Common Area Fee
A mandatory capital reserve fund for Thai condominiums, paid once at unit transfer and used for major building repairs and capital expenditure.
In a Thai condominium or managed villa estate, the common area fee (also called the common area maintenance or CAM fee) is the recurring charge every owner pays toward the upkeep of the shared parts of the development: gardens and landscaping, swimming pools, lobbies and corridors, security, lifts, and shared lighting. It is billed by the condominium juristic person or the estate's management company. The fee is normally calculated per square metre of the unit's area and charged monthly or annually. In Phuket it commonly runs in the region of 50 to 100 THB per square metre per month for condominiums, and is set per square foot for villa estates, with the exact figure varying by project and the level of facilities. Branded and resort-managed developments sit at the higher end because the service standard and amenity load are greater. The common area fee is separate from the one-time sinking fund (the capital reserve paid at transfer) and from any management or rental-program fee on a unit that is let out. When you model a property's net yield, the common area fee is a running cost to deduct.
What it means for buyersWhy this matters when you buy in Phuket.
Before buying, ask for the project's current common area fee rate and recent history. A fee that is too low for the amenities on offer is a warning sign, it usually means the development is under-collecting and the standard will slip or a rise is coming. For a unit you intend to rent, factor the common area fee into the net-yield calculation alongside the management fee, our calculator does this for you.
On every Phuket recommendation we list the current common area fee per square metre and what it actually buys in service. A low fee is not automatically good, we check it against the facilities and the building's age, because an under-funded development costs the owner later. For rental units we model the fee straight into the net yield.