@Richard *******

Guarantee you won't hear from her again. According to her business webpage, she is offering tantric "services" in Thailand for $555 a head (!), and tours, which I suspect are not ATOL bonded . Looks like she has done this before. Not just a tourist forgetting the dates.

@William *****

Predictable. Threads like this are like catnip to some.

J&Ariya in Bangrak has rooms with limited self catering, ie a microwave and fridge. It's a pretty basic hotel, but I like it because of price and location. All of the hotel booking sites allow filter for hotels with a kitchenette in the room. I think you are naive if you think any hotel will let guests loose in a professional kitchen, especially if at the same time they are cooking orders for restaurant guests.

@Olivia *******

Maybe you have Freehold.

@Nongnuch *******

The Thai government is considering 99 year leases. Not sure when that will come, if ever.

@Todd ********

Probably more people of working age might be dragged into it than you might think. Overall, 37% of the US population has a college degree. But that includes pensioners, of which about 10% have college education. Of the UK working population, over 40% have a degree. That's likely similar or a bit lower than the US. But that proportion varies by age group. Those aged 50 and under, representing the cohort who had access to student loans, during the Great Education Expansion, probably approaches 60%. Likely about 20% gained a postgraduate qualification. Median professional income is £38,000, plenty more than the us$40,000 threshold for LTR work from Thailand professionals. If the western expatriate population is representative of their countries, then 1 in 10 of them might qualify. But the expatriate is not representative of the home population, because there is a skewing in favour of professionals who worked in the oil and shipping industries, for the airlines, for financial services and IT. Not many binmen decide to retire to Thailand, mainly because they never had the money to go see a country like that. Why aren't more applying? Probably because they are happy with the present arrangements, unaware of the scheme or egregiously ignorant.

@Nongnuch *******

She would own the apartment for the duration of the lease. That counts as investing in Thai property.

@Olivia *******

Foreigners can only buy freehold on certain condos where 51% of the units are Thai owned. Otherwise, it is a 30 year lease.

@Jet *******

If you have sold a property in, say Dublin, after paying off the 25 year mortgage, plus a typical pension pot fir a professional worker, you will easily meet the requirements.$40k US isn't that much really. You're getting $15k just in Irish state pension, let alone the pension from the job. And right now, there will a lot of people coming up to retirement on final salary pensions. Of course, if you've never held down a job, and spent all your time on the dole, it's a different matter.

@Jet *******

None if what you say has a basis in fact, and you are out of touch with western incomes.