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Until fairly recently, unless you had a long-term affiliation with Thailand, it was rare for Thailand to feature in people's retirement plans. However, over the last 10 - 15 years this has changed, and now certain parts of Thailand are becoming more popular as retirement destinations. In short, this change has come about due to the following factors:

- provided you have structured your affairs correctly, Thailand's tax system can be very friendly to retirees living here;
- most areas where retirees settle (such as Phuket) have excellent standards of medical treatment, which are inexpensive when compared to the West;
- Thailand has a very low-cost housing market, and it is possible to get some superb retirement homes for a fraction of the cost in the West;
- Thai culture puts heavy emphasis on helping and respecting elders in society and so it possible to get both good and cheap home help here;
- Thailand has excellent leisure activities catering to retirees which are not expensive: meaning that retirees can sustain a good lifestyle here at a fraction of the cost in the West;
- Thailand has very pleasant all round temperatures that retirees find enjoyable.

Added to these factors has certainly been the Government's encouragement that retirees come to live in Thailand by making immigration visas much easier for retirees to obtain than was the case previously.

Added March 2007 by Eivind:
About the MM2H programme: you should mention that your used car can be imported duty free or you can import a new car from whatever country duty free.
You should also mention that the MM2H Retirement is for 10 years, not 5.

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