Thailand - a top retirement destination because of its nice weather, friendly locals, efficient health care and affordable cost of living. The average expense per household in Thailand is approximately 21,000 Baht per month or less than 700 USD, but as a foreigner I would say you would need to top that up.
Let’s see how much you need to be able to live in thailand comfortably.
Accommodation - One of the biggest expenses for living or retiring is home and as there are different ways of living, accommodation cost will differ depending on your lifestyle. The option is to “Rent” or “Buy”. Most condominium owners prefer minimum 1 year lease contract, for shorter lease you would need to consider service apartments or other option such as airbnb.
Rental of 1 bedroom condominium in central Bangkok ranges from 10,000 - 65,000 Baht per month and 2 bedrooms condominium ranges from 25,000 - 150,000 Baht per month. To buy, prices of 1 bedroom condominium is between 5 - 20 Million baht and 2 bedrooms condominium is between 8 - 45 million baht, check buying property in Thailand guide.
Please note that prices vary depending on location you would like to be and quality of the building you choose. Contact us if you would like our assistance in finding the right place for you.
Daily expenses - now this is a really tricky part because it really depends on your individual preference. You could be living within 200 baht of food per day as there are many cheap and good local street vendors every where throughout Thailand but we think with minimum of 1,000 baht per day or approx. 30,000 baht (1,000 USD) per month, you would be able to have good meals in restaurants everyday.
Bangkok is a large city with more than 8 million people (as recorded in mid 2020), there are many ways to live economically but there are also wide spread of luxurious living where you could be spending more than 15,000 baht (~500 USD) for a dinner-for-2 type of meal - which is more than half of an average monthly income in Thailand.
Whether you want to live high or low depends on you, but other fix cost for you to bare in mind is visa and health insurance.
Visa - 1 year multiple entries retirement visa cost 5,000 baht with supporting documents - learn more about getting a retirement visa.
Health insurance - has just been compulsory for all retirement visa applicants starting 31 October 2019. The minimum coverage for out-patient is 40,000 baht and 400,00 baht for in-patient. If you already have health insurance back home as long as it covers incident in Thailand.
In summary, the estimate cost of living per month starts from 40,000 baht or 1,300 USD and I would say you will be comfortably retire in Thailand if you keep your budget of at least 20,000 USD per year.
Whether you want to keep it Economic Class or First Class, we believe Thailand could be a retirement paradise for you.