How to check a Thai property project and SPA before paying

The easiest parts of a development to inspect are the parts designed to be seen: the location, showroom, pool render and price list. The parts that can cost the most are less photogenic. Who is legally selling the unit? Does the project have the approvals required for what is being built? What happens to your money if completion slips or the promised ownership route cannot be registered?

Treat project due diligence and the Sale and Purchase Agreement as one exercise. The project review asks whether the seller, land, approvals, financing and delivery history support the promise. The SPA asks who bears the consequences when that promise changes: deadlines, extension rights, non-completion, refunds, payment defaults, specification changes, defects and transfer of title.

Foreign-buyer eligibility is a separate gate rather than a marketing label. If a condominium is sold as foreign freehold, the available quota and the buyer's transfer route need to work for that unit at the relevant date. This page deliberately does not reproduce the whole foreign-ownership regime; the dedicated ownership guide covers those mechanics in full.

No checklist can turn a general article into legal due diligence on a specific deal. Project approvals, corporate records, quota position and contract wording should be checked for the actual property and current date by independent Thai counsel acting for the buyer.

Begin with the counterparty rather than the logo. A well-known group may sell each development through a separate project company. That can be entirely legitimate, but you still need to establish which entity signs the SPA, who can bind it, how that entity connects to the land and why any different entity receiving money is entitled to do so.

Next, verify the project's right to build what is being marketed. Obtain the building permit or the legally applicable construction approval or notification and reconcile the applicant, land and project details. Environmental Impact Assessment is not a universal checkbox in Thailand. ONEP's published criteria include residential buildings with at least 80 rooms or at least 4,000 square metres of usable area among the categories requiring EIA; where it is required, the status should be matched to the actual project in the official system.

Then follow the land and intended title. For an off-plan condominium, review the developer's land position, registered encumbrances and the path from the current project to condominium registration and unit title. For a completed unit, inspect the existing unit title and current encumbrances. If foreign freehold is promised, confirm that the structure can work for this unit and buyer; as checked on 16 August 2026, the statutory foreign-ownership ceiling remains 49% of the total condominium-unit area.

Funding is harder to verify from a sales pack. A listed developer gives you public financial statements and material disclosures, but a listed parent does not guarantee a particular project or subsidiary. For a private developer, ask how construction is financed, what security exists over the land or project and how any relevant mortgage or charge will be released to allow the promised transfer.

Finally, reconcile paperwork with the physical development. The permit, EIA record if required, land, contracting company and site should describe the same project and phase. A file can contain genuine documents and still fail due diligence if each document belongs to a different part of the story.

Count deliveries, not announcements. Start with a short list of projects that the developer has actually completed and transferred. Compare original delivery expectations with what happened, then look at how the buildings perform after occupation: common areas, defect resolution, management transition and any recurring owner complaints.

Track record also needs an entity map. Large groups often use special-purpose subsidiaries, so the company that completed a successful building five years ago may not be the company taking your money today. Group reputation is useful evidence of capability, but it should not be confused with a legally enforceable guarantee from the parent.

Disputes and complaints need proportion. A major developer can accumulate isolated cases simply because it has sold thousands of units. Repeated allegations around delayed refunds, chronic completion slippage, material specification changes or transfer problems deserve more weight than a single unhappy review. Thai counsel can help check the legal context; the absence of obvious online complaints is not proof that no disputes exist.

For a listed developer or parent, official filings add financial context: earnings, debt, liquidity and material events. They still do not tell you everything about the project company, land encumbrances or project-level financing. With a private developer, less public disclosure means the land, funding explanation, lender involvement and release mechanics deserve even closer attention.

If possible, visit an older completed project without the current sales team guiding the conversation. A short walk through the common areas and a conversation with owners or management can expose whether delivery quality and after-sales behaviour match the corporate story. It is not a legal search, but it is one of the fastest ways to turn a track record from marketing into evidence.

