Cost of living in Hua Hin

[Johan]

There are several categories of people, Johan. One of them is super-arrogant.

So is being arrogant to tell the truth about how much it will cost to live in Thailand ?

Do you know why it's expensive to live here ? The wife is not working or not making much money and a lot of things that are free in your own country are not free here or very more expensive. Also in your own country you can get loans, financial support from family members, etc. You believe everything is so cheap and you start spending money like crazy and you can't stop.

This is not arrogance, this is how it is in Thailand for many people. I have friends who live in rented small condos with nothing, with rent fees of 8000 bahts and they are spending 100K+ every month on other expenses. They are doing things that they would never do in their country. Do you know how much it would cost you to make a party in Monaco in France ? Be ready to spend 500 000 baht for one night.

Life is cheap, doing things is expensive. You can stay in your room and look at the cell for free. Or you can start doing things and this will cost you a lot.

I checked out the definition of arrogant - http://www.answers.com/topic/arrogant - I don't believe that i'm superior to anyone, as i writted it down, i was poor, for real. I'm not poor anymore but i can be poor again in the future. Be happy with your life, if you don't like it do anything to make it better. I came to Thailand with 500 euros in january 2007, i had nothing else and no help also. I came here poor, i wanted more, i tried hard every day and here i'm. Well, i'm still young (25yrs old) and i understand that most people here are older than me, 60 yrs+. We are not seing the life from the same perspective at this moment. I will loose everything i own, this is sure, i can't live like this for decades, it's not possible.

[Johan]

I find some of these numbers just staggering if I convert to $, € or £. And incredibly hard to justify. I can't help but feel there is a big problem here with expectations. It quite literally costs me €2000 - 80k baht or so to stay in Hannover for a month, which includes living in a 4* serviced apartment which includes electricity, heating, internet connection, TV, hot water, is furnished etc. - and is considered to be expensive. Ok, it isn't huge, and there's no pool but that is €1100 all found. My expenses over the rest of the month are consistently less than €1000. That is Europe. Europe is supposed to be expensive.

In HH, my rent is 4500, and I need a bike which I also rent at around 3k a month. OK, it would have been cheaper to have bought the bike by now. It isn't all-found, but does include internet and is furnished. Without hitting a bar, my all-in cost of living before entertainment is probably 20-25k and I really don't think I am missing out on a lot. OK, I am a single bloke, so I don't have commitments - though the costs are still there, just not as commitments - as I say my monthly outgoing is around 70k. Admittedly, not running a car is a big saving.

Would I move to a more expensive and larger property if I had a family - sure - but in that case the 'collateral' costs would come down quite a long way and largely cancel each other out.

Now I am not denying there are many with substantially more money, who want to live, dine and play 'high end' all the time but in that case, what do you gain over Florida, the Caribbean, the Med and so on by being in Thailand?

You are alone, you spend 70K and you have no car, no home, no kids, no wife.

You are spending more than me. Alone i was spending 35-40K a month. And i had nothing also. When you get a wife, you are getting a new life. A new life is a car, two cars, a home, a kid, two kids and many expenses.

We spend arround 8000 bahts each week at Lotus and another 500 bahts each day at the market. Alone i was eating khao pat mu everyday, three times a day for 100 baht. I used cheap soap and i used the bus to save money.

Would you take your girl in the bus ? No way... you start taking the taxi, buying some cloths for her, taking her at the restaurant. Then she's pregnant, you start looking for a good hospital (100K), then you think it would be good to have a home, you start buying something cheap, then it's too small and the wife is too tired to take care of the baby, then you start looking for a new home and looking for a nanny. A bigger home = more expenses. Then you want some luxuries because you wont work just for food, the wife and the kid.

This is how your expenses can rocket up in a few months. Alone i can spend nothing, being the at the head of the family is expensive.

[STEVE G]

To inject a bit of reality into the topic, I maintain a large house we own in Issan, a rented two bedroom bungalow in Hua Hin, living costs for my partner and her mother and son, a Toyota Vigo and two Honda Waves for about 35,000 bt a month.
That obviously is purely expenses and includes no entertainment or anything of that nature which I finance to my own tastes when I'm out there.

[Spitfire]

I honestly feel I can live in the UK for about the same price as in Thailand with the exception of accommodation costs.

Yes, that's pretty much the case, and I did hint at that a little in my previous post.

It's interesting when you convert the price here into UK £ and US $, amazing how more expensive 'day-to-day' stuff here has now become compare to 5-10 years ago.

