Are you thinking of taking a longer trip to Asia, or perhaps living there full-time for a few years? Then you won't need a hotel room, you'll need to rent or buy property. Property styles and prices vary from continent to continent, region to region, and country to country, but here's a little bit of what you can expect if you're moving to an Asian country from North America.

Style

Asian home styles are very different from most North American ones. Many countries, especially the ones in southern Asia, experience almost no temperature variation between the seasons and experience monsoon rainfalls in the spring. Housing styles are designed to suit the climate, while most real estate in North America is built for snow and rain and ice, real estate in southern Asia will be built to keep cool, with outdoor corridors, raised floors to allow for circulation, and grooved roofs to keep out rain.

Space

In some Asian countries, particularly China and Japan, space is at a premium, so developers just can't afford lavish driveways and yards and garages on homes. They're built with space saving in mind, with some rooms doing double and triple duty and high rises being favored (especially in cities) even over the town houses you'll find in Ontario or Ohio for example. Bathrooms will be the size of telephone booths and bedrooms scarcely bigger than a twin bed. Even the ceilings may be shorter, as Asians on average tend to be shorter than North Americans.

Price

While it is true that in some poor Asian countries, everything is cheap, but in the countries you're most likely to live in, property will be a lot more expensive than you would think. Space is at a premium, so housing is expensive. Expect your new Asian home to cost many times what your old North American home did, and to be much smaller at the same time.

Location

Suburbs are a peculiarity of North America, so don't expect to see any suburban neighborhoods after you move to Asia. You can choose between living in a teeming city or in a remote village, but you won't find any in-between areas that are close to the city and connected to public transit but also not so bustling, like New Jersey. It's one or the other, and if you want to find a job that's not in agriculture, it will be a teeming city that you choose.

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