Read the SPA as a risk-allocation document, not a receipt for the agreed price. Start with the asset itself: unit number, floor, area, measurement method, plan and specification. If the showroom includes appliances, furniture or finishes that never reach the signed attachments, the buyer may be relying on a sales representation rather than a clear contractual deliverable.

Then read time as a system, not a single date. What is the contractual completion or handover date? Which events permit an extension, who decides whether they apply, how must notice be given, and is there a meaningful long-stop or remedy after serious delay? If the buyer faces immediate interest and termination for late payment while the developer can extend for broad discretionary reasons, the asymmetry needs to be understood before signing.

Non-completion and title failure deserve their own reading. What happens to instalments already paid if the project cannot be finished or the promised ownership route cannot be registered? Can the seller substitute a different unit, leasehold or other tenure without fresh consent? How is a refund triggered, calculated and timed? These questions matter more than a salesperson's assurance that the situation is unlikely.

Map the payment schedule against construction and legal progress. A calendar-based plan can be workable, but it may leave the buyer paying a large part of the price before substantial completion. Milestone payments are only more informative when the milestone is objectively defined and verifiable. In both cases, the beneficiary and payment purpose should fit the SPA.

Finish with handover and the period immediately after it. Review inspection rights, defect reporting, permitted substitutions, area variation, rectification obligations, when common charges begin and how transfer costs are allocated. No generic red-flag list can determine the legal result of a clause in isolation; the full Thai contract and attachments should be reviewed for the particular transaction.

Build the review from the deal facts outward. Freeze the exact unit, price, contracting seller and promised tenure first. That gives the buyer a reference version of the transaction against which every permit, title document, payment instruction and contract revision can be tested.

Next, establish the project evidence independently: corporate records, land, construction approval, EIA where legally required, financing context and completed track record. The objective at this stage is not to prove that nothing can go wrong. It is to find contradictions before the buyer becomes economically committed to explaining them away.

Only then does the SPA become fully meaningful. Counsel can compare what the contract promises with what the project is actually capable of delivering: title, timing, specification, payments and remedies. If the SPA promises a right that the title or quota evidence does not support, the answer is not to hope the paperwork catches up later.

Before a major non-refundable payment, reduce the remaining issues to a short conditions list. Each material item should end in one of three outcomes: evidence produced, clause amended, or risk deliberately accepted. “We will confirm later” should not be the outcome for title, a required approval, the identity of the payment recipient or a refund trigger.

The final decision should therefore be conditional rather than emotional. Proceed where the core evidence is clean; proceed only after amendments where the issue is curable; stop where the seller will not support a basic claim with documents. That is practical due diligence even if the final decision memo fits on one page.

The first mistake is starting legal review after the booking money is already non-refundable and the buyer feels committed to the unit. A full review may take time, but the basics — seller, land, approvals, EIA requirement, intended tenure and reservation refund terms — should be visible before leverage disappears.

The second is using brand recognition as a substitute for evidence. A major developer usually gives you a richer history to analyse, but a specific project may sit in a separate subsidiary, carry its own lender security and use a much tougher SPA than another project by the same group. Reputation reduces uncertainty; it does not cancel project-level due diligence.

The third is reading the main contract and treating attachments as administration. The plan, finish schedule, payment schedule, furniture package and management documents can change the economics of the purchase more than a polished clause in the body of the SPA. If an item is not part of the signed package, enforcing the sales conversation later becomes harder.

The fourth is asking the right question of the wrong source. A sales manager can tell you that EIA is approved or foreign quota is available, but independent verification means matching the official record and the exact project or unit. The same discipline applies to bank details: a last-minute email should not be enough to reroute a large transfer.

The fifth is searching for a perfect contract rather than a controlled trade-off. Early-stage property will retain some completion and counterparty risk. The buyer should know exactly where that risk sits, how much money is exposed to it and what the SPA allows if the adverse scenario occurs. A fast-payment discount rarely compensates for not knowing those answers.