Is Buying Property in Phuket a Good Investment?

Phuket property is a good investment when you buy the right property for a reason you can name. The island’s buyers have changed in the last few years, the money arriving is bigger and longer-term than it used to be, and the figures for the first half of 2026 show a market that is selling, not stalling. What makes the difference between a good purchase and a poor one is not the island. It is whether the property matches what you are actually trying to do: live here, earn from it, hold it for ten years, or something in between. Those are different purchases, and the rest of this page is about telling them apart.

I have sixteen years in property across Australia, the UK and now Phuket, where I live. What follows is what I see on the ground, with the published figures beside it so you can check my reading against the numbers.

What has changed on the island

For a long time Phuket was three things: a holiday destination, a party destination and a place to retire. It has always been a Muay Thai destination as well, and the martial arts crowd is bigger every year as the sport grows worldwide.

What is new is who is moving here to live. A younger group, with children, running businesses overseas or working remotely, choosing the island for the international schools and the life around them. And, most of all in the last two years, people coming for wellness and longevity. Thailand offers treatments and programmes that are harder to reach or not yet available in parts of the West, at prices that compare well with anywhere, and the island has become the place in Thailand where that is concentrated. The Global Wellness Summit holds its 20th annual meeting in Phuket on 10 to 13 November 2026, with more than 600 delegates from over 30 countries. That is not the cause of the change. It is the industry noticing it.

I meet these buyers every week: a family on a two-month health stay deciding to make it permanent; a couple who came for a fight camp and started looking at condominiums; a business owner who wants the children in school here and a base for the region. They are buying to live, first, and to earn or hold second. That order matters for everything that follows. I wrote about the wellness side in more detail in the piece on Tri Vananda and Clinique La Prairie.

What the numbers say about Phuket property investment in 2026

CBRE’s figures for the first half of 2026 put numbers on it. Condominium sales in the half were 4,017 units, up 10.6 percent on the same period of 2025, with a cumulative sales rate across the market of 71.9 percent. Villa sales were 233 units in the half, with a cumulative sales rate of 72.6 percent. CBRE’s own description of where villa demand is strongest: “strong sales in mixed-use compounds near wellness, sports, retail and international schools”. That is the demographic above, in a research house’s words.

Tourism dipped. Phuket received 9.2 million visitors in the first eight months of 2026, down 1.76 percent on 2025 according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, and airport passengers for the first half were 4.39 million, down 1.4 percent. Against that, four new direct routes started in October: Virgin Atlantic from London three times a week from 18 October, Edelweiss from Zurich, Kuwait Airways and Belavia from Minsk. A two percent fall off a record year, with new long-haul capacity landing in high season, is not a trend I would lose sleep over.

The infrastructure is the part I watch most. Anywhere in the world, when shopping centres, schools, gyms, clinics and new air routes are going in at the same time, property follows. Siam Piwat’s ICONPHUKET, a ฿10 billion retail and entertainment project, is due to open in 2029. The hotel pipeline runs to about 1,800 new rooms by the end of 2026 and more than 2,000 in 2027. The international brands putting their names on residences here, which I covered in the branded residences guide, are making the same bet with their own capital.

Supply, and where the risk sits

Now the part that a brochure leaves out. There are 28,211 condominium units in the future pipeline, 10,233 of them scheduled for the second half of 2026 alone. CBRE names oversupply as a risk, and I agree with them. Not everywhere, and not in every type, but there will be too many of a certain kind of condominium in certain places, and some villa estates in the mid-range, which made up 66 percent of new villa launches in the half, will take longer to sell through than their developers planned.

What that means in practice is three questions before any purchase. What are you buying it for? When are you getting in, and against how much competing stock? And when, roughly, do you plan to get out? A buyer who can answer those three is in a different position from one who cannot, whatever the property.

Scarcity is real, and it is worth being precise about where. Phuket is about 50 kilometres long and 20 wide, and most of it is hill. Building above 80 metres is restricted to single structures on a 90-square-metre footprint with 70 percent of the plot left open, and nothing is permitted above 140 metres. So the land that can take a villa with a sea view, or a condominium a short walk from a beach, is a narrow band along the coast and the lower slopes, and it is not being made any bigger. The land inland is also finite, but there is far more of it, it is cheaper, and it is where most of the 28,000 condominiums are going. The long-run case for owning in Phuket rests on the coastal band. The oversupply risk sits inland. Knowing which of the two you are buying is most of the decision.

Yields: halve the brochure

Some developers are quoting rental returns of 10 to 12 percent. In my experience a realistic figure for a well-run property is closer to half that, around 5 to 6 percent, and it varies with the location, the management and how many weeks you keep for yourself. That is my view from the properties I look at, not a market statistic, and I would rather you planned on it and were pleasantly surprised.

CBRE put the same point more formally: “sales based on projected rental returns will not be sustainable if those returns are not delivered.” A guaranteed return for the first two or three years is priced into what you pay. Look at what the property earns after the guarantee ends, because that is the yield you own.