Accommodation is still reasonable and labour costs for building is still cheap as they use the low paid lot to build everything, even if they are skilled they are still paid peanuts relatively. Just because you pay a lot for your house, doesn't mean that building a house here is, in reality, more expensive or similar prices to what you pay in the west. Bet the property developers pay their workers the same in HH as the do in Nakon Ratchaisma or Chiang Mai, just profit margins that suit the developer and what the buyers will accept, not anyone/thing else.

The builders just use cheap labour, whether skilled or not it's still cheap is comparison, and inflate prices to the customer. Try building a house outside the touristy area, costs sweat FA really, just the usually property developer rip-off routine in desirable places with the collusion of the locals.

It's all about the land price, how much for a talang wai? The house costs is secondary imo. Sure some will disagree but I would question whether they have lived and operated outside said touristy area.

However, of course, I could be wrong but I doubt it. Not having a pop at anyone or anything, just highlighting the situation as some only might be aware of the deal inside such foreigner orientated areas.

The minute you step outside a touristy city then the price falls 60%.

As has been said, it's 'horses for courses' and lifestyles are available to fit every wallet.

Top and tail of it is, if you choose to live a 100 yards - 1 km from the beach then you'd better get your cash out, same everywhere else really that's acceptable to live in.

The OP was vague, however, it has been a positive thread as many have posted with their slant, but we should all remember that what floats one person's boat doesn't float another's, no matter what the reason is.

Mr B eloquently put that there isn't an answer to the OP's question really, agree.

It should not be a surprise to any that places such a HH are more expensive than many other destinations here is LOS.

However, no-one should have a hissy-fit about any of this as it's all just basic personal economics and 'large' has no place in any of it.

[Johan]

To inject a bit of reality into the topic, I maintain a large house we own in Issan, a rented two bedroom bungalow in Hua Hin, living costs for my partner and her mother and son, a Toyota Vigo and two Honda Waves for about 35,000 bt a month.
That obviously is purely expenses and includes no entertainment or anything of that nature which I finance to my own tastes when I'm out there.

Yes i'm not spending much more on "purely expenses", but it's the other things that are costing money. Things that many people will do or can't avoid. I checked out how much i would need to use to live without spending money and the cost wasn't too high, 50-60K for everything. But can you really cut down your wife pocket money ? The help for the family members ? The upgrades of your home ? The little things you like ? That sport car you always wanted ? The golf course you like ? The new Taylor Made driver that will help you hit the ball 10 meters far more than before ? The sunglasses that thai guy stole from your motorbike last week ? That new iPhone 4 your wife always wanted ? The holiday for your son to a beautiful island ?

Yes you can be cheap... Do you really want to be that cheap ? Tell us how much are you spending really each month including luxuries and don't forget to include the cars prices in the equation even if you bought it cash.

[Korkenzieher]

@Johan - I can only comment on what I *do* spend, not what I *might* spend and if you look closely the reference point is that my personal cost of living in Thailand is on a par with my personal cost of living in Europe or the UK. Perhaps higher.

As I said, as a single - but not abstemious - bloke I would anticipate that my cost profile would change a lot if I were not single. I'm not sure how much it would climb though, if at all. I am also pretty sure that that is also the case in (as I mentioned) much of the rest of the world. In Thailand, if I merely moved to a larger place (say 2 bed town house), I would add about 5-6k to my cost of living. If I moved someone in, it would cut down considerably on my expenses cost of living. I don't live on Khao pad mu - you can trust me on that! (or use cheap soap...). I live pretty well in Thailand - though would prefer a larger place. One of the reasons I haven't moved to a villa type place is to maintain proximity to town, and to keep the need for car usage down to an absolute minimum. It's not that I can't - it is that I don't want the hassle. Another reason is that I am bouncing back and forth a lot to work contracts in Euroland at this time, so I would just be paying more to keep the place empty. Horses for courses.

[Super Joe]

You can live on the same amount of money in any of those places as well as you can in Hua Hin if you try.

I honestly feel I can live in the UK for about the same price as in Thailand with the exception of accommodation costs.

Sure, but this isn't even remotely comparing like for like, is it? I just looked up some comparisons, went for the bigger items but took a fair average cost I believe, no fudging at all...

UK:
UK: Ave. cost of 3 bed house in Bournemouth (I don't know why), I added a pool cost - 13 million Baht
HH: Could get equivalent 3 bed with pool for around 6 million. 7 million in the bank.

UK: Ave. rental of 3 bed house (no pool) in Bournemouth & council tax - 80,000 Baht/month.
HH: Same for 20,000 Baht/month. Save 700k year.

