Hello! New Member and future Expat

I presume 45K Bahts is your monthly budget for apartment/condo rental.
You can get something decent for half.
If you lease the apartment, you're stuck for 6 months minimum (although you can find three months leases).
I suggest AirBnB for initial Phuket experience (1-2 months). If you like it, you can find rentals at DDProperty.com, they offer rentals - or properties to buy, and a text in English.

https://www.ddproperty.com/en/property- … ;minbath=1

HTH
Gerard

PS Important: 1/ Phuket is very dangerous for pedestrians and bikes. Lookup the number of foreigners who died there.
2/ Some beaches look clean but the amount of bacteria in the sea is of concern
PPS You may like Hua Hin too. But I admit, for the views, nothing beats Phuket.

HI
You can get a nice furnished 2 bedroom on or walking distance to PaTong beach for 20,000 baht! So 45k will get you luxury place! PaTong has everything you need at reasonable costs! Great beach!
You might also look at Pattaya! Very nice and Jomtien beach is great!

Thank You!

Hello, my wife & I retired to Thailand in 2013. We have found that most of the beaches here are not for swimming. The water is not clean enough. You can take a speed boat & go a few miles out to find water that is clear & pretty.  You could also find beaches further south away from the Tourists. The Pi Pi islands are the best places to search for this kind of place, but now a lot of that area is reserves that the government has closed for tourist. But there are still nice beaches down there, but not much housing available, mostly for day trips. We are going toPhuket next week for a week, we rented though Airbnb a place with a water view, pool,gym, many local restaurants within walking distance. Our place is 90.00 dollars a night it’s a 2bedroom with western kitchen. We are looking for a place we can rent for 2-3 months a year. We love living in Thailand, on our retirement we have no financial worry’s., we travel a lot, take cruises & still visit the US every year. We own a 3 bed 3 bath condo in Nonthaburi which is about 10 miles from Bangkok. 30 minutes from the Domestic airport & 45 minutes from the International airport. We bought our condo while we were still working in the US. So it’s paid for & we only pay 600.00 dollars a year for HOA.  Good Luck to you.  Patrick

Thank you!  I’ve been looking at Airbnb and found a place that’s close to Karon and Kata beach.  I think we’ll initially rent the condo, for a month, and go from there!  So, are karon beach waters and kata beach waters unsafe for swimming?  We don’t plan on buying anything and also plan to travel, while we enjoy Phuket!

I go to Karon a lot, the sea can be unsafe for swimming, as the waves can be big. Kata is better, as the sea is not so rough. Patong beach is good as well.

More importantly, is to carefully think about what type of visa you want to get.  Do not get an O-A visa as they now require useless Thai health insurance.  Whatever long term retirement visa you get will require ฿800,000 to be kept in a Thai bank.