Thailand still a destination of choice for money conscious expats

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Thailand still a destination of choice for money conscious expats

 

Bangkok. File photo

 

Thailand remains a popular destination for expats due to its low cost of living, a new survey has revealed.

 

Thailand was ranked in 4th place for cost of living behind Bulgaria (1st), Mexico (2nd) and Vietnam (3rd) in the Expat Insider 2018 survey.

 

Thailand also ranked in 6th place in the survey’s Personal Finance Index, which is based on “expats’ perception of their financial situation and whether they consider their income enough to cover all living expenses.”

 

The results echo a survey carried out by Thaivisa earlier this year which revealed that many expats in Thailand are able to live on less than 45,000 baht per month.

 

Despite featuring highly in the Personal Finance & Cost of Living Indices, overall Thailand trailed behind other Southeast Asian nations as a popular destination for expats.

 

 

According to the survey carried out by InterNations, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia are all preferred destinations for expats in Southeast Asia.

 

Overall Thailand ranked 18th place, behind Singapore (5th), Vietnam (14th) and Malaysia (17th).

 

ASEAN countries ranked ranked below Thailand were the Philippines (28), Indonesia (50) and Myanmar (53).

 

InterNations revealed its findings after 18,135 expats living in 187 countries or territories completed an online survey between 15 Feb to 7 March this year.

 

Respondents were asked to rank a country based on a number of factors such as quality of life, ease of settling in, working abroad, family life, personal finance and cost of living.

 

Overall Bahrain came in 1st place for the second year in a row, followed by Taiwan (2nd) and Ecuador (3rd).

 

Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and India were ranked in the bottom three.

 

You can read the survey in full here [PDF]

 

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2018-09-08

[CGW]

What a nonsensical survey, they must be making money - somehow from it? Utterly meaningless ?

[khwaibah]

Bar fine can be had for 300 baht.?

[keith101]

With the Aussie dollar still weakening against the Thai Baht its getting harder for those on a Pension .

[Vacuum]

17 minutes ago, khwaibah said:

Bar fine can be had for 300 baht.

Or no fine at all, just tell the woman to come to your room when she finish her work. If you afterwards fancy her, take her phone number and call her when you get 'in the mood', saves you money on expensive alcohol at the bar also. Why care about the bar pimp?

[ukrules]

Laos and Cambodia ?

[DrTuner]

Yes, if you're ok living like a somchai. Try to upgrade to euro standards and you're in a world of hurt.

[baansgr]

We all know the writing has been on the wall for a long time....

[yellowboat]

1 hour ago, ukrules said:

Laos and Cambodia ?

Cambodia is still affordable.  Food is more expensive, but most other things are cheap. 

 

Vietnam is becoming more of a winner with no visa hassles and good fun.  A few years from now, Vietnam will be outshining Thailand.   The junta best stop defiling all that is good in Thailand if they want to keep up with Vietnam and Malaysia. 

[GinBoy2]

Well I've said before, to the horror of the Thailand apologist trolls...Thailand aint cheap anymore, unless of course you're living in a tin shack and eating somtam every meal.

If you own property back in, wherever it is you come from, and you live, eat like you did back home, Thailand, at least for me was actually more expensive.

As for the survey itself...Singapore, really???

I've lived in Singapore and it, along with Hong Kong were the two most expensive places I'd ever lived!

[overherebc]

To have any meaning at all the survey would have to have all the answers based on age brackets, why the expat is in each country, type of work done by the expat, shop floor, middle management, project

management and the allowances givin by the employer in each case.

Company car and driver and maid paid for or have to buy a second hand 50cc bike to get to work and back. School fees paid for the kids or stick your kids in a local school etc.

Surveys like this really represent reality ????

[holy cow cm]

18 is not a top destination. Maybe for the Chinese now.

[marcusarelus]

11 hours ago, GinBoy2 said:

Well I've said before, to the horror of the Thailand apologist trolls...Thailand aint cheap anymore, unless of course you're living in a tin shack and eating somtam every meal.

