How it's scored: each area is rated 1–10 on eight factors — value, infrastructure & services, culture & heritage, quiet, transport access, rental depth, walkability and family suitability — and the BAANLYY Area Score is their average on a 0–100 scale. Chai Nat publishes very little structured housing data and its entire advertised long-stay market on the one portal we could bound to the province is thirteen buildings, twelve of them in a single district and most listed more than two years ago (see the rental market guide for exactly what we could and could not verify), so these scores are deliberately conservative and directional rather than precise. It's a transparent comparison starting point, not investment advice — weight the factors that matter to you.
Chai Nat areas by overall score
| # | Area | Score | Value | Infrastructure & services | Transport access (road) | Rental depth | Family suitability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mueang Chai Nat — the capital on the Chao Phraya The provincial seat at Ban Kluai: Chainat Narendra Hospital on Phahonyothin Road, the province's one private hospital, the nursing college, the Immigration Office, the Bird Park under Khao Phlong, and twelve of the thirteen advertised rental buildings in the whole province | 71 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 7 |
| 2 | Sapphaya — the dam district on the east bank The province's single most important piece of infrastructure and its most photographed building: the Chao Phraya Dam, opened by King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit on 7 February 1957, and the 1901 wooden police station now restored as a local history museum | 63 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | Sankhaburi — Phraek Si Racha, the old town in the south Where Chai Nat actually began: the ancient city of Mueang Phraek on the Noi River, six individually registered monuments including Wat Mahathat, 92 villages, and the province's largest community hospital at 60 beds | 61 | 9 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 6 |
| 4 | Manorom & Wat Sing — the northern river districts The only corner of the province with an international-curriculum school, plus Wat Pak Khlong Makham Thao at the mouth of the Makham Thao and its murals painted by the Prince of Chumphon | 60 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 7 |
| 5 | Hankha, Nong Mamong & Noen Kham — the western uplands The thin western third: Hankha is the province's largest district at 529 km2, Nong Mamong and Noen Kham are its two smallest by population, and between them they hold the only ground in Chai Nat that is not flat | 53 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 5 |
Top area by factor
Frequently asked
What is the BAANLYY Chai Nat Area Score?The BAANLYY Area Score is a transparent 0–100 rating for each of Chai Nat's five core living areas, which between them cover all eight districts. It's the average of eight lived-experience factors — value, infrastructure & services, culture & heritage, quiet, transport access, rental depth, walkability and family suitability — each scored out of 10 from BAANLYY's Chai Nat dataset, then converted to a 100-point scale. This province publishes very little structured housing data: the entire advertised long-stay market we could bound to it was thirteen buildings on a single portal, twelve of them in one district, and only two of those thirteen listings carried a date inside the last two years. So these scores are conservative editorial estimates derived from each area's real geography and role, not a precise benchmark. It's a starting point for comparison, not investment advice.
Why is transport scored on road access only?Because road is all there is. There is no railway station anywhere in Chai Nat province: the State Railway's Northern Line serves twelve provinces — Pathum Thani, Ayutthaya, Saraburi, Lop Buri, Nakhon Sawan, Phichit, Phitsanulok, Uttaradit, Phrae, Lampang, Lamphun and Chiang Mai — and Chai Nat is not among them, nor does the SRT's national station list contain one named after the province. There is no airport either. What Chai Nat has is the northern terminus of Highway 32, the Asian Highway carrying AH1 and AH2, which runs 150.545 kilometres from Bang Pa-In in Ayutthaya and ends inside this province by merging back into Phahonyothin Road at the Nakhon Sawan border; it has been six lanes and in places eight since the 2008–09 widening. Phahonyothin — Highway 1 — is then the capital's own spine, and Highway 340 runs south through Sankhaburi toward Suphan Buri. The western districts score lower on transport because they sit off both of those axes.
Which Chai Nat area scores highest?On the current overall score, Mueang Chai Nat — the capital on the Chao Phraya leads with a BAANLYY Area Score of 71, followed by Sapphaya — the dam district on the east bank (63) and Sankhaburi — Phraek Si Racha, the old town in the south (61). Scores balance all eight factors — your personal best area depends on whether you weigh a walkable capital holding the general hospital, the private hospital and almost all of the advertised housing; the district that holds the first great dam built in Thailand; the old town where the province actually began; the two northern districts with the only international-curriculum school in Chai Nat; or the cheapest and quietest possible farmland living out west.
Why is rental depth scored 1 in three of the five areas?Because it is measured, not estimated. In August 2026 RentHub's Chai Nat province index displayed thirteen advertised long-stay buildings and its own district facet read Mueang Chai Nat 12 and Sapphaya 1 — a facet that reconciles exactly with the headline number, which is more than several Thai portals manage. Manorom, Wat Sing, Sankhaburi, Hankha, Nong Mamong and Noen Kham did not appear at all. That maps directly onto the 5 scored for the capital, the 2 for Sapphaya and the 1 scored in the other three areas, which is us being generous to an off-portal market that certainly exists but that nobody can browse. Three further honesty notes: two of the thirteen entries appear to be the same building under its Thai and English names; only two of the thirteen have been refreshed in the last twenty-four months; and the portal's own amenity facets across all thirteen read lift 2, fitness 1 and pets allowed 0.
Sources & References
The BAANLYY Area Score itself is BAANLYY's proprietary editorial dataset; the official sources above provide the underlying tourism and demographic context. Ratings are editorial estimates that change as areas evolve — not investment, legal or financial advice.
The BAANLYY Area Score is a proprietary, transparent composite of BAANLYY's own area ratings, provided for general comparison only — not investment, legal or financial advice. Ratings are editorial estimates that change as areas evolve. Hero photo via Pexels.
Founder of BAANLYY · International real estate broker, investor & relocation specialist
Last updated 19 August 2026 · Last reviewed 19 August 2026