You can spend three months reading about South-East Asia and still land somewhere that doesn't suit the way you actually work. The problem usually isn't a lack of research. It's the order you do it in. Most people pick a city from photographs, then discover the visa doesn't stretch as far as they hoped, the time zone has eaten their mornings, or the coworking space they were counting on shut last year.
Run the checks below in sequence and you'll save money, but more importantly you'll save a wasted month. Keep your shortlist to two or three places and let the notes make the decision for you.
Step 1: Start with your non-negotiables
Three constraints shape everything else, so settle them before you look at a single apartment listing.
Time zones
If your clients are in the UK, remember that Thailand and Vietnam run six or seven hours ahead depending on the season, and Bali eight. A 9am London call lands in your late afternoon. That's workable if you like your mornings free and your evenings booked, but it changes how you'll structure a day. If your team is on the American west coast, the same arithmetic points you somewhere else entirely.
Your money floor
Decide the monthly figure you need to cover rent, food, transport and a buffer. Treat it as a filter, not an aspiration. Step 2 is about making that number honest.
The deal-breakers
Healthcare within reach, a gym, a genuinely quiet room, vegetarian food, streets you'd walk after dark. Write down three. Not ten.
Step 2: Price a real month, not a holiday
Nightly rates tell you what a week costs. A month has different maths entirely:
- One-month rent, plus deposit and any agency fee
- Electricity, which air conditioning turns into a real line item
- Visa extensions or border runs
- Coworking membership or a stack of day passes
- Scooter rental, fuel and ride-hailing
- Travel insurance and any health cover
- Flights in, plus the onward ticket some borders ask to see
Search the way locals do. Monthly rental groups, local property sites and expat forums give a truer picture than booking platforms. Better still, ask someone already living there what they pay, then add 10–15% for your first month, because first months always cost more. If you're staying long enough to raise questions about tax residency, take professional advice rather than relying on a forum thread.
Step 3: Interrogate the internet
The connection is the one thing you can't compromise on, and it's the easiest to verify badly. Ask for a speed test screenshot with a visible date. Ask whether the apartment has fibre or a mobile router, and what happens during a storm. Then ask a second question: what's the backup?
Test at the hours you actually work. A residential connection at 8pm in a busy neighbourhood is a very different animal from the same connection at 10am. Café Wi-Fi is fine for email and terrible for a client call, so don't schedule anything important on it. In practice you want two reliable sources: your accommodation, plus a coworking space or a local SIM with a generous data allowance that you can tether to.
When you're comparing coworking spaces, look past the desk photos. Check opening hours, air conditioning, whether there are call booths, and the price of a flexible monthly pass rather than the walk-in rate.
Step 4: Read the visa rules properly
This is where the expensive mistakes happen. Countries in the region offer different combinations of visa exemption, e-visa, tourist visa and longer-stay options, and several now have remote-work visas of their own. Rules change, and blog posts go stale within months.
Check the official immigration or embassy website for your nationality, and answer four questions before you book anything:
- How long can I enter for, and from when does that clock start?
- Can I extend inside the country, and roughly how long does that take?
- Do I need to exit and re-enter, and what does that trip cost in time and money?
- Is there an onward ticket, proof of funds or address requirement?
Working remotely on a tourist entry sits in a grey area across much of the region, and the position varies by country. If your plans are long-term, or you're earning money locally, get proper professional advice rather than assuming it will be fine.
Step 5: Find the community before the apartment
Whether month four feels good has less to do with your flat than with who you know. Before you book, join the relevant groups and ask a direct question: "I arrive in March, I work in software, where do people base themselves?" You'll get specific answers, and often a short-term room.
Think about the flavour of each place as well as the cost. Chiang Mai is greener, calmer and easier to cycle. Canggu is surf, traffic and a crowd. Ho Chi Minh City is dense, loud and endlessly convenient. Da Nang gives you a beach and a city in the same afternoon. Also check the seasons you'd actually be living through: the smoky months in parts of northern Thailand, monsoon timing, and whether you can genuinely handle the heat in April.
Step 6: Score your shortlist in one sitting
Two or three cities, one hour, no more browsing after that.
- List your candidates, then agree the criteria before you look at a single listing.
- Use: visa runway, realistic monthly cost, internet reliability, time-zone overlap, community, weather and air quality for your dates, walkability and transport, healthcare access, and how easy it is to leave.
- Score each city from 1 to 5 against every criterion.Photo: daro thai / Pexels
