any budget retirees enjoying Bangkok? Is it still viable? (after covid of clurse)

[NoshowJones]

Don't do it, too many immigration issues, is run by an unelected government. The amount you have to live in would be fine if you don't use the bars, (when they reopen), use working girls, are a heavy drinker. But again I say reconsider at this time.

[LarrySR]

A retiree needs to prove 65,000BT. monthly income to renew the VISA.

 

[Mike Teavee]

20 minutes ago, LarrySR said:

A retiree needs to prove 65,000BT. monthly income to renew the VISA.

 

Thankfully (as my “income”was about 50k THB pm last year) there are other ways  e.g putting 800K in the bank or using the combination method (say 400k in the bank & 32,500 income).

 

I wouldn’t move here unless I could meet 1 of those 3 requirements but there’s possibly more guys here who don’t (or don’t want to) than do & they use an agent to help “meet” the requirements 

 

[Salerno]

19 minutes ago, LarrySR said:

A retiree needs to prove 65,000BT. monthly income to renew the VISA.

Not if they drop 800K into the bank or a combination thereof.

 

[JCP108]

My wife and I have average total expenses of around 50k/month (including health care and insurance though not including travel) though we save a lot because we live in Lad Prao (which you prob wouldn't choose unless you speak Thai). 

[AlexRRR]

19 hours ago, Mike Teavee said:

Then you'd know that staying in a 2Br 1 bth corner unit as close as you can get to a BTS station (Ideo Verve) for 20K (Pre Covid pricing, I took the unit in 2018) is a good deal & you'd know the building is anything but a dump...  

 

Again, where do you live & how much do you pay so we can compare apples with unicorns. 

 

Edit: Can get 1 of the smaller 2br'/1bth units for 15K at the moment (I could have stayed in mine for the same but wanted a change so moved to be closer to the beach/sea)  https://www.hipflat.com/projects/ideo-verve-sukhumvit-tpmbtn but if you're retiring somewhere, it's probably not a good idea to base your rent on Covid Pricing as this is unlikely to last beyond the next 2-3 years... 

 

FWIW the Unit I moved to rents for 45-55K pm in non-covid times & I'll be out of here the moment the landlord asks for > 30-35K pm... Figure I've got 2 years by which time I'll be ready to move anyway. 

 

I stay (and once corvid is over move to BKK permanently) in a fairly decent area with a BTS station end of my soi and MRT one stop on the BTS, easy walking to a Central one side and another non central relatively decent shopping complex with a small night market besides it, i dont want to say where i am/do stay as i dont want a horde of expats moving in there, its known, condo building, 6 floors about 25 ys old fully with lifts, owned and rented out and well maintained, sure its a bit dated now but the owner fixes everything the moment it goes wrong, stayed there on and off the last 15 years, longest time period was for 6 months. 

 

About the same distance as On nut to downtown, 1 bedroom 40sq meters, 9500B ( been the same price since i first stayed there), has a kitchen but you need to provide your own cooking gear. Swimming pool and under cover car parking included, laundry on site or use of there washing machines for a modest fee. 2 and and i think some 3 bedroom condos available also.

 

Since i stay alone and only have the over night guest from time to time its all i need. But 2 people can live there easily enough. The under cover car park makes living there a bit off a big deal for me, night security on duty, duty station in the car park with staff in the office or onsite cleaners and maintenance crews 6 days a week. Resident card entry to building after hours or when office is not manned.

 

Lot of open spaces close by and university 2 stops near by, the old TGF and dates since regard this area as a nice area, i would consider moving if i was moving out of BKK which would be on the cards at some point in the future. 

[Mike Teavee]

11 minutes ago, AlexRRR said:

I stay (and once corvid is over move to BKK permanently) in a fairly decent area with a BTS station end of my soi and MRT one stop on the BTS, easy walking to a Central one side and another non central relatively decent shopping complex with a small night market besides it, i dont want to say where i am/do stay as i dont want a horde of expats moving in there, its known, condo building, 6 floors about 25 ys old fully with lifts, owned and rented out and well maintained, sure its a bit dated now but the owner fixes everything the moment it goes wrong, stayed there on and off the last 15 years, longest time period was for 6 months. 

 

About the same distance as On nut to downtown, 1 bedroom 40sq meters, 9500B ( been the same price since i first stayed there), has a kitchen but you need to provide your own cooking gear. Swimming pool and under cover car parking included, laundry on site or use of there washing machines for a modest fee. 2 and and i think some 3 bedroom condos available also.

