Buying property in Kata and Karon, Phuket.

Karon has about three kilometres of sand, the longest beach on this stretch, and the dry sand squeaks underfoot on a sunny afternoon. The quietest part is the north end, by the lake. About 500 metres inland from Karon Circle, the temple market runs on Tuesday and Friday evenings in the grounds of Wat Karon.

Kata is 600 metres further south and half the length, at about 1.5 km, with Club Med occupying most of the frontage. It is livelier and more compact, with the Dino Park mini golf at the Kata end of the beach road. Kata Noi lies just beyond it to the south.

Both sit in Karon subdistrict of Mueang Phuket, so a title deed for either will say Karon. Patong is 7 to 11 km north over the headland, and Phuket Town is about 15 to 17 km east across the hills.

Rain fell from the night of 22 August 2024 into the early hours of 23 August, about 200 mm of it in roughly six hours, according to the provincial disaster office. Mud then came down off the Nakkerd range behind Wat Kata and buried rented houses and villas. Thirteen people died, among them nine Myanmar workers and a Russian couple in their villa, and 19 were injured.

What came next is what matters for a buyer. Phuket's disaster-prevention office admitted that the slope behind Wat Kata had not been on its list of landslide-risk areas, because its attention had been on Kamala. Its provincial head said construction was a significant factor, alongside the rain, and named Karon and Kamala as areas at risk in any similar downpour. In April 2025 officials were back on Soi Patak 12, checking a hillside site whose cleared slope was washing soil onto the road, and whether it had the required permits.

For hillside property here, ask for:

• the building permit, and the land document behind it
• an engineer's report on how the slope above and below the building is retained and drained
• what was cleared or built uphill in the past five years

Pay more attention to what sits above the plot than to the view. Our buying guide covers the wider due-diligence steps.

The same run-off drains into the beach roads. In September 2024 water off the Nakkerd hills flooded Pak Bang Road, which runs behind the Kata beachfront, and homes at the foot of the hills in Kata were still taking mud weeks after the landslide. Ground-floor shops and units on these low roads are the exposed ones.

Mostly, but there is a history. In January 2024 black water from a pond and canal ran across Karon Beach into the sea, and pictures of it spread on local social media. The mayor insisted it was not sewage. Even so, the municipality dredged the canal, added aeration and announced more treatment capacity. In October 2025 Karon said it was repairing its existing treatment system and reviewing a new one for Kata along the Pak Bang canal. It is worth a look at the outfall nearest any beachfront unit.

The sea itself follows the monsoon. From about May to October the red flags go up along both beaches, and rip currents are the risk. For families, November to April is the swimming season.

Lower than on the north-west coast. C9 Hotelworks' May 2025 market report found one-bedroom condos in Karon asking up to ฿9.1m and three-bedroom villas up to ฿40.4m (about £908,000). The equivalent ceilings in Cherngtalay were ฿19.4m and ฿137.9m. You get a beach town for considerably less than at Bang Tao or Surin. The cost is the airport run of about an hour and the slope question above.

If you plan nightly holiday lets, the licensing position comes first: see the rental yields guide. A condo in Karon can be owned in your own name within the building's foreign quota. The rules are in our foreign ownership guide.

There is no Crown Continental project here at present. The nearest beach village where we do sell is Kamala, with apartments from £66,299 (฿2.95m). For a quieter, more residential south, see Rawai and Nai Harn.

If it has to be Kata or Karon, tell us which bay, whether you would accept a hillside building, and your budget. We will look at what is on the market, including established buildings with a letting record, and send you the slope and permit questions to put to each seller. Contact the Thailand desk. For island-wide coastal height rules, see the Phuket page.