Living Well in a Safe Place
Living Well in a Safe Place
Last week I was introduced to a remarkable residential development in Chiang Mai, the charming city in northern Thailand where we live.
Plover Cove is an estate of 59 luxury villas designed to appeal to an international audience, particularly retirees. The unusual investment packages, which start at 13.5 million Thai baht (that’s about $450,000/£334,000/ZAR6.6 million), include 20-year visas for a couple.
Why Chiang Mai? Because it’s periodically rated in international surveys as one of the best places in the world to live. Safe. Friendly. Sophisticated. Inexpensive. Never too cold, but hardly ever too hot.
The Plover Cove villas overlook rice paddies in quiet countryside but within easy reach of all the facilities of a modern city. They are of clean modern Canadian designs ranging in size from 255 to 315 square metres. No two homes are the same. Rooms are spacious with large windows. Each bedroom is en-suite. Curtains/drapes open/close at touch of a switch. Light fittings are of stunning designs. Kitchen and environmental equipment embraces top brands such as Gorenje, Hafele, Mazuma, Daikin, Enagic.
Each unit has an infinity pool (choose your size, up to 18 metres). A full range of domestic services, including pool and garden maintenance, is on offer. Supermarkets, restaurants (Western and Thai cuisine), beauty salons, spas and golf courses are only a few minutes away; excellent internationally-accredited hospitals are within half-an-hour’s drive.
For the moment, Thailand has closed borders – a policy that’s been spectacularly successful to keep Covid-19 deaths down to just 60. But within a year you should be welcome to come visit and see for yourself why Chiang Mai is such a good place to live.
I have described it to friends in these terms: “Wonderful caring people, virtually no crime, a warm and sunny climate, a beautiful location (mountains, forests, rice paddies), excellent but really low-cost medical care, great inexpensive household help, and a wonderful lifestyle.” All elderly people are treated with reverence; leisure facilities are abundant; the long-established expats club is an excellent source of information, social opportunities and entertainment.
Living Well in a Safe Place taken from our ‘On Target Newsletter’ issue no 262
