Pool Villas in Phuket: What a Private Pool Adds to the Rent

Of 420 long-term villa listings, 346 mention a private pool. So the pool is not an extra you hunt for; it is what most villas come with. It still costs money. Villas with their own pool ask a median of 130,000 THB a month, villas without one 89,000 THB.

Size explains part of that gap. Pool villas are about a third larger, yet their price per square metre is only 15% higher (496 THB against 433 THB). You are paying for more house and more land as much as for the water.

The row we find most useful is the smallest one. Seven villas in the sample had no pool of their own but shared one on the estate, and their median was around 62,000 THB. That is half the price of a private pool. Such listings are rare and easy to miss, so if a pool just needs to exist rather than be yours alone, search for them separately.

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

Wildly. We found a pool villa at 15,000 THB a month and another at 1,050,000 THB. About a third ask under 100,000 THB; 8% ask over 300,000. So 'what does a pool villa cost?' has no answer until you say which one, and where.

A more useful question: with my budget, how much of the market can I actually look at? That is what the table below shows.

Bedrooms and bathrooms

Bigger houses have pools more often. 72% of one-bedroom villas have one, 88% of five-bedroom ones. And the classic Phuket pool villa? Three bedrooms, about 250 m², a median of 120,000 THB. We counted 184 of them, and 83% had a pool.

One-bedroom villas are the odd ones out at 694 THB per square metre, dearer than any other group, because a tiny house still needs a whole pool, kitchen and plot. Watch the bathrooms too; they move the price on their own. Two bathrooms: 80,000 THB at the median. Three: 125,000. Four: 155,000. Five: 180,000. Six: 260,000.

The south is cheaper than the north, and the gap is large. Chalong, with a median of 87,500 THB, is the most affordable way into the format: four out of five villas there have a pool, and a square metre costs 400 THB, half of what the north-west asks. Rawai and Nai Harn add about a third to the price and give the widest choice on the island, with 121 listings.

In Cherng Talay and Bang Tao a pool comes with 94% of villas, almost a rule, but the median is 150,000 THB and the price per metre is the highest in the sample. Si Sunthon inland costs more than the south with worse access to the sea: you pay for newer houses and quiet.

A more practical number than the median is the share of an area's pool villas under 100,000 THB. In Chalong it is 62%, in Pa Khlok 46%, in Rawai 41% and in Kathu 30%. In Si Sunthon it drops to 22%, in Cherng Talay to 18%. A 100,000 THB pool villa in Bang Tao exists, but you will be looking at one listing in five.

The biggest surprise in a pool villa is not the rent but the upkeep. A pool needs work every week: net, brush, chemistry check, filter backwash. The pump runs every day and draws power from the villa's meter.

Only 23% of listings mention pool service, 26% a gardener, 16% both. That does not mean nobody cleans the other pools. It means three owners in four say nothing about it in the ad, which is why the question comes before you sign rather than in the first month.

We also counted what owners tick in the listings of those 346 pool villas. Parking appears in 70%, a washing machine in 68%, internet included in 62% and an oven in 49%. A rooftop terrace shows up in 17%, a bathtub in 7%, direct beach access in only 2%.

Compare that with condos, where a washing machine is ticked in 46% of listings and an oven in just 9%. A villa assumes a full kitchen and its own household, one reason it suits a family on a long stay. The median pool villa has 297 m²; half fall between 200 and 400 m², from a 36 m² cottage with a plunge pool to 1,500 m² at the top.

Low season, from May to October, changes life with a pool. Rain knocks the chemistry off balance, leaves fall into the water, and a neglected pool turns green within days. Weekly service that is enough in winter can fall short in summer. The water also cools, and a pool shaded by trees, a plus in winter, loses in the wet months.

Low season is also when the tenant is strongest. An owner with an empty pool villa pays for pool service and pump power whether anyone lives there or not, and that is the easiest point to negotiate from.