Ground-floor pool access or an upper floor: choosing your floor in a Koh Samui condo

In a low-rise condo, the floor you choose shapes your days more than almost anything else on the plan. On the ground floor you live at the level of the pool and the gardens. A few storeys up you look over them. Neither is the right answer for everyone, and the price difference between them is real, so it is worth deciding on purpose.

This guide uses The Astra Samui as the example, because we are its sales agent and know its plans, but the questions work for any condo on the island. If you are still choosing between apartment types, start with how to choose an apartment at The Astra Samui and come back here once you know the size you want.

Floor numbering in Thailand

Before comparing floors, agree on what the numbers mean. Thai plans label the ground floor “1st floor”, so a unit the developer’s drawing places on the “2nd floor” is on the 1st floor in British numbering.

On this site we use British numbering throughout: ground floor, then 1st, 2nd and 3rd floor. The Astra Samui has 4 storeys plus a basement level, spread across 3 buildings (A, B and C). When a price list, a contract or a listing from another project gives a floor, check which convention it uses before you compare.

What pool access means here

According to the developer, the project has a limited number of ground-floor residences with direct pool access from a private balcony. In practice that means the balcony opens onto the pool area rather than onto a garden or a walkway, and you can step from the apartment to the water.

The pool itself is the centre of the site: a 70 m tropical lagoon pool, set in tropical gardens around the lagoon pool.

How many units have pool access is not yet confirmed: the developer says a limited number and has not given a count. If pool access is your priority, tell us before we send a price list, so you only see the units that match.

The ground floor: advantages and trade-offs

What you gain:

• The pool at your door. You use it more because it takes no effort: a swim before breakfast, another at sunset.
• No stairs. Shopping, luggage, a pushchair or a bad knee all matter less.
• Living at garden level. The planting is next to you rather than below you, and in the tropics that is a large part of the pleasure.

What you give up, or need to check:

• Privacy. Your balcony faces a shared area. Ask how planting, screens or level changes separate it from the pool deck, and look at the plan to see who walks past.
• Noise and activity. A pool is busiest at weekends, in school holidays and in the late afternoon. If you work from home or sleep in the afternoon, that matters.
• Humidity. In any tropical building, ground-floor rooms next to gardens and water tend to feel more humid. Air-conditioning and a dehumidifier handle it, but ask how the units are ventilated and keep wardrobes aired.
• Insects and garden work. Gardens are watered and trimmed, and insects like greenery. Screens on doors and windows are worth asking about.
• Security. The development has key-card access and CCTV. On the ground floor, also think about locking the balcony door when you are out and how the unit is checked while you are away.

Upper floors: views and quiet

From the 1st floor up, the trade-offs reverse.

• Outlook. You look over the gardens or the pool rather than at them. Residences look onto the lagoon pool or the tropical gardens. The higher you are, the longer the view, though we do not claim a sea view from any floor.
• Privacy and quiet. Fewer people pass your balcony, and noise from the pool deck softens with height.
• Breeze. Upper balconies tend to catch more air, which you notice in the hot months.
• Light. Upper floors usually get more daylight, and less shade from trees.

The cost, unless your building has a lift, is the climb, and on a hot day with shopping bags the 3rd floor feels further than it looks on the plan. The developer gives one figure for all apartments (ceiling height: 2.6 m), so the floor changes the view, not the room height.

Stairs and accessibility for older buyers

If your plan is a holiday home now and longer stays in retirement later, think about the floor with your future self in mind.

We do not yet have the developer’s confirmation of lifts in each building, so we do not state it either way. Ask us for the answer for the building you are looking at. Until then, the safe assumptions are:

• the ground floor needs no stairs to the door, though the route from the car park or the lobby may still include steps or slopes
• a low floor is a reasonable compromise if you want some privacy and expect to manage one flight
• for the 3rd floor, ask about the route to the door before you commit

Walk the route on the site plan: from the drop-off or parking to the lobby, then to the door of the unit. Parking is free of charge. If you are planning a long stay in later life, our guide to a holiday home in Koh Samui covers what else to think about.

Price differences by position

The developer prices each unit by its area and its category. The indicative launch grid gives these prices per m²:

Indicative prices from the launch price grid (before launch promotions, fully furnished). Final prices are confirmed on the official price list. Prices for the project start from THB 3,700,000 (about €98,000, NBP average rate of 23 October 2026).

So the same type costs more with pool access than with a garden outlook, because each m² is priced higher. Before you pay for it, ask yourself how many days a year you will use the pool from your own balcony. If the answer is most of them, the premium buys something you value. If you will be there two weeks a year, an upper floor with a pool view may give you most of the pleasure for less. The prices page has the full grid and the starting price for each type.

Letting: any position can be let

You can let your residence yourself or through a rental management company. That applies to every floor. Guests often like pool access and some prefer the privacy of an upper floor, but we do not publish figures for how either affects letting, and nobody can promise them. No rental income is promised.

If you plan to let, choose a unit you would enjoy yourself in the weeks it is empty, and read up on the rules for short lets before you plan around them.

A checklist for choosing your floor

• Which numbering does the document use: Thai (ground floor is “1st floor”) or British?
• How often will you use the pool, really?
• Will anyone work from home or sleep in the afternoon?
• How much privacy do you want on the balcony, and what separates it from shared areas?
• Is humidity or insect life a concern for you?
• Can everyone in your household manage stairs, now and in ten years?
• Does your building have a lift? Ask us.
• What is the route from parking or the lobby to the door?
• Which way does the balcony face, and is it in sun or shade in the afternoon?
• How does the price per m² of this position compare with the same type elsewhere in the building?

Then look at the units in the 3D model, see the renders in the gallery, and check the surroundings on the Bophut location page. When you have two or three candidates on different floors, book a call and we will compare them with you, including which are still open.