rate.
• Water is often a flat monthly figure rather than metered.
• Internet is yours to arrange, installs in days, and is fast and cheap.
• A consumer-protection rule introduced in 2018 constrains landlords operating five or more units in a building; whether it applies to yours is worth asking about.

Agents and money

The landlord pays the agent in Thailand. If an agent asks you for a commission you are being paid for twice, and you should say so. Deposits and rent should go to the owner named on the title deed, by bank transfer with a record, not in cash to an intermediary.

In order

1. 1Pick your station first — BTS or MRT — and search a five-minute radius around it.
2. 2View at rush hour if you can; the walk from the station is the thing you will do twice a day.
3. 3Check the chanote and the owner's ID against the person signing.
4. 4Agree the per-unit electricity rate in writing.
5. 5Photograph every surface, appliance and mark, and get the inventory signed.
6. 6Pay by transfer to the named owner, never cash to an agent.
7. 7Ask the landlord for the TM30 receipt within days of moving in.
8. 8Keep the lease, the owner's ID copy and the title deed copy together for immigration.