 

Since i stay alone and only have the over night guest from time to time its all i need. But 2 people can live there easily enough. The under cover car park makes living there a bit off a big deal for me, night security on duty, duty station in the car park with staff in the office or onsite cleaners and maintenance crews 6 days a week. Resident card entry to building after hours or when office is not manned.

 

Lot of open spaces close by and university 2 stops near by, the old TGF and dates since regard this area as a nice area, i would consider moving if i was moving out of BKK which would be on the cards at some point in the future. 

Reasonably sure I know where you mean & if I'm right it's a very nice area so 9.5K for a 1br is a very good price there.

 

I always go for 2br units as (pre-covid) my parents come out to stay with me for at least 1 month every year so I need a br for them sleep in (more accurartely I'm shunted into the spare room).

 

As an aside, one of the strange things I've noticed about condos in Thailand is that a 2br unit costs more than twice what a 1br unit costs so I told the GF to try to find us 2 x 1br units (ideally on different floors ????) when we were looking for a new place. 

 

If/When you do move out of Bangkok, can highly recommend the Wongamat area, it's very quiet (don't live here if you want/need a lot of bars) but 60THB/15 mins in a Bolt Taxi & you're at Central Festival in the middle of Pattaya.

 

 

 

 

[driver52]

6 hours ago, Mike Teavee said:

Jesus you must be living on the cheap if you can do it for < 400 Euros a month! House paid for or not it would cost me more than that in cheese alone.

 

But if you're offering me a swap for 400 Euros worth of French Red.... Where do you want her delivered to?

 

cheese is cheap too, ride a bike, don't drink alcohol.....

Westerners consume too much.....

Has anyone mentioned how much the average Thai lives off each month? ????

[driver52]

37 minutes ago, Mike Teavee said:

can highly recommend the Wongamat area, it's very quiet

what's the best websites for finding stuff now? facebook?

[Mike Teavee]

34 minutes ago, driver52 said:

cheese is cheap too, ride a bike, don't drink alcohol.....

Westerners consume too much.....

Has anyone mentioned how much the average Thai lives off each month? ????

I know but it wouldn't really be fare to ask her to give up her job/income & not replace the lost salary so 15K pm it is (or was it's 20K pm now but 10K goes into a savings account for her)

 

On the bright side, I did manage to get 500g of my favourite cheese for 280THB the other day though ???? 

 

 

[Mike Teavee]

20 minutes ago, driver52 said:

what's the best websites for finding stuff now? facebook?

I used Thailand-Property (https://www.thailand-property.com/) & Hipflat (https://www.hipflat.com/) but there are some good property groups on Facebook (I don't use FB so can't recommend any). 

 

Also, check out the Ocean Properties ( https://pattaya-ocean-properties.com/info/about/aci-ocean-properties/) & PBRE (https://www.pattayabayrealestate.com/) sites to get a feel for the different buildings then contact Som at Ocean Properties to view units in them. 

 

Fazwaz (https://www.fazwaz.com/) is great for their virtual tours but their units always seemed more expensive than units with other agents.

 

[Salerno]

28 minutes ago, driver52 said:

what's the best websites for finding stuff now? facebook?

To add to @Mike Teavee's list (given he doesn't use FB) here's a couple of groups that may have listings of interest to you:

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/PattayaCondosForSaleOrRent/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/421587791811427/

 

 

[EricTh]

@Grecian

 

Is that 55,000 baht or 5,500 baht? If it is the former, then it is more than enough. If the latter, you can't survive on that.

 

I only spend 10,000 baht per month but not in Bangkok.

[Bruno123]

4 hours ago, Mike Teavee said:

Whilst I agree with you interms of rarely needing to use the BTS,  the fact that you're near a BTS station means that you're close to restaurants/bars/shopping centers etc... as these tend to spring up  around the stations so you don't need it (I could go months where the only times I went up the BTS steps were to get to the Tesco Lotus superstore on the other side of the road). 

 

I did have a conversation with the GF about the fact that we were probably paying a 5K premium pm to be so close to the BTS & we hardly ever used it but when we looked at new condos around Bangkok we decided we still needed to be within 500m of a BTS or MRT station to have everything we needed on our doorstep. 

 

Now I've moved to Wongamat I take Bolt Taxis everywhere (Central Pattaya is approx 60THB away) but I need to as I no longer have 3 large shopping centers & 2 fresh markets on my doorstep (in fact we only have 2 Family Marts & 1 Lotus minimart since the 2 7/11 shutdown)... Where's the bloody BTS when you need it ????

