Real estate careers in Koh Samui

The market in Koh Samui

Foreign buyers take 85% to 90% of villa deals on Koh Samui, according to an agency market report (Samui Property Group, May 2026).

Koh Samui, in Surat Thani province, is a smaller island market led by villas sold to foreign buyers. One agency report counts a primary market of 2,882 units in 117 projects worth 30.3 billion baht, 52% condos and 48% villas, with a median condo price of 88,500 baht per sqm and a median of 14.9 million baht for a three-bedroom villa, and foreigners in 85% to 90% of villa deals; the White Lotus series, filmed in Maenam and aired in 2025, raised enquiries, without a measured figure (Samui Property Group, May 2026, mostly from C9 Hotelworks data of June 2025). Surat Thani is one of the provinces under special checks for nominee ownership in 2026 (Leto, June 2026).

Foreign buyers

Foreigners dominate the villa market, but cannot own land: villas are bought on registered leases of up to 30 years, and the 2026 checks on nominee companies cover Surat Thani (Leto, June 2026).

Main neighbourhoods

BophutMaenamNa Mueang

Agent licence

No licence is needed. Thailand has no state broker licence and no mandatory exam, so anyone legally allowed to work can be a property agent (Themis Partner, 2025; Thaiger, May 2026). Credibility comes from elsewhere: membership of TREBA, the international CIPS designation from the US National Association of Realtors for agents serving foreign buyers, and the agent certifications run by portals such as DDproperty. An agency is an ordinary Thai limited company registered with the Department of Business Development, with the usual anti-money laundering duties. No draft law to create a broker licence was found in the 2025 and 2026 legal guides consulted, so the profession should be described as unlicensed rather than as about to be regulated. The full guide