Condo and Apartment Rental in Phuket: Prices by Area

Half the flats ask under 32,000 THB a month. If your ceiling is 20,000, about a quarter of the market (23%) is still open to you. A quarter again asks more than 50,000, and 6% more than 100,000. At the extremes we saw one flat for 6,000 THB and one for 500,000.

Flats and villas are two different markets. Flats are everywhere and look much the same: one-bedrooms are 48% of what's listed and studios another 16%, which means nearly two in three suit a single person or a couple. Two-bedroom units come to 29%; anything bigger is rare, at 7%.

Most real conversations with owners land somewhere between 15,000 THB, where the cheapest tenth of the market ends, and 85,000 THB, where the priciest tenth starts. Something far below 15,000 THB usually comes with a catch (a distant area, an old block, a window onto a light well, or a long contract you have to sign).

We are a guide, not an agency: we do not list or show flats. If you want options for your area, dates and budget, our housing partner in Phuket answers in the chat, and the button is just below.

Here is the quickest check we know: divide the rent by the floor area. Across the listings that give an area, that comes to about 640 THB per square metre a month. Studios land at 625, one-bedrooms at 685, two-bedrooms at 625.

Split it by area and it gets interesting. Bang Tao wants about 1,000 THB a metre. Rawai, 780. Chalong, 635. Kata and Karon, around 600. Patong, Phuket Town and Kathu hover between 490 and 560. Same metre, nearly double the money in the north-west.

Odd as it sounds, a flat costs more per metre than a villa. Our count of 420 long-term villas came to 496 THB per metre. The flat just has far fewer metres, so the monthly bill ends up about a quarter.

Condo, studio, apartment: what the words mean

Owners use three words as if they meant one thing. They don't. A condominium is a building where each flat has its own owner and everything else, from the lifts to the pool and the guards, is shared. You rent from a private person; a management company runs the building. More than half of what you will see is condos.

A studio is a single room: bed, sofa and kitchen in one space, 32 m² at the median. 'Apartment' is slippery. Sometimes it is just a flat, sometimes a unit with a reception desk, cleaning and fresh linen, which is closer to a hotel and priced like one. So when you hear the word, ask if there is a reception. Serviced places with cleaning included are handy for the first few weeks while you hunt for something permanent.

Two areas mark the edges of the market. Bang Tao, at a median of 56,500 THB, is recent resort development with pools in the building, shops for residents and the highest price per metre on the island. Kathu, at 18,000 THB, is an ordinary residential area between Patong and town where people who work here rent. The gap is threefold, and a one-bedroom costs 40,000 THB in Bang Tao against 15,750 in Kathu.

The mix of flats tells you who an area was built for. Studios are 16% island-wide and close to that almost everywhere, from 11% in Bang Tao to 18% in Patong, Rawai and Kathu. The difference is in bigger flats: two-bedrooms make up 41% of listings in Kata, 39% in Bang Tao and 37% in Karon, where families rent for long stays. In Phuket Town and Chalong they are 21%, and the market runs on one-bedrooms.

The cheapest listing in the sample was in Rawai at 6,000 THB a month; Phuket Town starts at 9,000 THB, Kathu and Patong at 10,000 THB, Bang Tao at 15,000 THB. At the top, Kamala reaches 500,000 THB, Bang Tao 315,000 THB and Patong 250,000 THB, while Phuket Town tops out at 150,000 THB.

We opened 419 condo listings in full and counted what owners tick. A TV appears in 57%, a microwave in 56%, a washing machine in 46%, internet included in 32%. Shared pool access shows in 18% of listings, parking in 16%, an oven in 9%, a private pool in 4%.

A washing machine is not a given in Thailand; many buildings have shared machines downstairs. Ovens are rare because Thai cooking gets by with a hob and a wok. Flats are let furnished almost without exception, but a proper desk and chair are often missing.

Many offers are only in Thai, and four words answer half your questions. A listing card is almost always laid out the same way: price, bedrooms, bathrooms, area, price per metre. The price is nearly always monthly, and good listings show the price per square metre next to it. If it is missing, work it out yourself; it takes two seconds and changes the conversation with the owner.

The same flat is priced differently by term. The nightly rate is for tourists, the monthly rate is different money, and a one-year lease gets the best price. All figures on this page are long-term.

High season runs from November to April, low season from May to October. In winter owners are slow to let a flat for a year, since nightly guests pay more over the same months. If you plan to winter here, settle it early, and move in on a long lease during low season.

Many people book something short for the first weeks and view flats in person. That order makes sense: photos show neither noise nor smell nor how the sun comes in.