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In a recent email actually, I received the following question, quoting directly: "Could you please explain the difference between a condo and an apartment in Thailand?" Well there isn't actually a difference in terms of the physical structure oftentimes. Basically, you are talking about a room in a building that you utilize to like live and sleep in basically, just habitate if you will. 

That said, there is a legal difference effectively in Thailand between a standard apartment and a condo. So an apartment, again something you rent in Thailand. If it's under a 3-year lease, you don't have to have a lease registered at the Land Office. You can just go ahead and deal with that between parties. So yeah, you can lease an apartment here and it's basically a matter of, "sign on a lease and stay in there".

Condos are a different thing. In fact it's kind of a term of art in Thailand - Thai Condo - because it has specific implications under what is called the Thai Condominium Act which specifically deals with the issue and allows foreigners to own condos here in the Kingdom of Thailand. Notwithstanding the restrictions on foreign nationals owning real estate in this jurisdiction, you can own condos so long as the condo comports with the formalities in the Thai Condominium Act. What are we talking about there? Well one, there are quotas, so different condo complexes, for example to make this simplistic, if there are 100 perfectly equal condos in a given complex, 49 of them only can be sold to Thais with what is called Freehold Title. That would be in the American vernacular we call that Fee Simple Absolute, basically a title deed, you own the title to that particular piece of property; that's your home here in Thailand. It is also possible under those circumstances if you get foreign freehold title to obtain what's called a Yellow House Book or Tabian Baan, that can be a benefit and from a yellow Tabian Baan, some folks opt to obtain a pink ID card. 

That being said, again back to this underlying question, what is the difference? It's really a legal difference. There's a legal definition for Thai Condo that can be held Freehold by a foreigner here in Thailand if the particular piece of property meets all of the requirements or all of the elements of that definition and meets all the formalities including matters pertaining to the foreign quota, it would under those circumstances be possible to go ahead and convey good title i.e. what we would call Fee Simple Absolute, sometimes referred to as Freehold Title, here in Thailand referred to as Chanote Title. It may be possible to convey that title to a foreigner here in the Kingdom of Thailand.