If you own property back in, wherever it is you come from, and you live, eat like you did back home, Thailand, at least for me was actually more expensive.

As for the survey itself...Singapore, really???

I've lived in Singapore and it, along with Hong Kong were the two most expensive places I'd ever lived!

Since rent/buy housing is the largest percent of living expenses if you compare apples to apples you are not correct.  Cost of renting a new house in nice neighborhood furnished $180 a month.  So see?  Wrong eh?  Of course if you own property in the West it is cheaper duh? But that is not comparing apples to apples.  If your x wife got the property in West and you are trying to replace wife and home Thailand is quite a bit less expensive.  Add up cost of renting (not buying) a slightly used go go dancer and slightly used house  in the West as opposed to Thailand and not even close. 

 

You may know different people than I do but most are single men retiring who want to take advantage of the weather, rent of home and companionship and lack of taxes.  Thailand wins hands down unless you try and skew the survey. 

 

I can make any place look cheap or expensive given the control of the items compared.  But my demographic single active man retiring Thailand wins.

[GinBoy2]

Here we go.

As I said 'if' you still have a house back home, the rest of the cost of living isn't cheap

Now you can pull the wool aggressively over your eyes and deny that, but basically you're doing an 'Elon Musk', and smoking something delusional

[RichardColeman]

21 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

Thailand still a destination of choice for money conscious expats

To some, they have no other choice than to stay here and will be collecting bottles outside the 7/11 if the rates continue to drop

[hansnl]

It seems to me, but who am I, Thailand better take note!

The expat country of choice seems to become Vietnam.

And expats are the best advertisements for more expats and holiday makers from the west.

Thailand is still a good choice, but is it still the best?

 

[sitti]

Thailand hasn't been a cheap country to live for quite a while now. Look at energy costs. Many other countries are a lot cheaper. 1000 baht bill used to mean something but now you can't even fill up full tank of gas/diesel with 1000 baht. If energy costs are high, naturally it raises the costs of everything.

 

At least in our case, our living costs in Thailand are more expensive than when we lived back in the US, except medical costs of course.

[happy chappie]

I used to have many pals come over from the uk and some twice a year.now it's down to one and he's said after this Xmas visit he's knocking it on the head.the price of living here has gone through the roof.when the price of many items go up they don't go up 5-10%,it's 20% or more.

[micmichd]

21 hours ago, CGW said:

What a nonsensical survey, they must be making money - somehow from it? Utterly meaningless ?

Pensioners made their money in the West, worked for it, and now get deferred compensations. So the survey makes sense.

[sandrew33]

2 hours ago, marcusarelus said:

Since rent/buy housing is the largest percent of living expenses if you compare apples to apples you are not correct.  Cost of renting a new house in nice neighborhood furnished $180 a month.  So see?  Wrong eh?  Of course if you own property in the West it is cheaper duh? But that is not comparing apples to apples.  If your x wife got the property in West and you are trying to replace wife and home Thailand is quite a bit less expensive.  Add up cost of renting (not buying) a slightly used go go dancer and slightly used house  in the West as opposed to Thailand and not even close. 

 

You may know different people than I do but most are single men retiring who want to take advantage of the weather, rent of home and companionship and lack of taxes.  Thailand wins hands down unless you try and skew the survey. 

 

I can make any place look cheap or expensive given the control of the items compared.  But my demographic single active man retiring Thailand wins.

"....$180 a month in nice neighborhood furnished..." 

 

That depends on one's subjective definition of nice and on what one finds as acceptable furniture. 

 

But 5,000 baht a month isn't getting you much in any place I'd consider nice. 

[micmichd]

18 hours ago, DrTuner said:

Yes, if you're ok living like a somchai. Try to upgrade to euro standards and you're in a world of hurt.

Why should you have a better life than a somchai?

[melvinmelvin]

It was said higher up in the thread that "many countries are a lot cheaper".

 

That I doubt very much.

Of course, you can live cheap or costly almost anywhere, not least in Thailand.

 

It all depends on how you choose to live.

 

I am coming from a VERY high cost and VERY high tax country.

