What Does It Cost to Live in Phuket?
Living well on the west coast of Phuket costs about what it costs to live well in a mid-sized Australian or European city, with two large exceptions: the house, and the people who look after it. Rent and purchase prices still buy far more here than they do at home, and a housekeeper, a driver, a gardener or a handyman costs a fraction of what they would in Sydney or London. Everything else, from a good dinner to a gym with a spa attached, has been creeping up to European and Australian levels for a few years. If you have come across a page that says Phuket is cheap, it was written about a different part of the island or a different decade. What follows is what I actually see paid, by me and by the people I work with, at the quality of life most of my clients want.
I spent four years living between Phuket and Australia before making the island my full-time home in 2025, on an estate in Bang Tao, and I spend my days in other people’s villas and condominiums. Where a figure is mine I say so. Where it is a published range I say that too, and where I don’t know, I say that rather than guess.
Housing: where Phuket still wins
This is the line that makes the rest of the budget work. For a long-term lease on the west coast, these are the numbers I quote, and they move with the season:
A decent two-bedroom condominium in Bang Tao, around ฿80,000 a month (about USD 2,400). A decent three-bedroom villa on an estate in Bang Tao, ฿200,000 a month and up (USD 6,000). A four-bedroom villa with a sea view, which Bang Tao itself has less of than people assume, is Surin or Layan territory: around ฿250,000 in Surin and ฿350,000 and up in Layan (USD 7,500 and USD 10,500). Those figures move through the year with high season and green season, so treat them as the middle of a range rather than a quote.
To put that beside what you would pay for the equivalent house on the coast at home is the whole argument for living here, and I’ll leave you to do that sum for your own city.
What sits on top of the rent is where new arrivals get caught.
Electricity is the one that surprises people. On an older villa with the air conditioning doing its job, ฿10,000 a month (USD 300) is a fair planning figure, and it goes up with the size of the house, the age of the units and what the estate adds to the government tariff. Water is about ฿1,000 a month. Internet is ฿750.
Estate fees, the common area charge on a managed estate, cover security, the roads, the gardens and often the pool and grounds of your own villa. The figure is set per estate and it varies enough that I won’t give an average; it is on the project’s fee schedule and I ask for it before any client views. On a standalone villa with no estate, you are hiring the pool man and the gardener yourself. Budget for both, and ask the owner what they currently pay.
Household help
A housekeeper is around ฿200 an hour (USD 6). Three mornings a week comes to something like ฿10,000 to ฿12,000 a month; a full-time live-out housekeeper rather more. On most estates the pool and the garden are covered in the common area fee, which is one of the things the fee is for.
Food: the widest range on the island
This is where “it depends” is the honest answer, because the same week can cost ฿3,000 or ฿30,000 depending on where you shop and eat.
I’ll be straight about the bottom of the range: I have never done a weekly shop at a local market or a Thai supermarket, so I won’t pretend to know what it costs. The published figures put market staples at a few thousand baht a month for a household. The couples I know who live that way confirm it is cheap, and they also tell me it takes a kind of patience with heat and parking that not everyone has.
At the other end, which is where most of my clients live, a family shop at Villa Market or the farm shops runs ฿10,000 to ฿20,000 a week (USD 300 to 600), and it is easy to be at the top of that. Imported cheese, wine, cereal, anything a child from Perth or Surrey recognises, is priced at European levels or above.
Eating out spans the same range. A good Thai restaurant feeds a family of four for ฿1,000 to ฿2,000 (USD 30 to 60). A three-course dinner with a couple of glasses of wine each at one of the nicer places in Bang Tao is ฿8,000 and upwards for two (USD 240), which is a London or Sydney bill, and the room will be full.
Getting around
Most of my clients buy a car; leasing is close to impossible without a Thai company or local income. For a sense of running costs: my own car, a large pickup worth about ฿1.4 million, takes 70 litres to fill and that cost ฿2,700 last time (USD 80). Insurance on it was around ฿25,000 for the year (USD 750). What you spend on fuel is entirely about how far you drive and what you drive; a family doing two school runs a day from Thalang will burn through a tank a week, a couple in a Cherng Talay condo will not. A scooter is the cheap alternative and I do not recommend it to anyone with a family.
