Cost of Living in Ho Chi Minh City
Summary about cost of living in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam:
- Family of four estimated monthly costs are 1,691.48$ (39,022,770.02₫) without rent (using our estimator).
- A single person estimated monthly costs are 475.81$ (10,977,059.29₫) without rent.
- Ho Chi Minh City is 60.16% less expensive than New York (without rent, see our cost of living index).
- Rent in Ho Chi Minh City is, on average, 80.35% lower than in New York.
Restaurants |  Edit |
Range |
|---|---|---|
| Meal, Inexpensive Restaurant | 2.17 $ | |
| Meal for 2 People, Mid-range Restaurant, Three-course | 25.14 $ | |
| McMeal at McDonalds (or Equivalent Combo Meal) | 4.23 $ | |
| Domestic Beer (1 pint draught) | 0.95 $ | |
| Imported Beer (12 oz small bottle) | 1.73 $ | |
| Cappuccino (regular) | 2.01 $ | |
| Coke/Pepsi (12 oz small bottle) | 0.57 $ | |
| Water (12 oz small bottle) | 0.34 $ | |
Markets | Edit |
|
| Milk (regular), (1 gallon) | 5.44 $ | |
| Loaf of Fresh White Bread (1 lb) | 0.85 $ | |
| Rice (white), (1 lb) | 0.38 $ | |
| Eggs (regular) (12) | 1.44 $ | |
| Local Cheese (1 lb) | 5.12 $ | |
| Chicken Fillets (1 lb) | 1.34 $ | |
| Beef Round (1 lb) (or Equivalent Back Leg Red Meat) | 5.43 $ | |
| Apples (1 lb) | 1.18 $ | |
| Banana (1 lb) | 0.43 $ | |
| Oranges (1 lb) | 0.83 $ | |
| Tomato (1 lb) | 0.45 $ | |
| Potato (1 lb) | 0.59 $ | |
| Onion (1 lb) | 0.51 $ | |
| Lettuce (1 head) | 0.87 $ | |
| Water (1.5 liter bottle) | 0.50 $ | |
| Bottle of Wine (Mid-Range) | 13.00 $ | |
| Domestic Beer (0.5 liter bottle) | 0.91 $ | |
| Imported Beer (12 oz small bottle) | 1.41 $ | |
| Cigarettes 20 Pack (Marlboro) | 1.21 $ | |
Transportation | Edit |
|
| One-way Ticket (Local Transport) | 0.30 $ | |
| Monthly Pass (Regular Price) | 6.94 $ | |
| Taxi Start (Normal Tariff) | 0.52 $ | |
| Taxi 1 mile (Normal Tariff) | 1.01 $ | |
| Taxi 1hour Waiting (Normal Tariff) | 1.95 $ | |
| Gasoline (1 gallon) | 3.24 $ | |
| Volkswagen Golf 1.4 90 KW Trendline (Or Equivalent New Car) | 47,680.59 $ | |
| Toyota Corolla Sedan 1.6l 97kW Comfort (Or Equivalent New Car) | 35,330.37 $ | |
Utilities (Monthly) | Edit |
|
| Basic (Electricity, Heating, Cooling, Water, Garbage) for 915 sq ft Apartment | 68.90 $ | |
| 1 min. of Prepaid Mobile Tariff Local (No Discounts or Plans) | 0.09 $ | |
| Internet (60 Mbps or More, Unlimited Data, Cable/ADSL) | 12.26 $ | |
Sports And Leisure | Edit |
|
| Fitness Club, Monthly Fee for 1 Adult | 22.69 $ | |
| Tennis Court Rent (1 Hour on Weekend) | 8.73 $ | |
| Cinema, International Release, 1 Seat | 4.33 $ | |
Childcare | Edit |
|
| Preschool (or Kindergarten), Full Day, Private, Monthly for 1 Child | 150.20 $ | |
| International Primary School, Yearly for 1 Child | 12,384.03 $ | |
Clothing And Shoes | Edit |
|
| 1 Pair of Jeans (Levis 501 Or Similar) | 42.59 $ | |
| 1 Summer Dress in a Chain Store (Zara, H&M, ...) | 27.77 $ | |
| 1 Pair of Nike Running Shoes (Mid-Range) | 101.45 $ | |
| 1 Pair of Men Leather Business Shoes | 88.79 $ | |
Rent Per Month | Edit |
|
| Apartment (1 bedroom) in City Centre | 549.01 $ | |
| Apartment (1 bedroom) Outside of Centre | 376.26 $ | |
| Apartment (3 bedrooms) in City Centre | 1,206.68 $ | |
| Apartment (3 bedrooms) Outside of Centre | 794.95 $ | |
Buy Apartment Price | Edit |
|
