Quote:
Originally Posted by rbracco
Where should I look for house rentals in Phuket? I am interested in a 3-5 bedroom house and have shopped around but I need somewhere that will let me negotiate a 3 month lease and that is pretty legit?
Any ideas? Where do most of you live? What are the best areas?
Thanks
The cheapest way is to contact the owner yourself (which means finding a "for rent" sign in front of the house with a phone number on it), but since it is currently high season you wont find a ton of these signs and/or prices will be high.
Another advantage to this is that as you're driving around you get to know Phuket better and maybe you will find an area that you really like and can search more intensively there.
Plan B is going through an agency like
http://www.siamrealestate.com/ or walking into a real estate agency here. This will be more expensive but might be neccesary during high season, unless you're really patient and/or not picky about location and quality of house.
Basically all 2p2ers live on the south of the island with most in Kata/Rawai and a few people in Chalong/Phukettown
Where the "best" area is really depends. A rough description of some of the areas:
Patong:
Main tourist city with a ton of bars, clubs, girls, restaurants and people trying to hustle tourists. there is a big mall with a ton of shops, cinema etc. but except for a few massive degens basically no 2p2er have wanted to live in Patong for longer periods of time.
Kamala:
Small quiet place north of Patong with a decent beach and easy access to ever nicer beaches in Surin etc. Not many restaurants, bars or nightlife in general but easy access to Patong if you wanna degen it up. there's a big group of Danish grinders living there.
Karon:
Quite a few bars and restaurants but way way less than Patong. In high season there are a lot of tourists and therefore also quite a few annoying touts etc. The beach is decent and easy access to Kata/Rawai and not too far from Patong.
Kata:
This is where most 2p2ers live. It has a nice beach (well 2 actually) but it gets very crowded in high season. There is a decent selection of restaurants (it has the best Pad Thai restaurant in Phuket
). The nightlife consists of only bars but there are a decent selection of those.
Rawai/Nai Harn:
A more spread out and laidback kind of place. Really nice beach in Nai Harn (probably the nicest of all the bigger beaches down south). It also gets fairly crowded in high season but not nearly as bad as any of the above mentioned areas.
besides bars here and tehre there are a few decent clubs located in Rawai/Nai Harn + it has a Tesco Lotus/Mall kinda thing so shopping is easier than in Karon/Kata
Btw if you value a nice view from your house you will more than likely NOT be able to find it here (in Patong/Karon/Kata this is possible)
Chalong:
Cheaper area with almost no tourists even in high season and in close proximity to Central Festival mall which has a really nice Cinema, restaurants etc. and also close to a massive park (where weekly 2p2 sport games are being played)
Downside is no beach, no views and very limited nightlife but its not too far from Rawai/Nai Harn if you wanna go to the beach.
Phuket town:
Also cheaper area with basically not tourists. It's a relatively big city and there is lot of nightlife with a bunch of really nice clubs and bars. You will also find a ton of cheap restaurants and generally a nice athmosphere (ie you wont constantly have to say no to people trying to sell you crap). Downside is no beach and a bit of a drive to get to one.