Seafront Condo in Thailand: Will Your View Get Blocked?

What you need to know in 30 seconds

Building height on Pattaya’s coastline is limited not by the master plan (which has been cancelled) but by the 2020 environmental protection notification and Ministerial Regulation No. 8 on building control from 1976.
Within the first 20 meters from the shoreline, construction and renovation are banned entirely.
Up to 100 meters inland from mean sea level, buildings are capped at 14 meters, at least 75% of the plot must remain open space, and at least 50% of that open space must be green space.
Koh Larn, Koh Krok, and Koh Sak have a 9-meter cap.
Slopes steeper than 35% ban construction outright. Slopes of 20–35% allow only detached houses up to 12 meters, with a restricted building footprint.
A condominium or hotel within 50 meters of the shore requires a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) regardless of size — this is a 2020-era requirement that didn’t exist before.
The notification’s term formally expired on 24 July 2025; the ASA registry reports an extension to 2027, but we couldn’t find the primary act confirming it. This needs to be verified as of the transaction date.

Data verified 29 July 2026.

What you’re paying extra for when buying a seafront condo

A sea view is the most expensive premium in a Thai condo’s price — and the most vulnerable, since it’s easy to lose the moment a new building goes up in front of yours.

The good news is that on Pattaya’s coastline, this isn’t decided by the developer or city hall, but by two documents — one from 1976, the other from 2020. They directly cap building height near the water. That’s exactly why you see low buildings right along the shoreline, with towers only starting from the second or third row.

The bad news: the rules aren’t universal. They depend on distance from the shore and the slope of the plot, and the validity of one of the documents needs to be checked as of the transaction date. Below is exactly where the boundaries fall, how to calculate them for a specific building, and what to ask the seller before you put down a deposit.

The two documents keeping the coast low-rise

If you’ve stood on Jomtien Beach and noticed that right by the water there are low buildings and restaurants, with towers only starting from the second or third row — you were seeing these two documents at work.

The first is กฎกระทรวง ฉบับที่ 8 (พ.ศ. 2519), a ministerial regulation under the Building Control Act, published in the Royal Gazette เล่ม 93 ตอนที่ 87 on 29 June 1976 (amended by No. 9 in 1978). It applies to the subdistricts of Banglamung, Nong Pla Lai, Naklua, and Nong Prue.

Clause 3 bans, within a 200-meter strip from the boundary of the controlled zone facing the sea, among other things:

fuel depots,
cinemas,
row houses and shophouses (ห้องแถว / ตึกแถว),
markets,
auto repair and paint shops,
warehouses,
and — item 8 — buildings taller than 14 meters from road level.

Clause 4 adds a setback of at least 8 meters from Highway 3135 and a requirement that at least 75% of the plot remain open space.

This document is fifty years old. It predates the very concept of “Pattaya’s master plan” — and unlike the master plan, it’s still in force.

The second document that decides your view’s fate

ประกาศกระทรวงทรัพยากรธรรมชาติและสิ่งแวดล้อม on the protected area and environmental protection measures in Banglamung and Sattahip districts. Royal Gazette เล่ม 137 ตอนพิเศษ 170 ง dated 24 July 2020, effective 25 July 2020.

Key point: the notification covers both districts in full — not just “Pattaya’s beach strip,” but also Jomtien, Na-Jomtien, Bang Saray, Naklua, and Pratumnak.

