Renting in Phuket as a foreigner

Yes, a foreigner can rent a home in Phuket, and the lease is the same contract a Thai tenant signs. What is different about a foreign tenant is the paperwork around the stay — the landlord's notification to immigration, your own report every 90 days — and, since September 2025, the limits a residential lease must keep to. This guide takes them in the order you will meet them.

Can a foreigner rent a home in Thailand?

A rental is a "hire of property" under the Civil and Commercial Code: a contract by which one person, the letter, agrees to let another, the hirer, have the use of a property for a limited time against rent¹. Nothing in the Code's rules on hire turns on nationality or on the visa the hirer holds; the same sections govern a Thai and a foreign tenant¹. The restrictions people read about concern owning land, not renting⁸.

The lease: in writing, normally twelve months

A lease of a house or a flat is enforceable in court only with written evidence signed by the party to be held to it². A lease longer than three years must also be registered with the competent official — the Land Office — or it is enforceable for three years only², and no lease of immovable property can run for more than thirty years at a time³. A twelve-month lease needs no registration².

Our practice: a written contract in English and Thai, normally twelve months, signed by the owner and by you⁸. From six months a stay is a long-stay contract; under six months it is priced as a short stay⁸.

Deposit, advance rent and utilities: the 2025 rules

Since 4 September 2025 a residential lease from a landlord who lets three or more units is a "contract-controlled business", under a notification of the Contract Committee published in the Royal Gazette on 6 June 2025⁴. For such a lease:

• the security deposit may not exceed three months' rent on a contract paid monthly, or one year's rent on a contract paid annually⁴;
• electricity and water may not be charged above the official tariffs⁴;
• the deposit comes back at the end of the lease — within seven days when nothing is damaged, within fourteen days when repair costs are deducted⁴.

Whether a lease falls under the notification depends on who the lessor is and how many units they let⁴.

Our practice on a long stay: two months' rent as the deposit, paid with the first month and returned on the day of check-out, less any damage, unpaid utilities or the final cleaning if the unit is not left as it was handed over⁸. Electricity and water are billed at the official tariff, from the utility's own bill, and invoiced with the rent⁸; what a month of electricity comes to is in What electricity actually costs.

What you pay, and what you do not

There is no agency or booking fee: the price on the page is the price of the stay, on a short stay or a long one, and nothing is added when you sign⁸. On a long stay the rent is paid monthly in advance, the first month together with the deposit on signing⁸.

After you move in: the TM-30 and the 90-day report

Within 24 hours of a foreigner taking up residence, the householder, the owner or the possessor of the home notifies the immigration office of the locality — the notification known by its form, the TM-30⁵. The duty is the landlord's, and so is the fine for missing it: up to ฿2,000 for a householder or an owner⁵. We file it within 24 hours of your arrival and send you the receipt; send us the photo page of every passport before you travel⁸. You will be asked for the receipt at a visa extension, a 90-day report and a driving-licence application⁸.

The 90-day report is a different obligation, and it is yours: a foreigner who stays in Thailand longer than 90 days tells immigration their address every 90 days — in person, by registered post or online — within 15 days before or 7 days after the due date, and a late report costs ฿2,000⁶. Leaving the country restarts the count from the day of re-entry⁶. TM-30 explained goes through both.

A short stay is not a lease in the same sense

Lodging charged by the month or longer is outside the Hotel Act's definition of a hotel⁷. That is the line between a tenancy and a stay of a few nights, and it is why a short stay through us is run like a hotel stay — a card hold instead of a deposit, water, cleaning and electricity up to 1,500 units a month in the price — while a long stay is a lease with the deposit and the utilities above⁸. Short stay or long stay: which price applies sets the two side by side.

Using the address

For a bank account or a visa application you will be asked to prove where you live. With the lease and the TM-30 receipt we supply a signed certificate-of-residence request, which is what Thai banks and immigration ask for⁸.