UK: Full time maid/gardener (I know you don't), part time pool cleaner, all on minimum wage - 150,000 Baht/month.
HH: Same 15,000 Baht/month. Save over 3 million Baht every 2 years.


US:
US: Ave. cost of 3 bed house in Ft. Lauderdale (I don't know why), I added a pool cost - 7.5 million Baht
HH: Could get equivalent 3 bed with pool for around 6 million. 1.5 million in the bank.

US: Ave. rental of 3 bed house (no pool) in Ft. Lauderdale & property taxes - 95,000 Baht/month.
HH: Same for 20,000 Baht/month. Save 1 million Baht every 14 months.

US: Full time maid/gardener, part time pool cleaner, all on minimum wage - 105,000 Baht/month.
HH: Same 15,000 Baht/month. Save 1 million Baht a year.


US/UK a caddy 10x more expensive, a regular massage 5x as expensive, taxi into city centre (or downtown if you'd prefer to go there) 3x as expensive, brass in a city centre hotel 10x as expensive BaaBaa reckons, Hua Hin consultation with doctor/specialist, tests & meds under 2k, UK I'll let you know in October.

SJ

[Korkenzieher]

It depends on your pricing point as to whether you are comparing like with like. Of course a pool villa in the south of England is more than in Thailand. But comparing the north of England to the south of England would bring you to the same general conclusion. Comparing like with like, a 2 bed house in Yorkshire costs you about £4-500 - less than half what it does south of the wash. You don't have to go to Thailand to do it. And nobody would deny that there is a better standard of living to be had pretty much anywhere than the UK currently.

I think it is fair to say though, that the main savings that can be made are in accommodation. Owning my own 3 bed place outright in the UK (any buyers?...) means that I could live there effectively for the cost of the poll tax. Accommodation aside - talking food, beer and so on - I still think my daily cost of living is in line with that in Thailand. But that is my cost of living, and inherently subjective.

[STEVE G]

Tell us how much are you spending really each month including luxuries....

I have no need for luxuries as I was brought up in the centre of England during the sixties and seventies and am not used to them!
I know what my expences are as I have to pay them when I'm not in Thailand but I've never actually worked out what I spend when I'm there.
It's certainly not a huge amount of money as I don't play golf or visit expensive restaurants or anything of that nature. I do go out at night quite a lot but not in a wild way which is more to do with age than cost.

[richard]

I do go out at night quite a lot but not in a wild way which is more to do with age than cost.

I know the feeling

[Super Joe]

It depends on your pricing point as to whether you are comparing like with like. Of course a pool villa in the south of England is more than in Thailand. But comparing the north of England to the south of England would bring you to the same general conclusion. Comparing like with like, a 2 bed house in Yorkshire costs you about £4-500

Of course I was comparing like with like, HH is one of the top 4/5 beach resorts in Thailand, so it picked Bournemouth.

A '2 bed house in Yorkshire'

SJ

[glyngsd]

Thanks for all the advice and opinions. Seems like the subject is a bit of a hot potato, but guess if you asked English people how much they would need to live 'comfortably' you would get lots of different answers. Have a couple of friends with Thai wives who insist you can live well on £200 a week, 10,000 baht. Seems thats not the case. Guess the answer is to live like a Thai, but there are home comforts which would be missed.

[Johan]

It depends on your lifestyle. Thai couples can live on 20 000 baht a month without problems. Other thai couples live on 1 million baht at month.

Most of the farang i know with 1 thai girl to take care of live on 100 000 baht. You will not have luxury at that price, just a confortable life. Also you will want to buy things that cost money, "oneshots", car, motorbike, computer, tv, swimming pool, boat, etc.

40 000 baht will buy you the strict minimum for live. Nothing else. Yes you can live, but i believe you want to live well or very well. Are you asking us how to survive or how to have a real good life

[caller]

Wow, what a diverse range of views and experiences!

I guess for most, that comparing costs to the UK/US and LOS is irrelevant, as many who make the move to LOS are retiring. So what costs there are associated with living in a dump like Bournemouth (IMHO) compared to Hua Hin, is sort of irrelevant. I'm still earning, so can afford those costs, but won't be able to afford the same in Hua Hin when retired.

Which is why I no longer plan to settle there - its cheaper elsewhere in LOS.

As for that sports car that Johan mentions, that just cannot be resisted, well, I've managed so far, so I guess I'll just have to get by without in future! Hope I can cope?

[Korkenzieher]

Of course I was comparing like with like, HH is one of the top 4/5 beach resorts in Thailand, so it picked Bournemouth.

And Bournemouth vs Fort Lauderdale is like with like ?

We move in different circles, my friend...