Bangkok rents from real tours: what 49 homes cost, area by area

The rent you’ll actually pay in Bangkok depends less on the building than on how far you live from Asok. In our tours, the residents who live here paid a median of about 19,000 baht (US$570) a month, and most of the bargains sat three or more BTS stops out, in Phra Khanong, On Nut, Punnawithi and Ari. Around Asok, an older one-bedroom was listed from 15,000 baht, a newer one from about 22,000 to 30,000, and luxury two-bedrooms from 50,000 to 120,000.

Who this is for: anyone setting a rent budget before a move, or checking whether an agent’s quote is fair.

Who should skip it: anyone looking for a holiday rental of a week or two. Book a hotel; condo buildings often ban leases under a month.

How to read the table

There are two kinds of row. Listings are units we viewed with an agent on a condo hunt, priced at the asking rent on the day, between 2023 and early 2025. Resident rows are homes where the person living there told us what they pay, filmed in 2026. Residents are listed by the home country they gave on camera.

Each rent appears as it was said on camera, in baht or dollars. The other currency is converted at 33.4 baht to the dollar, the rate in mid-October 2026, and marked ≈. Sizes are in square metres and appear only where they were stated. One listing, a 166m² two-bedroom at Las Colinas, was shown without a price. Three penthouses are included for completeness but left out of the medians below.

Each building links to its tour. Four further tours on the site were of condos for sale, not rent, and appear only in the note on buying below.

Skip the table and jump to what the numbers say

What the numbers say

The median home in the table rents for 40,000 baht, but that figure is pulled up by the luxury listings from the early condo-hunting series. The residents, who chose and negotiated their own homes, paid much less: a median of about 19,000 baht.

Median rent by area

Penthouses and the two large family houses (in Samut Prakan and Bang Na) are left out of this table. Small samples move medians a lot, so treat single-digit rows as a guide, not a price list.

What each price band gets you

Mike, from Houston, pays 75,000 baht for 59m² at The Estelle in Phrom Phong on a one-year lease, down from 82,000 on a six-month lease. Jeff, from Western Australia, pays 20,000 at Centric Sukhumvit 64 by Punnawithi BTS, with electricity and water included.

Four patterns behind the prices

1. Distance from Asok is the biggest discount. At Life Sukhumvit 65, between Phra Khanong and Ekkamai, two residents pay 15,000 and 18,000 baht for one-bedrooms in a building with a pool and gym. By Asok, a 43m² one-bed in a 2014 building was listed at 22,000, and the one Asok listing at 15,000 was a smaller unit in a building from 1995. Joseph, who moved from Australia, pays less there than he did in Bang Na, and spends far less time commuting.

2. Older buildings give you space; newer ones charge for amenities. Per square metre, the cheapest unit in the table was outside the centre, at Lumpini Place Rama 9 (about 230 baht per m²). In central Sukhumvit, the cheapest were older blocks: Watthana Heights, from 1992, at about 300 baht per m², then Asoke Place and Baan Sukhumvit 36 at about 360. The most expensive were newer luxury towers, at 1,300 to 1,550 baht per m². Older concrete is also quieter. Do the knock test on the bedroom wall; a hollow sound means you’ll hear your neighbours.

3. Asking rents move. JJ, a retired American in Phrom Phong, told the agent he’d sign a two-year lease if the owner dropped the rent from 30,000 to 25,000 baht, and the owner agreed. Greg, from Houston, was quoted 35,000 at Manhattan Chidlom and signed at 30,000. Mike’s rent fell 7,000 baht a month when he committed for a year. Agents expect a counter-offer.

4. Amenities you won’t use still cost you. A pool, a gym and a co-working room all show up in the rent. Price them against what you’ll actually use, and remember that electricity is billed separately in most buildings and climbs fast with the air conditioning running daily.

A note on buying

Four tours looked at condos for sale rather than rent: one- and two-bedroom condos in Thonglor and Lower Sukhumvit listed at 8.6 to 12.9 million baht, renovation projects of 200m² and more for 20 to 25 million, and a resident in Bang Na who bought and renovated a 30-year-old unit for about US$165,000. Foreigners can own a condo unit in their own name, within the building’s foreign quota, but not land. For most people moving here, renting for the first year is the cheaper way to learn which area suits you.

Before you sign

• View in person. Never send a deposit for a unit you haven’t seen. Fake listings with copied photos are one of the most common rental scams.
• Ask several agents. Agents hold different inventory in the same building, at different prices. One agent may show you two units in a building and another ten, at different prices.
• Expect two months’ deposit plus the first month in advance on a one-year lease. Get the deposit terms, and the state of the unit, in writing with photos.
• Check the electricity rate. Some buildings bill above the state tariff. Ask for a recent bill from the current tenant.
• Map the walk to the station in the heat. A ten-minute walk in April is a different proposition from a ten-minute walk on paper.

Where to stay in Bangkok compares the neighbourhoods themselves, and the getting-around guide shows what each area’s commute costs.