Relocation services in Southeast Asia, in both directions
Asia Relocation runs destination services in three countries — the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand. Arriving in the region, settling in once you are here, transferring from one of the three to another, or closing a life here and leaving for good: the work is done by our own consultants, in the country where it happens.
Relocation is not the transport of belongings. That is a separate trade, with its own people and its own timetable, and we run it as well. Relocation is everything that has to be true before a household can actually live somewhere: a home in a district that survives both the commute and the school run, a lease you understood before you signed it, a school place that has not already closed for the year, a partner who can hold a conversation outside the office, a first month that does not consume the whole family. One of those trades moves objects. The other moves lives, and it succeeds or fails on details that never appear in a contract.
From outside, Southeast Asia reads as a single destination. It is not. The Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand each run their own rental practice, their own school landscape, their own working culture and their own paperwork, and very little of it transfers. Our own cross-cultural programmes make the point without meaning to: the briefings we deliver in the three countries have almost nothing in common — community obligation and the fear of losing face in one, hierarchy and Confucian order in another, a different register of politeness again in the third. Anyone who tells you the region behaves as one market has not delivered in more than one of them.
This page exists for the questions that sit above any single country. Which of the three fits the people you actually need to move, when the company has not decided yet. What happens to a household transferring from one of the three to another, with two sets of obligations running at once. And what happens at the end — because almost everything written about relocation quietly assumes you are arriving. Leaving is a service too: a lease to close on its own notice period, a school year to end cleanly, a deposit to recover, a home to hand back in the state the contract describes. It is the least documented part of the whole trade and the part people discover latest.
We did not open in the three countries at once, and the order still shows. Asia Relocation started in the Philippines in 2011, opened in Vietnam in 2022, and in Thailand in 2025. Fourteen years in one country and one year in another are not the same thing, and we would rather say that than hand you three identical brochures: the oldest desk carries the longest memory of how a difficult lease or a mid-year school entry really gets resolved, and the newer ones were built to that standard rather than from scratch. What is identical across the three is the method, and the fact that our own staff deliver it. A move also rarely arrives alone — the lease has to line up with the immigration file and with the date the household's belongings actually land. Our moving and visa & immigration teams sit under the same roof as the relocation consultants, so the three calendars are planned against each other instead of being reconciled after one of them has slipped.
The eight services, whichever country you land in
Each one is scoped and priced on its own, in whichever of the three countries you need it. Take the full set, or take two — the list below is a menu, not a package.
Home Search
The same brief produces three different searches: what a lease concedes, what a deposit costs and what an owner expects vary by country rather than by budget. Tell us the household and the date, and the search runs in whichever country the answer turns out to be.
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Temporary Housing
The one service every direction needs. Arriving, it covers the weeks before the permanent home is ready; leaving, it covers the weeks after it has been handed back — and the second case is the one nobody budgets for.
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Office Search
Opening in the region raises a question no single country page can answer: which of the three the entity belongs in. We scope the workspace and the market together once that is settled — serviced offices, co-working or a commercial lease, sourced and negotiated on the ground.
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School Search
A transfer inside the region means a mid-year entry and a curriculum that has to continue, which narrows the field before anyone has looked at a school. We compare what is genuinely available in each country in scope, then run the visits and the applications.
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Cross-Cultural Training
Three programmes, because the three countries are not one culture and a briefing that prepares somebody for one of them will quietly mislead them about the next. For the employee, and for the family arriving alongside.
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Language Training
Our consultants work in four languages, and which one you need depends on where you land — which is also why a transfer between countries means starting a language again rather than continuing one. Native-speaker trainers, one-to-one or in small groups, online or in person.
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City Orientation
The service most often cut from a budget, and the one that decides how quickly an accompanying partner stops depending on the assignee for everything. A guided first look at the practical geography of wherever the move ends.
Car Leasing
Nobody drives across the region, so this one is always arranged locally: a vehicle for the duration, upkeep included in the monthly figure, and no asset to dispose of when the household moves on again.
Four directions, four different conversations
People reach this page from four situations and they rarely need the same thing. It is worth knowing which one you are in before anyone starts listing services.
Arriving in the region
You are coming to Southeast Asia and the country is either settled or still being argued over upstairs. Start from who is moving, for how long, and what the household needs to function — the country question usually answers itself once those are on the table, rather than the other way round.
Already settled in one country
You live here, and what you need now is specific rather than general: a lease ending, a move to a bigger home, a school that is no longer the right one, a partner looking for something to do. Nobody needs a full programme for that. They need one service, done properly, by someone who knows the market.
Moving between countries
A transfer inside the group of three. Two sets of obligations run at once, and the departure end sets the earliest date the arrival end can start. This is the one situation no single country page can answer on its own, and the one where two unconnected suppliers cost you the most.
