Would living in Chiang Mai ultimately be just as expensive as my own country given I have a child?

I live in a Western country that’s experiencing a pretty awful property crisis in which many single people and couples can’t afford to rent or buy a place. My Thai partner and I moved to my country 3 years ago, one year after our daughter was born with the intention of giving her the best chance to flourish in life.

We initially moved in with my parents, then Covid struck, and the property crisis has resulted in us not being able to leave. We both feel trapped and with 100 people showing up to each property viewing, it feels impossible to even rent a place here. With property prices hovering around $550k, getting a mortgage on our combined salary is not happening.

All of this has resulted in us seriously considering moving to Thailand. I lived in Chiang Mai for 5 months in 2017 and really love it there. Although subjecting my kid to the smog season is a worrying thought.

Our daughter is almost 5 now and ready to start primary school. We will both have enough saved to afford either a 2-bed condo or a home in Chiang Mai by roughly April of next year. We’d also have our own living space and my daughter would have her own space to grow up in. All of this without paying $2.5k per month on rent or being tied to a 30-year mortgage (that we wouldn’t get approval for anyway).

The one sticking point from a financial perspective though is the cost of schooling. While buying property outright would be great, we’d likely have significant monthly costs if we want our kid educated in an international school. I guess not knowing much about the extent of those costs, I’m just curious if they’d be equivalent to a mortgage payment or the aforementioned rent costs in my Western country?

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