Two years commuting inside the Eastern Economic Corridor, what I would do differently
I came out from Perth on a two year contract in logistics and I am now into the third. Most of the advice I got before moving was about Bangkok, and I do not live in Bangkok, so here is the version for people going to the industrial belt.
The corridor between Chonburi, Sriracha and Rayong is not one place. Rents, traffic and who your neighbours are change completely over twenty minutes of road, and the maps do not tell you which twenty minutes.
What I got wrong first time: I took a place close to the beach because that is what you picture. My actual commute crossed the tourist strip twice a day. Twenty-two kilometres took fifty minutes in the season and twenty-five out of it, and I had chosen it in the quiet month.
What I check now:
Drive the commute at the hour you would actually drive it, in the busy month if you can. Not the distance, the hour.
Ask which industrial estates the neighbours work in. If everyone leaves at the same time, you are joining that queue.
Water supply. Some estates outside the municipal network run on trucked supply in dry years, and that is a real thing to know before signing, not after.
Furnished versus unfurnished is priced very differently here and the furnished premium disappears quickly if you are staying more than a year.
When I moved the second time I compared the same unit type across the three provinces on https://thailand-real.estate/ instead of relying on the one agent the company recommended, who only ever showed me the same two compounds.
Anyone else out here on the eastern seaboard? Interested in whether people found the traffic pattern shifted after the new road works.