| Price per Square Feet to Buy Apartment in City Centre | 288.28 $ | |
| Price per Square Feet to Buy Apartment Outside of Centre | 128.72 $ | |
Salaries And Financing | Edit |
|
| Average Monthly Net Salary (After Tax) | 466.78 $ | |
| Mortgage Interest Rate in Percentages (%), Yearly, for 20 Years Fixed-Rate | 9.45 |
Prices in Ho Chi Minh City
This city had 959 entries in the past 12 months by 93 different contributors.
Last update: February 2021
Last update: February 2021
Sources and References
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Nearby cities:| Cost of Living in Can Tho | 105.20 miles |
| Cost of Living in Phan Thiet | 117.98 miles |
| Cost of Living in Phan Rang | 209.12 miles |
| Cost of Living in Buon Ma Thuot | 216.41 miles |
This page in other languages:
DeutschLebenshaltungskosten in Ho-Chi-Minh-Stadt
PortuguêsCusto de Vida em Cidade de Ho Chi Minh
ItalianoCosto della Vita a Ho Chi Minh
FrançaisCoût de la Vie à Hô-Chi-Minh-Ville
EspañolCosto de Vida en Ciudad Ho Chi Minh
I know a few in particular that clear 2k a week before expenses at mid range quan nhau places that arent even in the city center. Maybe ur talking about some backward hick towns but not true in Saigon.
Low income refers to salaried employees in Vietnam. So honestly you can't expect some English teacher to come light the city on fire unless they are specialized and work for an international school.
This is why foreigners are not usually respected. Many of them don't make that much and end up pinching pennies and scraping by.
As a westerner, you need a decent income in Vietnam and a good image. Living in nice neighborhoods, eating at good restaurants, dressing well otherwise you are pegged as another loser backpacker. It's a sad state of affairs.
You really cant find an adequate basic room with a kitchenette for less than 10m + utilities/ management fees. It takes me a week at least to find something good. Plus most of these buildings are in crappy locations and you're stepping around dog feces and old ladies cutting veggies in puddle water when you leave your apartment. Like I said in my post below, 12m is really the sweet spot. And you need it bc it's such a hectic place...you need a good home to return to.
Just a year ago you could get a brand new room in a commercial building from 6.5ish. I'm not seeing any good deals anymore. Most cities in SEA other than Singapore are waaaay cheaper and have better value than hcmc.
1. Cost of living has gone up 100X with the sharp influx of foreigners. Unless you like living in skinny communist style housing blocks and eating cheap gruel, you need $2500 a month minimum for a good quality life. Quality apartments in not crappy areas start at 500 + high utilities. Even local food now has seen quite the markup. An average snail place on the street for 2 will run you $30 to $40 bucks for tiny portions.
2. If you don't have money or look like you don't, Vietnamese treat you like dirt. They act as if every foreigner is an indigent layabout teacher or refugee.
3. Rampant scams from housing to visas to food and more will add a big deficit to your budget.
4. Vague visa laws. Laws change quite a bit here and if you arent working legally or are working online, expect to make a trek to Cambodia every 3 months to reset your visa. It's a time consuming embarrassing pain and can be costly if you mess it up.
