The cost to live in rural Thailand? It is not cheap when you look at all the requirements to move here.
The highest cost is the VISA.
Long term VISA’s require money in a Thai Bank, untouched for 2 months before your VISA application or yearly renewal.
Marriage VISA US $12,500
Retire VISA US $25,000
DTV US $15,000
ELITE VISA’s start at $20,000+
You are not going to be able to get a VISA to live here without having money (I do not support using a VISA agent to get around the financial requirements for a VISA, although many here appear to do just that).
In Isaan you need a car or a truck. No taxis, no Grab, no nothing
A solid used car/truck can be purchased for US $10,000.
Those are the 2 biggest financial hurdles to get over where considering moving here.
Even though the majority of the Thai workforce here only earn US $166 a month, as a foreigner (Yes you can always live with less), I feel the painless threshold for income is US $2,500 per month.
That is because foreigners will have different requirements for western foods which are extremely expensive, travel, luxury items, etc. that rural Isaan people simply do without.
I suspect there would be a lot more foreigners here if the initial costs were not so high.
But it is what it is.
If you need to earn an income, rural Isaan is NOT the place for you.
Everyone here needs income.
The need for income has created an oversaturation across ALL business types.
There are over 100 coffee stands in the village. The problem is, there are NOT enough total customers to support 100 coffee stands, because a good percentage of the people here cannot afford to pay that much for coffee. Result is no customers, no way to turn over and sell the inventory.
There are 100 of every kind of business you can think of. Small mini marts in the front of people’s houses? 100’s.
The competition for customers is so intense it has pushed the prices for things like fruit and vegetables down to a point you cannot make any money growing and selling them.
We have at least a dozen resorts here that I have never seen 1 customer at.
Why?
Who in their right mind would come to rural Isaan where there is nothing to see or do, and the definition of a resort is just basically a small stand-alone hut?
No one has a clue how to do market research, they just build and never understand why there are no customers.
To be able to sell things that people can afford, you would have to sell 1,000’s a month to make enough income for 1 foreigner.
It is not going to happen due to not enough customers.
If you sell any item for 20 thb and it cost you 10 thb to buy it, you made 10 thb profit or US $0.30. How many of those do you need to sell each day to meet the foreigners needs for income? If you sold 100, you would have made only US $30. The problem is you will never sell 100 of anything per day here.
In an economy where people are living on US $166.00 per month, you can bet you are not going to move in and start ANY business where you will make US $2,500.00 per month. Simply not enough customers.
Best to avoid Thailand in general unless you have a guaranteed retirement or fixed income, or you can make US $2,500.00+ per month working online.
This is rural Isaan, the cheapest place to live in all of Thailand.
I would hate to image how much more expensive it would be in a tourist area or huge city.