Living in Hua Hin

[MDS]

My wife and I plan to up-sticks and move to Thailand next year. I have been offered a job with an engineering company in Bangkok but we may decide not to bother with this and simply retire. We are both from the UK, in our mid 50's,and currently live in South Africa where we shall sell our house and be able to put approx Baht 5 million in the bank (I already have an account at Krung Thai Bank)

 

We also have additional income of about Baht 65K per month from private pensions, and rental from a house in the UK, so from everything I have read we realize should have no problem getting retirement visas.

 

We have both been to Thailand many times so have decided that out of all the places we have visited, Hua Hin, or the surrounding area is where we want to stay.

 

From what I have read I know Hua Hin is not the cheapest place to live in Thailand but we want to be near the sea and not too far from Bangkok.

 

We are budgeting on needing Baht 100K per month to rent a property and live a comfortable life in Hua Hin. For those of you that know the area is that enough ? 

 

Thanks in advance for your replies.

[Maestro]

As this topic is not about visas or work permits, I am moving it from the forum Thai visas, residency and work permits to the Hua Hin / Cha-Am Forum.

[darrendsd]

Obviously depends on how much you want to pay to rent a house but in my mind 100k a month is more than sufficient to live comfortably here

[jpkh]

@MDS, It really depends on what you are looking and where in HH you would like to stay. Downtown HH some fancy condo place and you can pay over 100.000bath month for your 2-3 bedroom place but I hardly think that you are looking for that.

 

You can get fairly nice single houses for rent starting around 20.000 bath/month a bit further away from central area. I used to have one 3 bedroom, livingroom, kitchen, 2 toilets with shower room on nice quiet area not too far from center and they had even their small gym and swimming pool on village. From our house it was about 2km to main street and then another 2km to center so fairly close. 10 minutes with a motorcycle easily.

 

Other than that you need money for everyday operation like food, drinks, mobile phones, electrocity. So let's say if your monthly budget is 100k - 25k for house = 75k left.. Yeah with 75k 2 persons can live fairly nice life in HH.

 

I actually doubt that you can spend 75k every month unless dining on fancy restaurants etc every day. Normal living in HH is not that expensive after all.

 

Getting your place. Best way to do that is just go there. Book a hotel for 1 week and during that time just look around. Maybe you need to move 1-2 times before you find ideal place for you and your wife.

 

Central HH is full of nice hotels and also 1 week / 1 month rental places. So as said, first just get a hotel then travel around a bit, get 1-2 month condo rental and look more. After that you know fairly well what is around there and from where you would like to get more permament living area.

 

-jp

[HUAHIN62]

Depending on how long you want to stay and what your requirements are for a place to stay, you might think of buying a small 2 bedroom house/apartment. If you buy out of the town centre you could get one for B 1,5 m. If you intend staying for 5 years and pay B 30 000 per month for rent, you will spend B 1,5 m over the period. Even if you don't sell the property when you leave Thailand you can still rent it out and/or use it for vacations.

 

Your monthly costs will depend on your choice of the place you stay, the mode of transport used, the things you like to do and the food you eat.

[juehoe]

Hua Hin is of course a very good place to stay!

 

I bought a house here in 2008 and I am living here now since 3 years. We are located in Khao Tao, about 15 kilometres south of Hua Hin.

 

Since 2008, Hua Hin has made a big jump in infrastructure and it getting better and better. The drawbacks are the higher living costs and the traffic jams during the weekends. Hua Hin is one of the favourite weekend destinations for the middle class and up Bangkok Thais.

 

The land prices are more than four times higher now, too.

 

There are a wide range of rental houses here, as other already mentioned. But a good pool villa should be found from 50 kTHB per months on.

[lcp0761]

Are there go-go bar's there?

[lucifer666]

I have lived in Hua Hin for 5 years now and i can assure you that 100K a month is plenty. Enjoy your retirement

[Friendly Stranger]

Are there go-go bar's there?

They have beer bars but no go go's.

[PiPiFFS]

Check out Chumphon. Further South of HH by around 250kms but far better beaches, far cheaper properties and you can fly to BKK in around an hour. You also have the option of jumping on the ferry to go visit koh Tao, Koh Pangan and Samui. Also has far less Farang coffin dodgers there. The last time I went to visit my friend it was full of English expats that had sold up their place in Spain and moved to HH. HH was nice 10 years ago but I couldn't live there now

[KhnomKhnom]

Lordeee....... $1600 to $3000 USD per MONTH ???   Are you guys kidding?  Those are USA FLORIDA type rents for houses just outside Orlando for gosh sakes.  Am I missing a decimal or something.  These rates seem sky high?

[mikosan]

Yes, easily. Enjoy it.

[ChoakMyDee]

I wouldn't recommend living in Hua Hin. I live there now and I don't like it. It is too expensive. The traffic is terrible. It isn't really a beautiful place. I don't know why everybody wants to come here. The beaches aren't very good either. The parking is so bad that I don't take my car out anymore when I'm going anywhere inside the city...there is no place to park it! There are way too many people here now. Take the other poster's advice and move to a less crowded area further south.

You have plenty of funds to retire. Good luck!