In addition if you mistakenly use the wrong visa agents or spend too much time in the country you can easily be blacklisted for vague reasons which can cost $3000 to fix.
5. Boring materialistic culture.
This is just a small taste or primer of what you can expect in VN. If you go to Vietnam you better have money and better be self sufficient.
There are much better options for your discerning expat.
Minimum is basically 10m VND + EVN electric + management fees + cleaning etc if you want to live in a midrange highrise or condo building. Basically $600++ for a studio condotel or a 1 bedroom depending on the building.
If you decide to go the serviced apartment route it can be slightly cheaper but greedy Viets will artificially jack up your utilities with a submeter. I remember paying nearly $100 for electric and water for a 25-30sqm room with 1 barely working AC and a crappy water heater.
Lot of incidental costs in Vietnam that jack up the cost of living like the visa runs or paying agents or whatnot.
Stick to Thailand.
If human were dog, Vietnamese must be the lowest grade dog like Hyenea.
Even Myanmar reported the news of the most dishonest Vietnamese at the link below.
Tourist scams hold back Vietnam’s spearhead economy
https://elevenmyanmar.com/news/tourist-scams-hold-back-vietnams-spearhead-economy-asianewsnetwork
Any foreigner recommending anyone to visit Vietnam without ever suffering the scam of Vietnam as a normal tourist, is a liar who must be paid from behind to serve the interest of the world greatest tourist scammer
Anyway, Vietnam should act like a dignified nation and should not encourage foreign tourism with the intention of scamming and ripping off.
You are shameless but we feel shameful because you're still human like everyone of us and hope you're human.
buying a motorbike: a Honda Air blade new 2018, very popular model, may be not average, is about 52 to 55 mio VND. I had one before. Now I bought a new Honda Vario 150 (Indonesia made) for 64.Mio. The nasty aspect is that in Indonesia you buy the same scooter for just 32 mio VND (22 mio rupiahs). So the ASEAN treaty of killing all import tariffs between the ASEAN countries by Jan 1st, 2018 does still NOT WORK.
Local markets are cheap, buying vegetables and fresh shrimps e.g. is very cheap. Local fish same.
If you go to one of the Malls (Vivo, Aeon,...) or to the US market and you buy Australian or US meat and apples/grapes or Korean strawberries instead from Da Lat, you pay a fortune and no average income person could afford that.
Even as a European, one time a day I eat very good Crumbs bread (70.000/550g for 8 days), french Emmentaler or Camembert cheese (100.000/200g good for 10-12 days), eat french liver pate (39.000 for 10 days), these things are affordable, not too expensive. This is to avoid MacDo breakfast.
The only thing I saw skyrocketing were prices for real estate (floor and houses). 100-120sqm houses in far D.8 outside, or Nha Bé, or D.7 have beeen rising up by 25% at least up to 50% more than last year in the identical vicinity. Not even Hongkong / Paris / London / NYC had ever seen skyrocketing prices like that, just incredible.
So we stay very local, pay a rent 3.000.000 VND/mo. for a small 60 sqm VN house in central D.8.
But we have roosters crying at 5 am, many dogs barking half nite, lousy neighbors nobody takes care of any neighbor, everybody is friendly but reckless, nobody takes care of other neighbors, too many people drinking too much beer, every second day karaoke, at evening you can hear 10 different TV stations at the same time, very very noisy.
I want to switch to an appartement, but latest after the Carina Plaza fire, my wife refuses to move to any appartement. Very few Westerners would accept all these issues.
Altogether, we need about 40 Mio VND every month for 2 adults and a child, including some extra teaching and some local health care and everything.
Yes could be much cheaper, but 2 times a month we go to one of the malls and spend 3-4 mio.
This is a mix of some Western lifestyle with much Vietnamese lifestyle.
Even if that's remotely accurate, that would be about a 70% increase in the salary in just 14 months.. amazing IF that's true.