What’s specifically banned and allowed

Zone or condition	Restriction
0–20 m from the shoreline	Construction and renovation banned entirely. Exceptions: utility structures no taller than 4 m and no larger than 24 m², with at least 75% open space, plus national security facilities
Up to 100 m inland from mean sea level	Buildings capped at 14 m; at least 75% of the plot must be open space; at least 50% of that open space must be green space
Koh Larn, Koh Krok, Koh Sak	Buildings capped at 9 m; at least 75% open space; at least 50% green space
Slope 20–35%	Only detached houses up to 12 m (9 m on the islands); building footprint no more than 90 m² on plots of 100 sq. wa or larger, and no more than 70 m² on smaller plots; permeable open space of at least 70% or 50%
Slope over 35%	Construction and renovation banned entirely
6 m from rivers, canals, and public waterways	Development banned, except for water-transport facilities and utility lines approved by the committee
Clause 5	All factories, except for a limited list, are allowed only east of Highway 3 (Sukhumvit); commercial livestock farming and crematoriums are banned

Slopes: where you can no longer build

Note the row on slopes over 35%. In the previous version of the notification (2010/BE 2553), the outright ban started at a 50% slope. The 2020 revision lowered the threshold to 35% — a notable tightening that directly affects hilly locations.

When a developer needs an environmental assessment — and why that’s good for you

Here’s a rule that significantly affects the economics of coastal projects.

Property type	Requirement
Hotels, apartment buildings, and condominiums within 50 m of the shoreline	Full EIA mandatory regardless of size
Same property types beyond 50 m from shore, with 30–79 rooms or 1,500–4,000 m²	IEE (simplified assessment)
Properties with 10–29 rooms or units	Must comply with the measures attached to the notification
Land subdivision for residential or commercial use: 30–499 plots or 1.8–100 rai	IEE

The requirement of “full EIA regardless of size within 50 meters” is new. It didn’t exist in the 2010 version, where the IEE threshold started at just 10 rooms.

The practical effect: today, a small boutique project right on the water goes through the same full-scale procedure as a 300-unit tower. For buyers, this means the timeline for bringing coastal projects to market has stretched out, and the number of new first-row properties is structurally limited.

What about old buildings that exceed the limits

Clauses 17–19 of the notification describe the transitional regime:

building permits already issued are completed under the old rules;
existing buildings aren’t subject to the new restrictions;
but they can’t be rebuilt or have their use changed to something now prohibited.

This matters more than it seems. If you’re buying an old building or a small hotel in the first row planning to demolish and rebuild, you need to calculate based on what’s allowed to be built today — not on what’s standing there now. The difference can be several floors.

Why Pratumnak stays low-rise

Pratumnak isn’t a subdistrict — it’s a hill within the Nong Prue subdistrict. And it’s the terrain that makes it a special case.

On slopes steeper than 35%, nothing can be built at all — no villa, no house, no extension. On slopes of 20–35%, only detached houses up to 12 meters are allowed, with a building footprint capped at 90 square meters (or 70 if the plot is smaller than 100 sq. wa), and permeable open space required to be 70% or 50%.

On top of that, the coastal part of the hill falls under the general rules: no construction within 20 meters, and a 14-meter cap within 100 meters.

A conclusion you can verify against the actual documents: Pratumnak is protected from dense high-rise development not by a “gentlemen’s agreement” or “neighborhood tradition,” but by rules currently in force. It’s one of the rare cases where the argument “they won’t build here” rests on the text of the law, not on hope.

With the same caveat we’ll repeat below — about how long the notification remains in force.

What this means for the view from your window

Let’s break it down layer by layer, the way we do for actual properties.

First row, up to 100 meters from the sea. By definition, nothing here can exceed 14 meters — roughly 4 floors. If your windows face this strip, the risk of being “blocked” is minimal. But the buildings in this strip are themselves low, so a 3rd-floor view of your neighbor’s 3rd floor is a common scenario.

Second row, beyond 100 meters. The coastal 14-meter cap no longer applies. The 1976 regulation applies instead — but only in the Banglamung, Nong Pla Lai, Naklua, and Nong Prue subdistricts, and only within 200 meters of the controlled zone’s boundary. Beyond that, your view is limited only by general building-control rules and whatever the future district plan ends up saying. There’s no 10-year guarantee here.

Slopes. On hills, the key parameter isn’t distance from the sea but the slope of the specific plot. We recommend checking the topographic survey of neighboring plots, not just your own — that’s what shows what can be built across from you.