Leaving the region for good
The posting ends, the company restructures, retirement moves somewhere else, or the family simply decides it is time. Almost nothing published about relocation addresses this direction, which is precisely why it goes wrong. Closing a life somewhere takes longer than opening one, and it starts earlier than you think.
Three countries, and the door out
Our consultants live in the countries they advise on — which is why the advice is about this district and this landlord rather than about a region. If the country is already settled, go straight to the team that will do the work. If it is not, start with us.
Thailand
Our newest desk, opened in 2025, and the country where demand is the least concentrated in one place: corporate assignments, families settling for the long term and remote workers splitting their year all pull in different directions, which changes what a home search is even looking for. Thai-speaking consultants handle the lease and the paperwork attached to it. See what the Thai team covers.
The Philippines
Where the company started, in 2011, and still where the deepest bench sits. It is also the only one of the three where an assignment is regularly inter-island rather than international, which changes the shape of a move entirely, and the country where English does most of the daily work — so the friction lands on housing and schooling rather than on language. See what the Philippine team covers.
Vietnam
The desk opened in 2022, into the fastest-moving of the three markets. Our own people describe it as a fast-moving and complex environment, and that is not a slogan: rental stock, districts and school capacity shift enough between one assignment and the next that advice more than a year old deserves checking. It is also the only one of the three whose team routinely manages assignments out of the country as well as into it. See what the Vietnamese team covers.
Leaving the region
Not a country — a direction, and one we treat as a service rather than as an afterthought. When a posting ends the work sits on this side: a lease closed on its own notice period, a deposit recovered, a school year ended cleanly, utilities and registrations settled, a home handed back in the condition the contract describes, all against a date that has to hold because the flights are booked. We do that end. What happens on the far side is somebody else's country, and we would rather say so. Tell us when you are leaving.
One team in three countries, accountable for the whole file
In-house, not subcontracted
In this sector the critical services are routinely handed to a local agent the client never meets. We chose the opposite: immigration, home search, coordination and the move itself are done by our own staff. It is slower to build and harder to run, and it is the only arrangement in which the answer you get has not been relayed by somebody with no stake in it.
One point of responsibility
When something stalls there is one name to call, and that name can see the whole file. No triangulating between three suppliers who each hold a piece of the work and none of the accountability for the rest of it.
Four working languages
Our consultants work in English, French, Thai and Vietnamese. It matters most at the lease: a contract read in the language it was drafted in is a different document from the same contract read in translation, and the clauses that cost money later are rarely the ones a summary covers.
Modular, not a single package
The all-inclusive package stopped fitting anyone a long time ago. You take the services the move genuinely needs, priced separately, and leave the rest where it is. Complexity and cost that serve nobody are not a sign of a serious provider.
Technology serves the person
We use the digital tools this trade now runs on, and we do not confuse them with the service. No algorithm replaces the reassurance of somebody who has changed countries themselves and knows exactly what the first month does to a family. The tools should make the human faster, not stand in for them.
Fixed scope, agreed first
You approve the services and the cost before anything starts. No open-ended hours, and no discovering the real scope halfway through — including when the honest answer is that you need less than you came asking for.
From an undecided move to a settled household
Tell us the situation
Who is moving, in which direction, when, and what the household has to be able to do once it lands. You do not need to have chosen a country, and you certainly do not need to know what any of the services are called. Working that out is our job.
Scope and country assessment
We come back with what the move actually requires in each country in scope, what has to be settled before departure and what can safely wait, and where a country would make your plan harder. Where a service is not worth buying in your case, we say so at this stage rather than after it is invoiced.
Fixed-scope proposal
One quote, itemised by service and by country, with the timeline as we understand it that month. Nothing is booked and nothing starts until you have approved it, and the scope does not quietly grow afterwards.
Delivery, then the weeks after
Your coordinator runs the viewings, the negotiations, the school visits and the setup on the ground, then stays reachable through the settling-in period. The questions that matter most tend to arrive after everyone else has considered the job finished.
Regional relocation FAQ
We have not chosen a country yet. Is it too early to talk to you?
We are leaving Southeast Asia rather than arriving. Do you handle that?
What does relocation actually cover, if it is not the move itself?
Can we take one or two services rather than a full package?
Is the service identical in all three countries?
A household is transferring from one of your countries to another. Who handles the two ends?
Do your consultants work in our language?
Who actually does the work — your own people or a local partner?
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Read →Coming to the region, moving inside it, or leaving it?
Tell us who is moving, in which direction and when. We come back with what the move actually needs in each country involved, and a fixed scope for it. The country does not have to be decided — that is often the first thing we help with.
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