Three years of renting in Chiang Mai and I finally did the maths. 15,000 baht a month for a one-bed near Nimman looked harmless every month, but over two years it added up to roughly what a small studio costs to buy - and I owned none of it.
Two things nobody told me before I started looking. Foreigners cannot own land in Thailand, only condominium units, and no more than 49% of a building's area may be foreign-owned; that cap is per building, so in popular blocks it is long used up - ask how much of the quota is left before you talk price. And older resale buildings usually have the expensive common-area work behind them, but ageing lifts and pumps come out of the owners' sinking fund.
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Adding the site I used while comparing districts, in case it helps someone: https://thailand-real.estate/ - Nimman, the old city and Hang Dong turned out to be three different price levels within twenty minutes.