 

 

So the two 7-11 made all the difference from when you moved in?

 

Of course if you really cared about those things, you could have moved closer to the malls and fresh markets, since you already knew there were none within a few hundred metres when you first moved in.

 

[Bruno123]

2 hours ago, Mike Teavee said:

Reasonably sure I know where you mean & if I'm right it's a very nice area so 9.5K for a 1br is a very good price there.

 

I always go for 2br units as (pre-covid) my parents come out to stay with me for at least 1 month every year so I need a br for them sleep in (more accurartely I'm shunted into the spare room).

 

As an aside, one of the strange things I've noticed about condos in Thailand is that a 2br unit costs more than twice what a 1br unit costs so I told the GF to try to find us 2 x 1br units (ideally on different floors ????) when we were looking for a new place. 

 

If/When you do move out of Bangkok, can highly recommend the Wongamat area, it's very quiet (don't live here if you want/need a lot of bars) but 60THB/15 mins in a Bolt Taxi & you're at Central Festival in the middle of Pattaya.

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't find that. I narrowed my choices down to a 2 bedroom beachfront apartment and a beachfront studio. The prices were just 5k apart. Though the advertised prices were 10k apart. 

[Mike Teavee]

3 minutes ago, Bruno123 said:

So the two 7-11 made all the difference from when you moved in?

 

Of course if you really cared about those things, you could have moved closer to the malls and fresh markets, since you already knew there were none within a few hundred metres when you first moved in.

 

I was joking but yes I would have preferred it if we had 1 Family Mart & 1 7-11 instead of the 2 Family Marts.... Good news is I went past the bigger of the 2 7/11s yesterday & it looks like there's some activity going on so hopefully will re-open soon.

 

Actually we discussed at length the fact that there were no supermarkets around but the alternative would be to live in Central Pattaya so we felt the trade off of taking a taxi a couple of times a week to do grocery shopping (most stuff you can order online but I don't like to buy meat, fruit or veggies without choosing it myself) was worth it. 

 

Have to admit that we were spoiled living in On Nut as we had a Tops next door, a big Tesco Lotus across the road & a large Big C a 5 minute walk away.... But didn't have a beach 100m away

 

 

 

 

[Mike Teavee]

9 minutes ago, Bruno123 said:

 

I didn't find that. I narrowed my choices down to a 2 bedroom beachfront apartment and a beachfront studio. The prices were just 5k apart. Though the advertised prices were 10k apart. 

Sure Studios are cheaper but having spent decades living in hotels when working away on projects I need at least 1 wall between the bedroom & living room... 

 

My experience was 1BR were going for 15K (IIRC Studios were about 9K) & 2br for 35K (though I got 20% knocked off this price). 

 

 

 

[Bruno123]

49 minutes ago, Mike Teavee said:

I was joking but yes I would have preferred it if we had 1 Family Mart & 1 7-11 instead of the 2 Family Marts.... Good news is I went past the bigger of the 2 7/11s yesterday & it looks like there's some activity going on so hopefully will re-open soon.

 

Actually we discussed at length the fact that there were no supermarkets around but the alternative would be to live in Central Pattaya so we felt the trade off of taking a taxi a couple of times a week to do grocery shopping (most stuff you can order online but I don't like to buy meat, fruit or veggies without choosing it myself) was worth it. 

 

Have to admit that we were spoiled living in On Nut as we had a Tops next door, a big Tesco Lotus across the road & a large Big C a 5 minute walk away.... But didn't have a beach 100m away

 

 

 

 

100 metres??!! Are you living in the jungle? ????

 

I guess the TOPS Daily nearby doesn't offer anything much different.

 

 

[Mike Teavee]

Just now, Bruno123 said:

100 metres??!! Are you living in the jungle? ????

 

I guess the TOPS Daily nearby doesn't offer anything much different.

 

 

Sorry, I was including the Condo driveway which accounts for at least 1/2 of that ???? 

 

Yeah, the Tops Daily doesn't offer much variety (looks like the 2nd Family Mart opposite Wongamat Towers might turn into 1) but I have to confess that 1 of my secret vices is a couple of the 7/11 cheese toasties for breakfast & a few 330ml bottles of Budweiser (but not for breakfast) every now & again...

 

 

I know... I know, how can I call myself a Brit ????  

 

 

 

[Bruno123]

1 hour ago, Mike Teavee said:

Sure Studios are cheaper but having spent decades living in hotels when working away on projects I need at least 1 wall between the bedroom & living room... 

