On 31 December the sun rises in Warsaw at 07:45 and sets at 15:33, which leaves about 7 h 50 min of daylight. These are short, grey days. This article asks a practical question. If you wanted a place on Phuket for the months when Warsaw is dark, what would it cost to enter, how would you get there, how long could you stay, and what would you report at home?
The entry price, stated plainly
None of this is a complaint about home. It is context. According to the National Bank of Poland, the transaction price of a new flat in Warsaw on the primary market was PLN 16,471 per m² in the first quarter of 2026. That is the price level, and a buyer in Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk or Silesia knows it better than we do.
On Phuket, condominiums in our catalogue start from $99,000. A second home on the island does not replace a flat in Warsaw, and we do not suggest it should. It offers a different kind of purchase: an apartment in a managed building near the sea, with a published price, a stated foreign quota and a title in your own name.
What you can own
The common cliché is "leasehold only". It is half true. Land and villas are held on a registered lease, usually 30 years and renewable by contract. A condominium unit, however, can be owned freehold by a foreigner, in their own name, within the building's 49% foreign quota. Ask for written confirmation that the quota has room before you pay a reservation.
We sell only this form of ownership, and we do not arrange purchases through nominee companies. The reason is simple and not a matter of opinion: Thai authorities have been acting against ownership held through nominee structures, and a purchase that depends on one can be challenged. A condominium within the quota is the clean case. Proposals to change the quota or the lease terms have been discussed, but they are not law, and we do not plan around them.
Getting there from Warsaw
Check the operator and the date before you book, because winter schedules move.
- Itaka sells Warsaw to Phuket Dreamliner charters for the period 20 December 2026 to 4 April 2027, from Warsaw Okęcie only, in the evening. Packages and flight-only seats are sold; prices change daily, so check the operator.
- LOT flies Warsaw to Bangkok on a scheduled basis, about 10 h 20 min on the outbound leg. LOT does not fly scheduled to Phuket, so Phuket is a connection from Bangkok. Confirm the days in LOT's booking system.
- We found no direct flight to Phuket before about 20 December, and we found no departures to Phuket from Kraków, Gdańsk, Katowice, Wrocław or Poznań. If you live there, plan a transfer to Warsaw or a connection.
How long you can stay
From 15 September 2026, a Polish passport gets 30 days in Thailand without a visa. This is for tourism only. Poland is on the list of countries covered, and a single 30-day extension is possible at an immigration office, at the officer's discretion. Those who entered before 14 September keep the period stamped on arrival. The earlier 60-day scheme has ended. Rules like this change, so check the current ones with the Royal Thai Embassy in Warsaw before you fly.
A whole winter is longer than 30 days, so the question becomes which visa. The Destination Thailand Visa for remote workers is applied for in person at the Royal Thai Embassy in Warsaw. At the time of writing it asks for a balance of THB 500,000, and it allows 180 days per entry, extendable once. Other routes exist for long stays, including the retirement visa for those aged 50 and over, but their thresholds are described differently by different sources, so we do not quote them.
One point we always make: owning an apartment does not give you the right to reside. A visa and a title are separate matters.
Money, tax and the Polish side
Money for a purchase goes by bank transfer in euros or dollars, from an account in your own name, never in baht. The receiving Thai bank issues the foreign exchange transaction form that the Land Office asks for, so the transfer reference should name the project and the unit. Ask your Polish bank about its own limits, reporting and exchange rate before you start. We cannot say what they are.
Tax is where we say "ask your adviser" and mean it. Polish tax residents are taxed on worldwide income. As we understand it, private rental income from a flat abroad can be taxed at a flat rate filed on PIT-28, with the foreign tax credited, but you should confirm this with your tax adviser, who can also read what the Poland–Thailand treaty provides. A Thai adviser should look at the Thai side. Rental income depends on occupancy and is not assured unless a contract says so.
Where to start
If the idea holds up on paper, the next step is a short call. Our managers speak English, Russian and Turkish, so the call for a reader in Poland is in English. We will go through the buildings, the quota, the price and the visa for your dates, and then you can decide whether to see the island. Vika Thai Company Limited has worked in Phuket since 2013, and the developer pays our fee, not you.
The page for readers in Poland, with the projects and the current price floor, is at poland.vikathai.com. For a comparison with other European cities, Winter light: a Phuket base for EU and Baltic families applies the same rules to Frankfurt, Riga and others.
Read more
https://poland.vikathai.com/ — Phuket for residents of Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Silesia; condominiums from $99,000, with the current flights and the 30-day rule explained.