Schools
Fees are the second-largest line for a family here, and they are rising with the demand. Across the island’s international schools the published 2026 range is roughly ฿150,000 a year at the bilingual end to ฿950,000 at the top (USD 4,500 to 28,500), with the mid-tier between ฿300,000 and ฿600,000. The best-known school on the island sits at about ฿900,000 per child. Fees step up through the years; the exam years cost 40 to 70 percent more than early primary at the same school. Add a registration or capital fee of ฿50,000 to ฿200,000 on acceptance and usually a term’s fees as a refundable deposit. I don’t name schools in these pieces; which one suits a family is a longer conversation and I’ll give you my read on it in person.
Health and insurance
Private healthcare here is very good and very accessible, which is a large part of why the wellness crowd is arriving. Insurance is the cost that varies most with who you are. Under 40 and healthy, a local plan is around ฿20,000 a year (USD 600). Published 2026 ranges for a local plan rise to roughly ฿60,000 to ฿160,000 a year in your fifties (USD 1,800 to 4,800), and over 60 most local insurers stop taking new applicants, which pushes you onto an international plan at anything from ฿160,000 to ฿380,000 a year (USD 4,800 to 11,400) depending on cover. Pre-existing conditions change all of it. Get a quote before you commit to the move, not after.
Gyms, Muay Thai and the rest
A proper gym on the west coast is ฿3,500 to ฿4,000 a month (USD 105 to 120); double that for one with a spa, sauna and ice bath attached, and about the same figure for the spa-only memberships at the recovery clubs that have opened around Bang Tao in the last two years. Personal training at the gyms is ฿1,800 to ฿2,000 a session. A Muay Thai camp runs ฿3,000 to ฿6,500 a month for unlimited training, and a one-to-one Muay Thai session is around ฿1,000. If training is part of why you are moving here, and for a lot of people it is, this is the best-value line in the budget.
What people underestimate
Not one thing, the total. The west coast of Phuket is not a cheap retirement or a cheap holiday, and it hasn’t been for some years. The gym, the dinner, the supermarket and the school are at European and Australian prices or close to them, and they are going one way. What stays far cheaper is the house: the rent, the purchase price, the size of what you get, the pool, the help. If you move here expecting everything to be cheap you will be disappointed within a month.
The read
Budget for the life, not the brochure. A couple living well on the west coast, in a good condominium, eating out, training, with a car and insurance, should plan on a monthly figure that is lower than Sydney or London, but not by the margin people expect, with a much better house in it. A family with two children in an international school should put the school fees on the page first and build the rest around them. If you want to see what that looks like against a specific property, send me the brief and I’ll put the numbers beside it.
Questions people ask
Is Phuket expensive to live in? It depends where you are coming from and how you live. On the west coast, dining, gyms, imported food and school fees are at or near European and Australian prices. Housing and household help cost far less for what you get, which is where the saving sits.
What is the rent for a villa in Phuket? For a long-term lease, a decent three-bedroom estate villa in Bang Tao is around ฿200,000 a month and up; a sea-view four-bedroom in Surin or Layan ฿250,000 to ฿350,000 and up. Two-bedroom condominiums in Bang Tao from around ฿80,000.
How much are international school fees in Phuket? Published 2026 ranges run from about ฿150,000 a year at the bilingual end to ฿950,000 at the top, plus a one-off registration fee of ฿50,000 to ฿200,000. Fees rise through the senior years.
How much is health insurance for an expat in Phuket? Around ฿20,000 a year on a local plan under 40 and healthy; roughly ฿60,000 to ฿160,000 in your fifties; over 60, usually an international plan from ฿160,000 upwards. Pre-existing conditions change the figures.
Sources: rent, utilities, housekeeping, dining, car and gym figures are my own and my clients’ as of October 2026, Bang Tao and the west coast. School fee bands: iSchoolAdvisor, “International School Fees in Phuket: 2026 Cost Guide”, 13 July 2026. Insurance bands: The Thaiger, “Expat health insurance in Thailand: cost”, 7 July 2026, USD figures converted at ฿33. Gym and Muay Thai bands: Phuket Expat Guide, “Gym membership costs Phuket 2026”, 9 May 2026. USD figures throughout are approximate at ฿33 to the dollar.
Rex Butler, Managing Director, Butler Estates. This is general market commentary, not legal, tax or investment advice.