Koh Samui vs Phuket: where to buy property in Thailand

Property law is national, so it applies the same way on both islands. What differs is practical: how you want to live, how you will get there and who will use the home. The figures below are dated and sourced, so you can check them.

	Phuket	Koh Samui
Island	Thailand’s largest island, its own province	Thailand’s second-largest island, after Phuket
Homes for sale (C9 Hotelworks, 2025)	about 40,600 units in 343 projects	2,882 units in 117 projects
Airport	run by Airports of Thailand, about 17.5 million passengers in calendar 2025 (CAPA)	privately owned and operated by Bangkok Airways
Rainiest period	southwest monsoon, about mid May to mid October	rain lasts until year end, wettest in November

Two islands, two markets

Phuket is Thailand’s largest island and a province of its own, linked to the mainland by a road bridge. Koh Samui is Thailand’s second-largest island, after Phuket, with an area of about 228.7 km². It belongs to Surat Thani province and is reached by air or by sea.

The difference in market size is larger than the difference in land. In its Phuket update of May 2025, C9 Hotelworks, a hospitality and property consultancy, counted about 40,600 residential units for sale across 343 active projects in the first quarter of 2025. Condominiums made up 83% of them. In its Samui update of June 2025, the same firm counted 2,882 units for sale across 117 projects, with a combined value of THB 30,300,000,000. The two reports do not use exactly the same method, so read them as a sense of scale rather than a precise ratio.

The structure differs too. On Samui, C9 found 70% of the units for sale in Bophut, on the north-east coast, with Maret, Mae Nam and Ang Thong far behind. The firm describes a market that is shifting from villas towards condominiums. Phuket is spread across many districts, and C9 notes a large branded residence segment there.

In Phuket you get more choice and more resale comparisons, but also more competing projects. On Samui the options are fewer and sit in a handful of areas, so where on the island you buy matters a lot.

What you can buy on each island

Property ownership rules for foreigners are set by national law, so they are the same on Samui and Phuket. The details, including what a foreign buyer can own and in what form, are for a lawyer to confirm for your situation, so we do not summarise them here. Be wary of anyone who offers a way around the rules.

What changes between the islands is the kind of building on offer. On Samui, building rules keep the island mostly low-rise, so good plots near the beach are scarce (according to the developer). Most condominium projects are small or medium in scale. Phuket has a wider range, from small low-rise buildings to large complexes and branded residences managed by hotel groups.

For the purchase process itself, our how to buy guide covers the steps and the order of payments.

Getting there

Access is where the two islands differ most.

Phuket International Airport is run by Airports of Thailand, the state airport operator. According to the aviation data service CAPA, the airport handled about 17.5 million passengers in calendar 2025. It has direct flights to many cities in Asia and, depending on the season, beyond. Phuket is also reachable by road from the mainland.

Koh Samui has its own international airport (Samui International Airport). It is privately owned and operated by Bangkok Airways. C9 Hotelworks reports about 2.78 million passenger arrivals in 2024, a different measure from Phuket’s total passengers, and notes that international scheduled flights made up only 14% of flights from January to April 2025. In practice most visitors from Europe connect through Bangkok. The other route is a flight to Surat Thani on the mainland and a ferry from Don Sak Pier, which the Tourism Authority of Thailand lists as the departure point for Samui.

If you plan to visit often, or to let the apartment to holiday guests, check flight options from your home city for both islands before you choose. Routes change by season, so look at the months you would actually travel.

Healthcare and schools

Both islands have private hospitals used to treating foreign patients, but Phuket has more of them and a larger public hospital, Vachira Phuket Hospital. Private groups such as Bangkok Hospital run sites on both islands.

On Samui, the developer lists these distances from The Astra Samui in Bophut: Wattanapat Hospital 1.8 km, Thai Inter Hospital 3.6 km and Bangkok Hospital Samui 6.1 km. For specialist or complex treatment, ask the hospital what it handles on site and what it refers to the mainland.

Schools follow the same pattern. Phuket has a wide choice of international schools, including British International School Phuket and UWC Thailand. Samui has fewer, among them International School Samui, 3.3 km from the project, and Lamai International School, 12.9 km away, according to the developer. If you are moving with children, check the curriculum and the age range each school covers. The International Schools Association of Thailand keeps a directory of its member schools.

Seasons and weather

The islands sit on opposite coasts of southern Thailand, and their rainy months do not match.

Thailand’s rainy season comes with the southwest monsoon, from about mid May to mid October, and this is when Phuket, on the Andaman coast, gets most of its rain. Koh Samui is on the Gulf of Thailand side. According to the official classification of Thai seasons, rain on the southern east coast continues until the end of the year, and November is usually the wettest month there.

Think about which months you will actually spend on the island. If you plan to let the apartment, remember that the busy and quiet months differ too. Weather varies from year to year, so treat these as typical patterns, not a forecast.

Day-to-day life

Phuket feels more like a small city. It has more shopping centres, restaurants, international services and nightlife, and more traffic. Popular areas can be very different from each other, so a home near a busy beach and one in a quiet residential area offer quite different lives.

Samui is smaller and slower. A ring road runs around the island, so distances are short, and life centres on a few areas such as Bophut, Chaweng and Lamai. You will find supermarkets, a shopping mall and international restaurants, though less choice than in Phuket. If you want a quiet base rather than a resort city, Samui is the better fit.

Who each island suits

As a rough guide:

• Phuket tends to suit buyers who travel often and want direct flights, families who need a broad choice of schools, and people who want city services and a large property market to choose and later resell in.
• Koh Samui tends to suit buyers who want a quieter island with mostly low-rise building, people who come for longer stays rather than short trips, and those happy with a smaller choice of schools and hospitals.

If you plan to let the apartment, look at each project’s rules and the local rental market rather than at the island alone. Rental income is a possibility to research, not a promise, on either island.

Where The Astra Samui fits

The Astra Samui is a low-rise, resort-style condominium in Bophut, the area where most of Samui’s new condominium supply sits. It has 237 residences in 3 buildings (A, B and C), with apartments of about 26–73 m². Bophut Beach is about 300 m away and the airport 7.3 km, according to the developer. Completion is planned for Q4 2028, and prices start from THB 3,700,000 (about €98,000, NBP average rate of 23 October 2026).

Varsovia Estate is the sales agent for The Astra Samui, and we also have an office in Phuket. If you are weighing the two islands, we can show you projects on both: our wider portfolio is on varsoviaestate.com. For Samui, read more about the Bophut location and buying on Koh Samui as an investment, or book a call to talk it through with our team.