Thailand's Rampage Against Foreign Property Owners
Substack
The nominee crackdown is legally correct and potentially economically reckless.
Writer · Researcher · Founder of RUMAVI
Where is best to live — and how to actually get there.
I'm Alexander Linton. I created the Global Relocation Index — cited by CNN, Euronews and the Daily Mail — and I write about relocation, property and cross-border life in Asia. Chartered accountant. Recovering nomad.
Featured in & cited by
- Euronews
- Daily Mail
- CNN Indonesia
- The Independent
- Time Out
- The Diplomat
- Singapore Business Review
- Business Standard
- Khmer Times
About
I've bought property in nine countries, set up companies in several, navigated more visa regimes than I care to count, and moved my family across three continents. Somewhere along the way this stopped being a lifestyle and became a discipline.
Today I run RUMAVI, an independent relocation research and advisory house in Singapore, where I built the Global Relocation Index — a ranking of 192 countries on 24 measures of what actually matters when you move: money, healthcare, safety, and whether you can genuinely stay. No sponsors, no placements, no one paying to move up the table.
Before this: chartered accountancy, family-office finance, an MBA at NUS, a philosophy degree at Durham, founding a city magazine, and a brief, sincere attempt at culinary school. I represent the buyer, not the transaction — in property and in everything else.
The Global Relocation Index
192 countries. 24 metrics. No sponsors.
The Index scores every country in the world through six lenses — retirees, digital nomads, families, entrepreneurs, tax, and a general view — because the best country to build a company in can be the worst to grow old in. It has been covered by CNN Indonesia, Euronews, the Daily Mail and 20+ international outlets. The 2026 abridged report is free; the full 2027 edition arrives 1 July 2027.
- 192
- Countries ranked
- 6
- Persona lenses
- 20+
- Media citations
Read the 2026 Index →
Journalists: data, charts and citation guidance at rumavi.com/press
Writing
Columns, essays and field notes.
I write on relocation, property, tax and the strange business of belonging somewhere else — for The Diplomat, the Times of Israel, City Nomads and Expat Arrivals, and on my own Substack.
ASEAN's quiet competition for digital nomads
The Diplomat
Southeast Asia's new visa regimes are less about tourism than about capturing mobile income.
Renting vs buying in Singapore: what the 60% rule actually means
Expat Arrivals
The arithmetic most expats skip before signing a lease or a mortgage in one of the world's costliest markets.
Where the tax actually lands when you leave
Times of Israel
Departure is rarely the clean break people expect — residency follows you longer than your furniture does.
The retirement visa myth
Substack
Why the headline age and income thresholds tell you almost nothing about whether you can genuinely stay.
Nine countries, nine mistakes
Substack
A ledger of everything I got wrong buying property abroad, and what each error cost in cash and years.
The strange business of belonging somewhere else
City Nomads
On building a life in a place that will never quite call you local, and why that can still be enough.
Books
Field guides for people who actually move.
Cover
Retiring in Southeast Asia
The complete guide — visas, money, healthcare and property across the region. Out November 2026.
Join the launch listAsia Country Relocation Guides
Ten practical country-by-country guides: Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and more. Rolling out from late 2026.
The Digital Nomad's Southeast Asia Guide
2027.
All titles on Kindle, Apple Books and Kobo at launch; premium editions direct from RUMAVI.
Work with me
One hour. Real numbers. A written plan.
I take a limited number of one-to-one strategy sessions through RUMAVI: sixty minutes on your situation — country choice, visas, property, the honest trade-offs — followed by a written report you can act on. $380, fixed. For interviews, commissions and speaking, use the contact below.
Book a session at RUMAVI →
Everything else RUMAVI does — research, guides, property — lives at rumavi.com.
Background
- ACCA Chartered Accountant
- Executive MBA, NUS Singapore
- BA Philosophy, Durham
- 15 years structured finance & family-office advisory
- Founder, City Nomads
- Personally invested across nine markets, Singapore to Indonesia