Kaz Crossley pays £600 a month for a three-bed house with a pool, a few steps from a beach in Phuket.
The same money in London would get her a fraction of a flat and no sea.
The Love Island star, who finished third on the 2018 series, has built a new life on the Thai island, where she runs her own business and lives by the water.
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On Sunday she did the maths in public. Six hundred pounds covers the house and the bills.
A comparable London property would run past £2,500, as reported by CreatorZine.
She shares the place with a friend, which softens the figure. The value, in her words, is “crazy.”
“Sharing with a friend, but the difference in value for money is crazy,” she said.
“My personal experience is that people here are kind, honest and don’t take life too seriously. That’s the kind of energy I love being around.”
Then there is the petrol. A full tank for her scooter, the default way to get around Thailand, costs her £5.
Combat sports, full-time
The move has pulled her further into the thing she actually cares about.
Crossley founded Combat Collective, a women’s combat sports and empowerment community, and being in Phuket means she can run it hands-on rather than from a distance.
Her days fill up with MMA, boxing, Muay Thai, BJJ and hyrox.
It also follows a messy chapter. She recently split from her ex, the Australian jiu-jitsu champion Craig Jones, in what she has described as a fiery breakup.
Phuket looks like the calmer version.
Reconnecting with the Thai half
Crossley is half Thai, and the relocation is partly about that.
“The older I get, the more important it’s become to reconnect with where half of me comes from,” she said.
She wants her Thai to improve. She is working through the food.
She is also, she reports, getting a manicure, pedicure and lashes done at the same time, in an hour, with a foot massage running alongside.
“The girlies know this is a game changer,” she said.
Why It Matters
Crossley is doing what a growing number of creators have worked out quietly: income earned online does not have to be spent in the city that pays it.
A creator business runs on margins, and £600 a month against £2,500 is margin you can put back into the work, or simply keep.
For anyone building a brand from a laptop and a ring light, location has become a financial decision as much as a lifestyle one.
The pattern is everywhere. Influencers and reality stars have been basing themselves in Bali, Dubai, Lisbon and now Phuket, chasing cheaper rent and better weather while their audiences stay put.
Watch whether Combat Collective grows on the back of her being there in person. And watch the cost breakdown itself.
Posts that show the actual numbers travel further than the ones that just show the pool.
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