Cost of Living in Thailand

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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 bea 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 Cell Phones 3000 -5000 calls are reasonable 300 per month pre paid would cover a regular non international user.

Heavy users would need a plan these vary from company to company. Fax to UK/US 40-50 from an internet shop Post Regular letter UK/US 16-20 in Thailand3 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
White rice 5kg 70
Magic Clean Spray bathroom cleaner spray 500cc 60
Wine 300 and up per bottle. 7-800 for a good one.
Sanitary napkins 20 pack 18
Water 6 pack 1ltr 18
Kids Cereals all 60
Honey star 150 g.
Koko krunch, 170 g.
Trix cereals 175 g.
Cookie crisp 180 g.
Snow flakes 220 g.
Lays Extra large Potato chips 140g  35Pringles Potato chips/crisps, tube 57Toothbrush 2 pack 38
Fruit juice 3 x 200ml 30
Honey 300gms 70
Cake • Custard cake, blueberry jam,  strawberry jam or apricot jam  120 g. 30Jam (U,S,Jelly) Orange, Strawberry or Mixed fruits  400 g. 47
Palm oil 1 lt  30
Mosquito spray 600 ml. 80
Heineken 500ml 49
Chang Beer 640ml 35
Leo beer 330ml x 24  460
Black Label Whiskey 70ml 1000
100 Pipers 70ml 350
Smirnoff 70 ml 620
Gilbey’s Gin 70ml 300
Laundry Powder detergent 4000g  210 Laundry, these can be found everywhere prices vary but 500pm should cover it; items come back ironed and folded.

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.