What no one can guarantee. Even current rules can change: district plans for Banglamung and Sattahip haven’t been adopted yet, and once they are, some rules will be rewritten. More on this in the series overview article.

What this means for resale

Three practical points.

1. Limited seafront supply is a stability factor, not a growth one. We’re not promising price growth, and we won’t. But the fact remains: the volume of what can physically be built within the first 100 meters of the sea is limited by regulation, not by the market. That reduces the risk of “in three years an identical tower goes up across the street and tanks your price.”

2. For resale buyers, legality matters most. The coastal zone is where violations are most common: extensions within the 20-meter strip, extra floors, renovation without a permit. These surface during resale. What needs checking is the building permit and whether what was actually built matches the approved project — not just the Chanote title.

3. The notification’s formal expiry date is a real legal risk. See below.

A frank caveat: how long the notification remains valid

Clause 21 of the 2020 (BE 2563) notification sets a term of 5 years, i.e., until 24 July 2568 (2025).

Here’s what we found as of 29 July 2026:

the ASA registry (updated 20 November 2025) records an extension to 24 July 2570 (2027);
the ONEP page — the primary source — shows only the 2020 (BE 2563) version, with no mention of an extension;
we couldn’t find the primary act on the extension, its name or reference number; the Royal Gazette portal was unavailable due to Cloudflare protection at the time of checking.

So the accurate way to put it is: according to the ASA registry, the notification is in force, but we couldn’t confirm this with a primary source — its status needs to be checked as of the date of any specific transaction.

We’d rather say this plainly than repeat “in force indefinitely” the way other sites do. If the notification hasn’t been extended, some of the coastal restrictions are formally absent — and that changes both the risk assessment and the assessment of neighboring plots.

What this means for buyers

Ask for the distance to the shoreline in meters, not “how many minutes to the beach.” 20, 50, and 100 meters are three different legal regimes.
On slopes, demand a topographic survey. A 34% slope versus a 36% slope is the difference between “you can build a house up to 12 meters” and “you can’t build anything.”
Check whether the property went through an EIA or IEE if it’s within 50 meters of the sea or exceeds the threshold values. Missing an assessment where one is mandatory threatens the legality of the entire property.
Don’t buy “for demolition and rebuilding” without a legal check. The grandfather clause protects the existing building, not your new project.
Recheck the status of the 2020 (BE 2563) notification — as of your transaction date, not the date you’re reading this article.

We run exactly this kind of check as part of our “Property and Document Check” service — including distance to the shoreline, slope, permits on file, and whether the built structure matches the approved project. You can see what first- and second-row development looks like from above in our drone footage section, and browse properties in our catalog of residential projects.

Sources

ประกาศ ทส. เขตพื้นที่และมาตรการคุ้มครองสิ่งแวดล้อม บางละมุง–สัตหีบ พ.ศ. 2563 — Royal Gazette เล่ม 137 ตอนพิเศษ 170 ง, 24.07.2020. PDF · ONEP mirror
กฎกระทรวง ฉบับที่ 8 (พ.ศ. 2519), amended by ฉบับที่ 9 (พ.ศ. 2521) — เล่ม 93 ตอนที่ 87, 29.06.1976. PDF
Association of Siamese Architects, analysis of the 2020 (BE 2563) notification, 24.07.2020. asa.or.th
ASA registry of active environmental protection zones, updated 20.11.2025. asa.or.th/ma-epz
ONEP, Banglamung–Sattahip protected zone page, checked 29.07.2026. epa.onep.go.th
ประกาศ กพอ. แผนผังการใช้ประโยชน์ในที่ดิน EEC พ.ศ. 2562 — เล่ม 136 ตอนพิเศษ 301 ง, 09.12.2019. PDF

This material is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Data verified 29 July 2026.

A Seafront Condo in Thailand: How to Know Your View Won’t Be Built Over