Thai land units convert cleanly to square metres, but quoted prices often sit on different bases. How to convert, and the trap that makes two listings look comparable when they are not.
Thai land is measured in rai, ngan and square wah. All three convert to square metres exactly, with no rounding.
Title deeds write the area as rai-ngan-wah in that order. 1-0-31 means 1 rai, 0 ngan, 31 square wah — that is 431 square wah, or 1,724 square metres.
Thai land is usually advertised per square wah. Condominiums are advertised per square metre. Both get called "price per area", and they differ by a factor of four.
Seeing 25,000 next to 150,000 and concluding the first is cheaper may mean comparing land per wah against a condominium per square metre — figures that cannot be set beside each other at all.
This site therefore quotes each property in the unit its own paperwork uses: land, houses, townhouses and resorts per square wah; condominiums and apartments per square metre, which is what a condominium title states.
A Thai land buyer asks "how much per wah". A condominium buyer asks "how much per square metre", because that is what their title says. Forcing both into a single unit makes the number read oddly to at least one of them.
Some listings give "usable area 298 sqm" and "land 116 sq wah" on the same line. Those measure different things.
Usable area is the floor area inside the building, across all storeys. Land is the size of the plot. A two-storey house on 100 square wah can have more floor area than a single-storey house on 200.
When working out a price per unit, know which figure is being divided. Otherwise the result looks precise and means nothing.
Waterfront land carries building restrictions ordinary land does not: setbacks from the water, Marine Department permits, and zoning. What to establish before paying for a design.
Two riverside plots of identical area can be worth very different amounts, because of how much of each touches the water. Why that is, and how to compare them properly.
A single plot carries at least two prices. The Land Department's assessed value sets the taxes; the market price is what it changes hands for. Knowing which is which keeps the sums right.