 

My experience was 1BR were going for 15K (IIRC Studios were about 9K) & 2br for 35K (though I got 20% knocked off this price). 

 

 

 

 

Depends where you are looking/living. It clearly wasn't 9k for the studio in question. When I write about beachfront, I mean absolute beachfront. Not back of building or partial sea-view, but front and centre.

I didn't refer to studios being cheaper, but the difference in the cost between the studio and the 2 bedroom. Definitely not more than double.

I have no idea as to how you got from that to "studios are cheaper".

 

I am comparing apples with apples. Beachfront large studio, Beachfront large 2 bedroom. Definitely not double the price; even at the advertised prices.

As with anything YMMV. I have quite specific criteria.

 

 

 

 

[Bruno123]

Just now, Mike Teavee said:

Sorry, I was including the Condo driveway which accounts for at least 1/2 of that ???? 

 

Yeah, the Tops Daily doesn't offer much variety (looks like the 2nd Family Mart opposite Wongamat Towers might turn into 1) but I have to confess that 1 of my secret vices is a couple of the 7/11 cheese toasties for breakfast & a few 330ml bottles of Budweiser (but not for breakfast) every now & again...

 

 

I know... I know, how can I call myself a Brit ????  

 

 

 

Condo driveway?? You must be on the wrong side of the road ????

 

You are a Brit? In that case I'll take it easy on you ???? 

 

It's a good area.

[Mike Teavee]

1 hour ago, Bruno123 said:

 

Depends where you are looking/living. It clearly wasn't 9k for the studio in question. When I write about beachfront, I mean absolute beachfront. Not back of building or partial sea-view, but front and centre.

I didn't refer to studios being cheaper, but the difference in the cost between the studio and the 2 bedroom. Definitely not more than double.

I have no idea as to how you got from that to "studios are cheaper".

 

I am comparing apples with apples. Beachfront large studio, Beachfront large 2 bedroom. Definitely not double the price; even at the advertised prices.

As with anything YMMV. I have quite specific criteria.

 

 

 

 

It's just struck me that the reason the 2br units cost more than 2 x 1 br units is because they're at the front of the building so you get a full 180 degree sea view from your balcony rather than being able to see the sea from the side of your balcony (if you know what I mean)... 

 

Wongamat is a nice place, figure we'll do a couple of years here & then check out living somewhere else (Maybe Surat Thani, don't quite fancy living on an Island but do enjoy being close to the sea) 

 

[Bruno123]

8 minutes ago, Mike Teavee said:

It's just struck me that the reason the 2br units cost more than 2 x 1 br units is because they're at the front of the building so you get a full 180 degree sea view from your balcony rather than being able to see the sea from the side of your balcony (if you know what I mean)... 

 

Wongamat is a nice place, figure we'll do a couple of years here & then check out living somewhere else (Maybe Surat Thani, don't quite fancy living on an Island but do enjoy being close to the sea) 

 

I did the island thing; but got bored of seeing the same things every day. So settled for city and beach, as one can more easily travel around.

 

The two bedroom unit that I described is at the front of the building and is still only 25% more in price than the studio.

Though different building. 2 bedroom/ 2 bathroom is in a low rise building; though still more than double the square metre size of the studio, at around 120 to 140 square metres. Price was stated at 30k. I offered 20k and it was accepted.

 

Perhaps you are referring to a specific building, rather than generally.

 

Wongamat has generally avoided the homeless camp feel that you have with the main resort areas.

[Happyman108]

Guess living in Chiangmai with 55k a month is more comfortable........

[CartagenaWarlock]

After living in Bangkok for two years, my estimate is 2K USD/month with a savings of 100K USD will be comfortable living unless you're blowing money in Poseidon, Nana, or Soi Cowboy regularly. I lived in one of the most expensive condo on Sukhumvit (Q condo) for two years and blew more than 2 million baht in rent only. Then I bought a Jomtien brand new 2 bedroom condo and gave it to my daughter's mom (a 21 year former Poseidon model) before I came back to USA.

Start with the health insurance first by renting in a desirable place in Bangkok and then start budgeting to see where you stand. After living in Jomtien area for a few months, I found it is more to my preference.  I don't drink everyday and when I go to a bar I also buy drinks for a few girls. Once a week in a bar in Pattaya used to cost me 100 USD. With 100 million baht in my US banks and whore mongering all over the World, I have realized that happiness is a choice once you have certain amount of money. Beyond that everything is superfluous.