After-Sales Support in Phuket: How an Agency Helps After You Sign a Property Purchase Contract

After-sales support in Phuket at Undersun Estate starts when you sign the contract with the developer and carries on after you receive the keys. From the first payment to the keys takes anywhere from a few months to a couple of years, and for all of that time a manager stays in touch with you. The manager keeps track of the payment schedule and follows the construction, then helps with the handover inspection and with registration at the Land Department as the keys get closer. About half of our international clients buy without ever travelling to Thailand, so we are used to handling all of this remotely.

Payments: what to transfer and when

In the developer's contract, payments are tied to construction stages. First comes a payment on signing, then instalments as each stage of the build is completed, and the balance at handover. The stages and their shares differ from project to project, and the exact terms are written in the contract.

The payment notice comes from the developer and refers to the stage reached. Our manager can follow the schedule with you: remind you of the next instalment and check with the developer that your transfer has arrived. If you are sending money to Thailand for the first time, the manager will walk you through how it works.

Before you transfer, you can confirm the stage by asking the developer for a photo report with the date of the shoot, or for a report from the project engineer on the volumes completed. How this works, and what to do if work stops, is covered in our article on off-plan construction delays in Phuket.

While the building goes up

Some developers post photo and video updates of construction in the material folders they share with agencies, but not all of them report, and the quality varies: in one case a monthly shoot with captions on the works, in another a few frames with no date.

We monitor construction progress ourselves. Our managers visit sites and film the project, and roughly once a month we fly a drone over several projects at once. From the air you can see which floor the work has reached, what the neighbouring blocks look like and whether there is machinery on site. We can send you photos and videos from the site and pass on news from the developer as the work goes on. If a question comes up, your manager puts it to the developer for you.

Handover inspection: when defects can still be put right

The handover inspection is the moment to record defects while the developer is still responsible for them. A finished unit is checked for how well it matches the project and for the quality of the construction and finishing work: walls, floors and ceilings, windows and doors, plumbing, electrics and equipment. Everything found goes into a defects list, which is passed to the developer to be fixed.

The inspection takes place on site, but you do not have to travel for it yourself. For smaller apartments we can inspect the unit for you and pass the defects list to the developer. For villas we recommend carrying out the inspection together with our partner contractors.

Land Department registration: possible without a trip

The last step is registration of the transfer of ownership at the Land Department. For a property under construction it takes place when the build is completed, and for a resale property on an agreed date. You can attend in person or give a representative authority under a power of attorney, and the representative will act for you at the registration. We coordinate the documents and the representative. What a power of attorney signed abroad needs is described in our article on buying a Phuket condo by power of attorney.

The transfer fee is calculated on the government appraised value. Which payments fall to the buyer when purchasing from a developer, on a leasehold and on resale is covered in our article on fees and taxes on a property transaction. After you receive the keys, the set of documents for the property stays with you.

Once you have the keys

What comes next depends on what you planned: living there yourself, renting the property out or selling it in time. If the property is going to be sold, Undersun Estate will put it on the resale market. If you decide to rent it out, we can help you find a property management company. How to choose a property for rental income or for capital growth is covered in our article on buying to rent or buying to hold in Phuket.

What to ask an agency before you choose

If you are choosing the best real estate agency in Phuket for foreign buyers, ask the manager what happens after signing. Here is what is worth asking any agency:

• Who on the team stays in touch after signing, and in which language will we communicate?
• How does the agency know that the next payment has been requested for a stage that is actually complete?
• Does the agency send photos and videos from the site, and how often?
• How does the handover inspection work, and who makes sure the defects list reaches the developer?
• How is registration supported if I am not in Thailand?

The general approach to choosing an agency is covered in our article on choosing a real estate agency in Phuket.

Undersun Estate for Foreign Buyers in Phuket

Undersun Estate is a real estate agency in Phuket. Our Kathu office is open Monday to Friday, 10:00–20:00, and the team speaks English, Russian, Ukrainian and Thai. We are a co-founder of the Phuket Property Association and a partner of the Phuket Real Estate Association (P-REA), a local industry association.

Tell us your budget and the areas you are considering, and we will put together two or three suitable options and can send them within a day.