Condo Rental in Rawai or Chalong, Phuket

Most people who move south to live end up weighing exactly these two. Rawai has the water, with its own beach, Nai Harn's round bay, the fish market and Promthep Cape. Chalong has the roundabout, where half the south's roads seem to start. Town is 10 km from Chalong and 20 from Rawai, and the airport 45 to 50 km from either, so for flights it's a draw.

That 11,000 THB a month buys something odd. In Rawai the small flats are the expensive ones: studios at one and a half times the island median, one-bedrooms 40% up. Two bedrooms? Bang on the island average. Chalong turns it round. It matches the island on one bedroom and undercuts it on two, 35,000 THB where Phuket as a whole asks 52,000.

So why pay Rawai's premium? Mostly for a swim before breakfast and a walk past the longtails at dusk. If you're at a desk all week and drive to a beach on Saturday, Chalong's cheaper towers, with a gym and pool downstairs, win on the numbers.

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In Rawai the nearest landmark is almost always a beach: of 47 such flats, 30 are nearest to Rawai beach, 14 to Nai Harn and three to Kata Noi. The median distance is 1.8 km, with 16 flats within a kilometre, nine closer than 500 m and 20 beyond 2 km. In Chalong, 31 flats have a beach as nearest landmark, and in 28 cases it is Kata, over the hill; the median is 4.5 km and none is closer than 2 km. Seven more name Chalong pier, where boats leave but nobody swims.

So what does that mean day to day? In Rawai the sea is close, yet only a minority of residents actually walk there; for most it's five minutes on a scooter. In Chalong, try living without wheels and you'll give up within a week.

One practical tip for both: before you sign, drive the route you'll do every day, at the hour you'll do it. From Rawai that's usually the run to Nai Harn or into town; from Chalong, the climb over to Kata. Ten minutes on the map can feel like twenty at school time, and you'll make that trip hundreds of times over a lease.

Built for people who stay. That was our first impression going through the listings, and the numbers back it up. Rawai, which on Thai maps also covers Nai Harn and Sai Yuan, has more long-term flats than any coastal area except Bang Tao and Patong. They're mostly one- and two-bedroom units in low blocks. Three-bedroom condos barely exist; families here rent houses.

We half expected Nai Harn to be the pricey corner. It isn't, not for flats: a one-bedroom that mentions Nai Harn asks about 30,000 THB, 5,000 less than Rawai overall. The view is what costs, and only on small flats. With 'sea view' a one-bedroom asks roughly 43,000 THB, without it 33,500. On two bedrooms the view is thrown in, 47,760 against 50,000.

Chalong is an area of houses first, so there are far fewer flats, and they're cheaper: you can find something from 10,000 THB, and a tenth of the market sits under 15,000. More than half of what's on offer is one-bedroom.

A few buildings dominate. Five complexes supply almost half the listings, and Noon Village's three towers alone give 30, at about 25,000 THB for one bedroom and 41,000 for two, with The Bell and Dlux behind them. Hoping for the sea from the balcony? Out of 46 listings with a view field, 7 ticked it; mountains got 28 and the city 33.

Who's happy here? People who work from a desk all week, like a gym downstairs and don't mind a short drive to swim. Who isn't? Anyone who pictured stepping out of the lobby onto sand.