A family arriving in Phuket has a month in which a lot has to happen in the right order. The house comes first, because nearly everything after it, from the immigration paperwork to the school run, is tied to an address. This piece walks through that month as it usually falls, with the official rule behind each step and a link to the longer guide where we have one.
It is built from the Immigration Bureau's own pages on residence notification and the 90-day report, the Ministry of Transport guidance on foreigners driving as published by the Government Public Relations Department, and our own catalogue of villas and houses to rent, all read on 31 October 2026. It is written for families renting for a year or more. It is not immigration or legal advice, and the rules on visas are in a separate piece linked below.
The short version
- Secure the house before you fly, or at least the area. Rent sets the budget, and the address sets the school run.
- Within 24 hours of moving in, your landlord notifies immigration that you are living there, on form TM30. The duty is the owner's or occupier's, not yours, but you will want the receipt.
- If you stay longer than 90 days, each family member reports their address every 90 days. It can be done online, up to 15 days before it is due.
- Schools, health cover and bills all take a week or two to settle. Start them in week one.
- Driving: a visitor drives on an International Driving Permit; a resident converting a foreign licence needs a certificate of residence among other papers.
Before you fly: the house and the area
Our own long-let book is mostly villas on twelve-month leases. On 31 October 2026 it held 1,700 villas and houses to rent with a published price; 1,680 of them carried a twelve-month minimum, and 1,324 of the 1,700 had three or four bedrooms, the size a family usually needs.
What a family house asks depends heavily on the district. The chart shows the median monthly asking rent for a three-bedroom villa in every district with at least fifteen listings, with the four-bedroom median alongside where that also clears the floor.
| District | 3-bed median | 3-bed middle half | Listings | 4-bed median | Listings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kathu | ฿100,000 | ฿85,000–120,000 | 23 | ฿125,000 | 18 |
| Chalong | ฿110,000 | ฿85,000–130,000 | 89 | ฿150,000 | 61 |
| Rawai | ฿120,000 | ฿95,000–140,000 | 178 | ฿150,000 | 84 |
| Ko Kaeo | ฿120,000 | ฿90,000–150,000 | 24 | ฿135,000 | 24 |
| Thalang | ฿130,000 | ฿100,000–180,000 | 47 | — | under 15 |
| Bang Tao | ฿150,000 | ฿120,000–198,750 | 312 | ฿230,000 | 196 |
| Kamala | ฿155,000 | ฿131,250–200,000 | 18 | — | under 15 |
Two things stand out for a family. The fourth bedroom costs very different amounts in different places: about ฿30,000 a month more at the median in Rawai, and about ฿80,000 more in Bang Tao. And these are asking rents on one day's book, not agreed ones. Our listings are placed at district level rather than at the house, so nothing here measures distance to a particular school; our piece on villa rents near the international schools takes that question as far as the data allows, and the schools map shows where each campus is.
One practical check: 82 of those 1,324 family-size homes carried a move-in date after 30 November. Ask for the date before you book flights around a particular house. When you are ready to look, browse villas for long-term rent or tell our desk the area, the number of bedrooms and the date, and we will shortlist.
Days 1 to 3: the lease, the deposit and the TM30
- Read the lease before you sign it. The clauses that matter most, from the break clause to who pays for the pool, are set out in our guide to long-term villa lease clauses.
- Document the house on the day you get the keys. Photographs and a signed inventory are what get a deposit back. Our piece on rental deposits covers the rules that apply and what to keep.
- Agree how bills are split. Electricity and water are billed on public tariffs, and a landlord quoting a per-unit price of their own is marking it up. See what a villa rental includes.
- Confirm the TM30. Section 38 of the Immigration Act B.E. 2522, as quoted by the Immigration Bureau, requires the head of the house, the owner or the occupier of a dwelling who takes in a foreigner on temporary permission to stay to notify immigration within twenty-four hours of the foreigner's arrival. The Bureau's page says owners of rental houses use form TM30, and that it can be filed in person or by someone else on their behalf, by registered post, or online. The duty is your landlord's, but the receipt is useful to you, so ask for a copy for every member of the family.
If you spend the first nights in a hotel, the hotel files for those nights. The duty follows whoever takes you in, so the villa's owner files again when you move.
Week 1: schools and health cover
A school place can set a family's whole timetable, and each school runs its own admissions, so start before you arrive if you can. Our reviews give the published fees and curriculum for BISP, UWC Thailand, HeadStart and Kajonkiet and QSI.
Health cover is the second. Thai private hospitals do not publish prices, and some visas carry their own insurance requirement. Our guide to healthcare in Phuket sets out the island's hospitals, their accreditation and what the visa rules require of a policy. Register the children with a hospital or clinic before you need one, not after.
Weeks 2 to 4: bills, internet and getting around
By the second week the house is a home and the running costs become real. Our cost of living guide works through three household budgets, including electricity on the tariff that took effect with the September 2026 bills, water, internet and phones. The figure that surprises families is air conditioning: what drives the electricity bill is how many rooms run it overnight, and no listing tells you that in advance.
Driving is the other question for week two. According to the Ministry of Transport guidance published by the Government Public Relations Department on 19 November 2024, foreigners may drive in Thailand on a valid Thai licence, on a valid International Driving Permit, or on a licence issued by an ASEAN member country. A resident converting a foreign licence to a Thai one needs:
- a passport, original and copy;
- a certificate of residence in Thailand;
- a health certificate from a certified medical professional;
- the foreign licence, original and copy;
- an e-learning training certificate from an approved course.
The certificate of residence is the one item on that list you cannot produce yourself, so ask early how to obtain it, and confirm the list with the licence office before you go.
Ahead of day 90: the address report
It falls outside the first month, but it is worth putting in the calendar on day one. The Immigration Bureau says a foreigner on temporary permission to stay who remains in Thailand for more than 90 days must report their address to immigration every 90 days, under Section 37(5) of the Immigration Act. This is the TM47, and it is a separate duty from the landlord's TM30.
- Four ways to file, per the Bureau: in person, through someone else carrying a letter, by registered post, or online.
- Online, it can be filed up to 15 days before it is due, and the Bureau says the result is emailed within three working days.
- It is per person. The online system keeps the address after one submission so that other members of the household living there can be filed next, which is how a family does it.
Which visa you hold decides how long you can stay in the first place. That is set out in our guide to Thailand's long-term visas.
The first-month checklist
- House chosen, lease read, move-in date confirmed.
- Inventory and photographs, signed on handover.
- TM30 receipt from the landlord for every family member.
- Bills split agreed in writing; meter readings photographed.
- School applications in, or places confirmed.
- Health cover active; children registered with a hospital or clinic.
- Driving: International Driving Permit in hand, or the conversion papers started.
- Day 90 in the calendar for every adult and child.
Renting first, buying later
Renting for the first year and buying afterwards is a sound order of events: a year of school runs tells you more about an area than any viewing trip. When the time comes, our guide to buying a family home in Phuket picks up where this one ends, and villas for sale are on the same site as the rentals.
For now, the place to start is the house. Browse villas for long-term rent, or contact our desk with your dates, the school you have in mind and the number of bedrooms, and we will send a shortlist of homes that are free when you land.