Learning & Developme Group

I design corporate training programmes and moved to Bangkok on a one year contract. I kept a spreadsheet because I did not trust my own memory. Sharing the shape of it, because the surprises were not where I expected.

Month one. Everything felt cheap and I congratulated myself. I was living out of a serviced apartment my employer paid for, so I was measuring nothing real.

Month two. Moved into my own place and discovered the deposit convention. Two months plus one month in advance is normal. Three months of rent leaves the account on the same day. Nobody warns you because to everyone here it is obvious.

Month three. First full electricity bill after a hot April. My air conditioning habit cost more than my phone, internet and water together. Ask what the previous tenant paid in April, not the average.

Month four. The commute broke me. I had chosen a flat by price per square metre and ignored the walk to the BTS. Eleven minutes on the map is eleven minutes in November and a different experience in the rain.

Month five. Started looking again, properly this time. I used https://thailand-real.estate/ to compare the same size of unit across districts rather than trusting what one agent kept sending me, which was always the same three buildings.

Month six. Moved. Paid more per square metre, less in total, because the second place had a real chiller situation and I was four minutes from the station.

The lesson I would give myself in month one: price per square metre is the number that is easy to compare, which is exactly why it is the one you over-weight.