Expat Guide

Almost every guide to buying a condominium in Thailand repeats the same number and then stops explaining. The 49% figure is correct, but the part that decides whether your purchase completes is how that percentage is counted, when it is measured, and who is allowed to confirm it. This page covers all three, with the arithmetic written out and the current legal position stated plainly. What is the...

Can you really retire in Hua Hin on $2,000 a month? Yes, $2,000 a month is enough to retire comfortably in Hua Hin as a single person, with roughly 12,000 baht of monthly headroom left over. For a couple it is tight rather than comfortable, and only works if you rent a condo instead of a villa and skip owning a car. That answer holds at the exchange rate on the day this was written. It stops holding...

Most guides to Hua Hin hand you a list of eight neighbourhoods and leave you to work out where they sit in relation to each other. That is not what people ask. They ask whether to look north of town or south of it, because those two directions lead to genuinely different daily lives, different property stock, and different price levels. Below is the comparison itself, anchored to the fixed landmarks...

Most visitors to Hua Hin never turn inland. They stay on the coast road, see the beach, and form an opinion about the whole town from a two kilometre strip. The people who actually settle here tend to end up somewhere else entirely, and very often that somewhere is Hin Lek Fai. I have been showing property in Hua Hin long enough to notice the pattern. Buyers arrive wanting the sea. Many of them leave...

More and more of our clients at Hua Hin Japan are not retirees anymore. They are people in their 30s and 40s who work remotely for a company back home, or run their own business online, and want to know one thing before they commit to a long-term rental or a purchase here: can I actually do my job from this town? I have lived and worked from Hua Hin long enough to give a straight answer, including the...

Should I rent or buy in Hua Hin? Rent in Hua Hin if your residence status has an expiry date, if you have lived here less than twelve months, or if you may need your capital back within three years. Buy if you intend to stay past a decade and can accept that resale in Hua Hin is slow. That is the short answer, and it is deliberately unglamorous. Most articles on this question answer it with a pros...

Healthcare is one of the happiest surprises of moving to Hua Hin. Buyers arrive expecting a quiet beach town and find a full-service internationally accredited hospital, a second established private hospital, an affordable public hospital and a growing set of primary care clinics, all within a short drive of each other. The standard of English-speaking care here is very high, which is the single thing new...

Most people who ask me this question are not choosing a holiday. They are choosing where their money, their healthcare and their next ten years will sit. That changes which differences actually matter, and it puts weight on things a two-week visit will never show you. I should be upfront about my position. I run a property agency in Hua Hin, so I have an obvious interest in one of these two answers....

Ask ten Hua Hin residents about Soi 88 and you will get two completely different answers. Some describe a lively street with bars and a food court near the town center. Others describe quiet villa estates where the loudest sound at night is a gecko. Both answers are correct, and understanding why is the key to deciding whether this road belongs on your shortlist. I drive Soi 88 several times a week for...

Most guides to Hua Hin beach dining are written for tourists on a three day holiday. I wrote this one for people who live here, or are deciding whether to. It covers where the beachfront restaurants actually are, what they cost, whether you can walk in without a hotel booking, and what it means for choosing a neighborhood. What are the best restaurants near the beach in Hua Hin?Can you eat at hotel...