Where I have a VERY expensive home. With everything inside VERY expensive.

 

Am very comfortable in LoS. Half hour by taxi to BKK soi sleeze if I'm inclined

 

Thai wooden house on stilts by canal - 5000 / month

electricity 1300 / month

water 250 / month

 

lots of forest/jungle around - the air is clean

 

furniture; cheap Thai crap from BigC and HomePro, plastic and compressed saw dust - I find this funny

I enjoy it very very much

[Cadbury]

18 hours ago, ukrules said:

Laos and Cambodia ?

Vietnam is about half the cost of living to that of Thailand. Doesn't have some of those attractions Thailand is famous for but it is a whole lot cheaper, particularly for food and drink and most other things. Not so much so for rental unless away from the big cities.

If one is concerned about their budget then Thailand is just going to get harder and harder. For those who have flexibility to move Vietnam is a great option, Cambodia less so. 

[steve73]

29 minutes ago, sandrew33 said:

"....$180 a month in nice neighborhood furnished..." 

 

That depends on one's subjective definition of nice and on what one finds as acceptable furniture. 

 

But 5,000 baht a month isn't getting you much in any place I'd consider nice. 

5,000 can get you an unfurnished 3/4 storey townhouse just across the road from a relatively nice beach.   Great location... But of course, it's horses for courses... 

[johnc925]

22 hours ago, CGW said:

What a nonsensical survey, they must be making money - somehow from it? Utterly meaningless ?

Based on what, cost of living is great over here.. what part of it was nonsensical to you, may I ask. Just curious

[Surasak]

18 hours ago, baansgr said:

We all know the writing has been on the wall for a long time....

Its reading said writing thats the problem for some. However. I made a commitment some years ago and started a business. That keeps me busy, provides a reasonable income for myself and the immediate family, and keeps the extended family busy working. 

[ronaldo0]

Why the need to announce all these list all the time of how many people come here , cost of living , quality of life etc

Everyone here knows its all lies . They keep harping on as if they think they will convince everyone its still as good as it was if they say it enough !! I was in Vietnam 2 months ago and it looked a lot more appealing than here , especially the beaches.

 

[CGW]

12 minutes ago, johnc925 said:

Based on what, cost of living is great over here.. what part of it was nonsensical to you, may I ask. Just curious

Dear Just curious ? did you read the PDF? 

[overherebc]

26 minutes ago, melvinmelvin said:

It was said higher up in the thread that "many countries are a lot cheaper".

 

That I doubt very much.

Of course, you can live cheap or costly almost anywhere, not least in Thailand.

 

It all depends on how you choose to live.

 

I am coming from a VERY high cost and VERY high tax country.

Where I have a VERY expensive home. With everything inside VERY expensive.

 

Am very comfortable in LoS. Half hour by taxi to BKK soi sleeze if I'm inclined

 

Thai wooden house on stilts by canal - 5000 / month

electricity 1300 / month

water 250 / month

 

lots of forest/jungle around - the air is clean

 

furniture; cheap Thai crap from BigC and HomePro, plastic and compressed saw dust - I find this funny

I enjoy it very very much

.

 

1 hour ago, micmichd said:

Pensioners made their money in the West, worked for it, and now get deferred compensations. So the survey makes sense.

UK expats who have retired out here with only the state  pension have to do it on around 25,000 baht a month. Some I know have to borrow the 'agent fee' every year and pay it back over 4 months.

What food they buy and eat I have no idea but I'm sure the last time they saw a bottle of wine on the table was on TV or in a movie.

[BritManToo]

11 minutes ago, ronaldo0 said:

Why the need to announce all these list all the time of how many people come here , cost of living , quality of life etc

Everyone here knows its all lies . They keep harping on as if they think they will convince everyone its still as good as it was if they say it enough !! I was in Vietnam 2 months ago and it looked a lot more appealing than here , especially the beaches.

 

Agreed, I'm here because I have a house (easy accommodation) and a kid (easy VISA).

Without those two items, I'd be in Vietnam or the Philippines with a better exchange rate and an easier VISA.