[ggt]

As long as you stick with your wife from the UK...100K should be more than enough...if you remarry...factor in Thai family's needs and any previous Thai children the wife may bring along for you to pay for school, clothing, and such...

[richardathuahin]

I have lived in Thailand for nigh on 14 years and most of that time has been in Hua Hin so I have seen it grow from a relatively quiet town to a very busy town in places.

 

My advice would be initially rent a property not too far from the centre and thoroughly investigate the surrounding area particularly to the south. A reasonable house with access to pool facilities can be had from 15000Bht/month.

 

If your tastes are not too lavish (golf,bars,expensive eating places every other day) 100K/month is more than adequate.

 

Despite some who now say it is too busy, expensive and not beautiful I disagree providing you get to know your way around. I am living on very little more than I did some 14 years ago.

 

By renting initially you gain time to thoroughly absorb all the options and have an easy exit if it's not to your liking.

 

Enjoy

[JimHuaHin]

I wouldn't recommend living in Hua Hin. I live there now and I don't like it. It is too expensive. The traffic is terrible. It isn't really a beautiful place. I don't know why everybody wants to come here. The beaches aren't very good either. The parking is so bad that I don't take my car out anymore when I'm going anywhere inside the city...there is no place to park it! There are way too many people here now. Take the other poster's advice and move to a less crowded area further south.

You have plenty of funds to retire. Good luck!

 

I could not agree more with this advice ... one large shopping centre is underconstruction and a couple more planned. about 15,000 new condos expected to come online during the next year; basic infrastructure is already underpressure, as is the local hospital.

 

Driving around the area over recent weekends with a Thai friend (who has lived in teh area for 40 years) looking for a house to buy or rent, she commented to me on the number of developments in areas that are subject to flooding.  Some housing estates, including the one I am currently living in, are built on land fill, with associated problems of cracked walls, broken pipes and sink holes due to non compression of the land fill.

 

Talking to Thais and expats who have lived here for 10+ years, the general view is that Hua Hin was great until the rapid expansion since the middle of last decade.  In essence, in a decade or so Hua Hin will be little different from Pattaya or Phuket.

[hhfarang]

Talking to Thais and expats who have lived here for 10+ years, the general view is that Hua Hin was great until the rapid expansion since the middle of last decade.

 

 

Exactly correct.  I came here in 2003 and it was a wonderful quiet town, easy to get around in but with just enough expats, bars, restaurants, and shopping to be able to enjoy life.  The start of the growth explosion was the tsunami in December 2004.  After that many people who vacationed, lived, worked, and had businesses in Phuket and the surrounding areas moved to Hua Hin looking for a safer place.  Before that 99.9% of the people in the world had never heard of Hua Hin.  After that it became well known in Europe and has grown faster than any place I've ever seen or heard of since then.

 

And I disagree with Richard's post a bit above about the cost of living.  If you live the lavish life style he described 100k will not be enough.  My pension is a bit more than that and I had to quit playing golf because it's too expensive here, don't drink in bars, and don't go out to eat nearly that often and just barely get by (I am renting a three bedroom house for 20k pm and I do support 2 people besides myself though).  The cost of living has increased on the order of 40 to 50% since I came in 2003.

 

Also on the comment above about buying instead of renting.  I built a home when I came and because of the climate and building standards here I was spending around the same amount (annual average) per month maintaining it that I do now on rent, except now someone else (the landlord) has to worry about it and get it done while I relax worry free.  Owning property here was stressful for me as getting good work done is very difficult.  I like renting better, however, I did double the money on the house I built when I sold after living in it for six years.  On owning to rent, you need to buy in a near central location if you expect to keep it rented, otherwise it will be sitting empty and you'll still be paying for that maintenance.

[UKJASE]

i moved here two years ago, thinking hua hin was wonderful..... and i still do today

 

it is a great city to live in.  we have countryside, we have access to dozens of beaches easily, we have access to BKK easy, we have shopping centres, couple of hundred bars, loads of restaurants..... all the holiday resorts in the south are only a half days drive away.... BKK airports are not far, bringing with it unlimited cheap travel options

 

it is reasonably friendly for a small city and quite cheap too.  it has plenty to do for both young and old (and those inbetween)

 

100,000 should be plenty..... maybe let the wife handle the finances.... seems to work for a lot of couples round here

 

enjoy your retirement and enjoy Hua Hin

[ColdSingha]

i moved here two years ago, thinking hua hin was wonderful..... and i still do today
 
it is a great city to live in.  we have countryside, we have access to dozens of beaches easily, we have access to BKK easy, we have shopping centres, couple of hundred bars, loads of restaurants..... all the holiday resorts in the south are only a half days drive away.... BKK airports are not far, bringing with it unlimited cheap travel options
 
it is reasonably friendly for a small city and quite cheap too.  it has plenty to do for both young and old (and those inbetween)
 
100,000 should be plenty..... maybe let the wife handle the finances.... seems to work for a lot of couples round here
 
enjoy your retirement and enjoy Hua Hin

second everything you say. gem of a place but then i like it busy, feels safe too

[natway09]

Yes,

Hua Hin is just what you want.

your stated expenses per month will more than suffice,

C ya down there in a year or 2. Enjoy.

Just keep your retirement visa current (with multiple reentry permit) so can travel anywhere within the year,

Have a great retirement