My advice,
poshglasgow would be to rent a furnished condo just as
Manforallseasons recommended or, depending on your taste and your financial means, a villa or a house might suit your circumstances better.
Normally, I spend around 6 months of the year in Thailand. I would not contemplate living there on a permanent basis as, for most of the last 15 years, I have had health issues which required me to see surgeons back in the UK. And put simply, because I happen to enjoy being back in the UK in the spring, summer and autumn. Six months is just fine for me, I look forward to going to Thailand and, after six months, I look forward to coming back home.
To begin with I bought a three bedroom villa with a swimming pool in Hua Hin, which at the time was quite cheap. I rented it out during the months I was not resident. At the time, every ex-pat, gay or straight whom I met, informed me they had bought their properties, so it seemed sensible to follow suit. I don’t think it even occurred to me at that time to rent a property. Also at that time, the exchange rate for the GBP was very favourable at around 75-70 Baht to the GBP, which turned out to be a major factor when I came to sell (see below).
Then, while I still owned the villa, after several years, happily my health started to improve, so I bought a condo in Bangkok, as my preference is to live in big cities. And, to be frank, I also wanted to be closer to the gay commercial action. But I continued to travel down to the villa for the occasional long weekend or for a 7-10 day stopover, depending on the availability of the villa.
I think I owned the house for 10 or more years before I decided to sell it. As a side issue, but it was important at the time, I was unable to sell the villa earlier for various complicated reasons, which mainly involved a joint court action with my eleven neighbours against our developer. I mentioned elsewhere on the forum how easy it was to sell (see the following link:
https://sawatdeenetwork.com/v4/showt...ly-2018/page10 and look at post #92 on page 10). And, as I mentioned above, by the time I came to sell the villa, the exchange rate had dropped significantly, so although I did not make much of a capital gain in Thai Baht, once converted to GBP, I made a handsome gain, which attracted liability to Capital Gains Tax back in the UK.
I also owned my Bangkok condo for around 10 years and sold it last year. Unfortunately, the selling process was not as simple; I think it took around 4 months to complete the legal process. And repatriating the sale proceeds back to the UK was a hellishly complicated matter. Despite going to the head office of my bank with every conceivable form and document from the purchase and sale of my condo, including the original bank transfer form and receiving bank passbook, the bank refused to allow me to remit the money back to the UK. They told me Thai law required them to submit a report to the Bank of Thailand for authorisation. And, unbelievably, my bank then went on to prepare a 4 page report to the Bank of Thailand in English and Thai, which I had to approve, requesting permission to remit my money to the UK! It was exactly the same amount I had sent to Thailand 10 years earlier and all that was required then was a 10 minute visit to my local bank to complete an international money transfer form! And I most definitely did not require the permission of the Bank of England to send the money to Thailand!
On another three occasions I returned to the Thai bank head office and had to answer questions or produce documents that only my former solicitor in Bangkok could provide. By the time I left Thailand in mid-April 2017, and after waiting 4 long weeks, my bank head office had still not received authorisation from the Bank of Thailand to send my own money to the UK!
It was 6 weeks later, after I arrived back in the UK, and following numerous exchanges of emails between me and my bank before I eventually received my money. But despite receiving exactly the same amount of Thai Baht that I paid for the condo, once converted to GBP, yet again I made a handsome gain, which attracted Capital Gains Tax in the UK. So, all in all, a bit of a bureaucratic nightmare,
poshglasgow, something you might want to bear in mind.
And one thing I have not mentioned, but which I also think is important, renting a property allows for maximum flexibility. If you don’t like the property, or if you want to move to another town or city, it is far easier to up sticks and move when you rent property. And if you own a property in the UK, I would also recommend keeping it and renting it out as the rental income will come in as a useful supplement your pension and/or other income. And if things don’t work out as you planned or if you would like to return to your property from time to time, having a property back in the UK is a very convenient safety net.
In conclusion, and for all of the above reasons, I recommend renting a property in Thailand. Of course, others may well have a different experience from me and they are free to offer you alternative advice.
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Originally Posted by Manforallseasons
