Retirement Thailand
Cost of Living
Food
Generally if you like Thai food you can eat out at a local cafe or stall for 30 to 100 a meal, a better restaurant 100 to 200. Western meals 70 to 300 in a western style pub or restaurant. Fast food is available from the international chains Subway, KFC, McDonalds, and others mostly 50% or less than European prices. KFC .4 Pieces, fries, 2 cokes, coldslaw, popcorn chicken 239 Big international supermarkets/ hypermarkets with western goods are found around the country such as Tesco, Carrefour, Big C, Thai supermarkets tend to be cheaper and markets and stalls cheaper still. 3000 – 6000 per month should cover food and other supermarket items.
If you read through many newsgroups and web pages and talk to people living here the general rule of thumb seems to be that if you keep the same life style you have at home, same type of house in a similar kind of area, same eating and drinking habits, hobbies, and so on then Thailand is at least 50% cheaper than most Western locations. This point could be argued endlessly from a hundred different angles but that figure should be a good staring point for consideration of the viability of “living the good life in Thailand”
In this guide we have atempted to give so idea of the costs involved in living in Thailand, it is impossible to give acurate figures as there are so many variables such as location and quality. But we think we have given a pretty good indication of the prices of goods and services in L.O.S.
Household Expenses
Electricity 1000 pm or double or treble with air conditioning. Water 100 pm Bottled drinking water, big one for water cooler, delivered 23 Property Taxes none Cable TV 450 pm, Video rental 30 a night or a week Service charge for an apartment or house in a development may not be included in your rent , so check on that it can vary from 300 to 3,000 Internet 800 to 3000 depending on speed 800 would be fine for general use.
Gardener obviously depending on size and so on 300 to 1000pm.
All Prices in Thai Baht
Telephone
Install 6-8000 could be
more if your location is far from an existing line. Monthly fee 100. Local calls
3
Staff maid/cook live in help 5000- 6000 PM This could also cover a ‘care assistant’ for those with disabilities which would obviously be a minute fee compared to the west.
Groceries
Tuna 185 g can 22
Koko krunch, 170 g.
Trix cereals 175 g.
Cookie crisp 180 g.
Snow
flakes 220 g.
Leo beer 330ml x 24 460
Housing cost’s in
Thailand
Purchase.
You will not have a mortgage as they are not generally
available to non Thai’s assuming you have a house in the west that has little or
no mortgage you should have no problem using the cash from the sale of that
house to buy a condo in Thailand and have a large amount of money left over.
A very general comparison would be if you sold a house in the UK and
cleared 150,000 pounds that is aprox 14 million Thai baht. For example in
Jomtien or Pattaya a very
nice condo on the ocean 2 beds pool balcony view of ocean , gym,150sq meters
living space can be purchased for 5 or 6 million baht , 1 mile away from the sea
2 or 3 million for the same type of property
Rental.
Rentals in Thailand can be
very reasonable a small Thai style house in a tourist area such as Pattaya or
Hua Hin could be rented for 7000 – 8000 baht a month. A western type villa 15000
– 30,000 with a pool and security and so on. A studio apartment from 5000 a very
nice 2 bed on the ocean 30,000. A very high class penthouse or exclusive housing
development could cost 80,000-100,000 and up.Bangkok, Like all capital cities is
generally more expensive and double these figures would be a good guide.
In
the north or well away from main tourist towns rentals can be acquired for
astoundingly low cost, towns such as Udon Thani have very nice detached houses
for 10,000 p.m but for the purposes of this cost of living page we are referring
to the area’s where most expats choose to relocate. Prices shown relate to Pattaya area as it is one of the
most popular retirement locations. Some areas such as the southern resorts and
Bangkok will be more expensive for many item’s the rural areas will be cheaper.
This is a general guide please look at it in that way.
Transport.
Car Purchase 4 door
saloon Used Ford Focus 600,000 New Ford Focus 730,000
Motorbike 125cc Used
20-30,000 New 40-50,000
Insurance bike 1000 year
Insurance Car
15-20,000
Petrol/Gas 27 liter
Car rental long term 18-23,000
pm
Motor bike taxi 30 – 80
Local ‘baht bus’ 10
Taxi
local 100 -200 or whatever they can get away with, always barter
first.
Taxi airport or Bangkok from Pattaya 850 set price. Other trips always barter or try 2 or 3 taxi drivers. In Bangkok taxis should always run on a meter then they are very reasonable 50 for a 10 min ride
Bus long trips, very reasonable even in modern air conditioned buses cheaper non air conditioned buses, ask at the bus station for prices you will probably find several company’s for the same route.
Trains cheap but slow
Air budget airlines operate out of many airports Europeans will be familiar with ‘no frills’ airlines. Domestic and international flights can be very reasonable even at ‘silly’ prices if booked in advance Air Asia very often has internal and international flights for 300-700 baht, more regular prices for a 2 hour flight would be 3-4-5000.
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