Regulation: enforced, not changed

The thing that has frightened buyers most this year is the government going after nominee company structures, where a Thai company with Thai shareholders in name only holds land for a foreign owner. The fear is understandable and the reading is wrong. No law changed. The authorities are enforcing a rule that has always existed and that a lot of people got away with ignoring for a long time. If you were never going to use a nominee, nothing has happened to you. If you own through one, it needs looking at; I wrote that up in the nominee crackdown piece.

The ownership rules themselves are stable and workable. Foreigners own condominiums freehold within a building’s 49 percent foreign quota. Villas are held on a registered 30-year lease or through a company with real Thai partners and real business. Both routes have a well-worn path and good lawyers to walk it; the 30-year lease and freehold condominium pieces cover the detail.

Five buyers, five answers

Whether Phuket is a good investment depends on which of these you are.

To live. You are buying a home that happens to be in a growing market. Location, schools, the drive to the things you do every week, and a building or estate that will be well run in five years. Rental yield is irrelevant and resale is a bonus. The market is kind to this buyer.

For rental income to live on. You are buying a business. The management, the occupancy history, the fees and the rental agreement matter more than the view. Buy where the demand is proven, not promised, and run your numbers at 5 to 6 percent, not at the figure in the brochure.

To hold for ten years. You are buying land scarcity. Coast, usable hillside, an established estate, a brand that will still be there. Pay for position, not finishes. This is the purchase the island’s growth story rewards most reliably.

To flip. Off-plan at launch pricing, sold at or before completion. It works when the developer completes on time and the project sells through; it does not when either fails, and in a market with 28,000 condominiums in the pipeline you need to be very sure of both. Track record means what the developer has finished, not what is on the hoarding.

A mix. Most buyers I meet. Some personal use, some rental, a hold of five to ten years. The honest answer is that a property that does all three adequately will do none of them brilliantly, and the trade is worth stating before you buy, not after.

What it means for a buyer

Name the reason before you name the property. The five answers above lead to five different shortlists. Start there.

Treat the pipeline as a map, not a warning. 28,000 condominiums are coming; most of them are not where you want to be. Know which ones are.

Plan on half the quoted yield. If the property still works at 5 to 6 percent, buy it. If it only works at 12, it does not work.

What it means for an owner

If you own here and are thinking of selling, the buyers arriving now are a different crowd from the ones you may have bought alongside. More of them are buying to live, so they will walk the estate, ask about the school run and look at the management accounts before they ask about the view. The investors among them will want the rental history. Either way, a property with a clear ownership structure, a sensible fee schedule and its paperwork in order sells into this market well, and one without them does not. I list openly alongside other firms and will tell you what I think it is worth before it goes to market.

The read

All the signs point to Phuket being a good place to own property over the next ten years: a broader, younger, longer-staying buyer, international money in branded residences and infrastructure, and a coast that cannot be built twice. The risks are specific and avoidable: the wrong condominium in an oversupplied pocket, a yield built on a brochure, a structure that was never sound. Whether it is the right investment for you is the conversation I have with every client before we look at anything.

Buying or selling in Phuket? Message me on WhatsApp: +66 93 760 8561

Questions buyers ask

Is Phuket property a good investment in 2026? Yes, for a buyer who knows what the property is for. Sales rose in the first half of 2026 and demand is broadening to people moving here to live. The risk is oversupply in particular condominium pockets, so the choice of property matters more than the choice of island.

What rental yield can I expect in Phuket? Some developers quote 10 to 12 percent; my experience is that 5 to 6 percent is realistic for a well-run property, and it depends on location, management and your own use. Treat any guaranteed return as priced into the purchase.

Is there an oversupply of property in Phuket? In some segments, yes. CBRE counts 28,211 condominium units in the future pipeline and names oversupply as a risk. Coastal land, usable hillside and well-run estates are not oversupplied.

Can foreigners invest in property in Phuket? Yes. Condominiums can be owned freehold within the 49 percent foreign quota. Villas are held on a registered 30-year lease or through a company with genuine Thai participation. Nominee structures are being enforced against and should be avoided.

Sources: CBRE Research, Phuket Overall Figures H1 2026 (condominium and villa sales, pipeline, hotel supply, airport passengers). Tourism Authority of Thailand via Khaosod English, 29 September 2026 (9.2 million visitors January to August, down 1.76 percent; new direct routes). Thailand Public Relations Department, 27 November 2025 (Global Wellness Summit, Phuket, 10 to 13 November 2026). The Phuket News, January 2025 (hillside building rules, Government Gazette 13 December 2024). C9 Hotelworks, 4 June 2026 and 5 October 2026 (ICONPHUKET). The yield range and the buyer profiles are my own observations, not published statistics.

Rex Butler, Managing Director, Butler Estates. This is general market commentary, not legal, tax or investment advice.