In Thailand (and I imagine other SEA countries) there are plenty of condos without kitchen. But buying some food in a small shop or stall or some street-food is cheap enough anyways.

> you told me that there are houses without a toilet

There are plenty of low cost apartment buildings with shared toilets and no bathtub/shower. That's when a gym membership might be necessary at the very least. Except in covid times when you weren't allowed to use the gym's shower facilities.

In Western Europe it's not super usual to rent or buy property without a kitchen and you having to furnish it yourself.

I've stayed in places in New York with only the tiniest of kitchen areas. I'm talking so small that you can only store a few plates, cutlery items and snacks. Maybe some bread. Perhaps a microwave.

No room for a fridge, cooker, or anything else.

SROs often have no kitchen and don't allow hotplates etc., but allow microwaves, rice cookers, and similar appliances.

Forgive my ignorance but what does "SRO" mean? I'm not an English native speaker and google is useless for acronyms unless you have context.

Single room occupancy. A type of hotel, with shared bathrooms down the hall.

Here's an article from yesterday's NYT that has a historical background section about halfway down:

When No Landlord Will Rent to You, Where Do You Go? https://nyti.ms/33ZiTKV

SRO?

You can cook in microwaves and rice cookers, no?

Microwaves are known for making it easy to cook a complete meal for a family of four, right? Especially the small ones that are common in hotel rooms? And you have to afford a rice cooker and have a way to learn to cook with it. Maybe you have internet, but maybe your phone just broke.

Poverty simply means you live without things. I lived for some years cooking on burner plates because I couldn't afford propane/natural gas (different houses). I also didn't have hot water. If my electricity got turned off? No warm food.

There are a number of rentals that do not come with appliances. "You can use what is there, but if it breaks, I'm not replacing it" happens a lot too. Maybe you can rent one, maybe not. You can probably carry a rice cooker home if you don't have transportation, but not a microwave (easily, anyway)

Cooking a meal from fresh ingredients in a microwave seems like a pretty Herculan task to me, as someone who cooks every day

You’re on a real let-them-eat-cake roll here.