Cost of Living in Ho Chi Minh City
Summary about cost of living in Ho Chi Minh City:
- Four-person family monthly costs: 1,615.83$ (37,593,006.29₫) without rent (using our estimator).
- A single person monthly costs: 452.33$ (10,523,641.62₫) without rent.
- Cost of living index in Ho Chi Minh City is 61.66% lower than in New York.
- Rent in Ho Chi Minh City is, on average, 82.24% lower than in New York.
- Cost of living rank 327th out of 487 cities in the world.
- Ho Chi Minh City has a cost of living index of 38.34.
| Restaurants | [ Edit ] | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Meal, Inexpensive Restaurant | 2.15 $ | |
| Meal for 2 People, Mid-range Restaurant, Three-course | 21.49 $ | |
| McMeal at McDonalds (or Equivalent Combo Meal) | 4.30 $ | |
| Domestic Beer (1 pint draught) | 0.86 $ | |
| Imported Beer (12 oz small bottle) | 1.72 $ | |
| Cappuccino (regular) | 1.96 $ | |
| Coke/Pepsi (12 oz small bottle) | 0.51 $ | |
| Water (12 oz small bottle) | 0.31 $ | |
| Markets | [ Edit ] | |
| Milk (regular), (1 gallon) | 5.15 $ | |
| Loaf of Fresh White Bread (1 lb) | 0.69 $ | |
| Rice (white), (1 lb) | 0.36 $ | |
| Eggs (regular) (12) | 1.39 $ | |
| Local Cheese (1 lb) | 5.92 $ | |
| Chicken Fillets (1 lb) | 1.32 $ | |
| Beef Round (1 lb) (or Equivalent Back Leg Red Meat) | 5.02 $ | |
| Apples (1 lb) | 1.27 $ | |
| Banana (1 lb) | 0.42 $ | |
| Oranges (1 lb) | 0.63 $ | |
| Tomato (1 lb) | 0.40 $ | |
| Potato (1 lb) | 0.49 $ | |
| Onion (1 lb) | 0.47 $ | |
| Lettuce (1 head) | 0.87 $ | |
| Water (1.5 liter bottle) | 0.53 $ | |
| Bottle of Wine (Mid-Range) | 10.75 $ | |
| Domestic Beer (0.5 liter bottle) | 0.83 $ | |
| Imported Beer (12 oz small bottle) | 1.32 $ | |
| Cigarettes 20 Pack (Marlboro) | 1.07 $ | |
| Transportation | [ Edit ] | |
| One-way Ticket (Local Transport) | 0.26 $ | |
| Monthly Pass (Regular Price) | 7.09 $ | |
| Taxi Start (Normal Tariff) | 0.52 $ | |
| Taxi 1 mile (Normal Tariff) | 0.97 $ | |
| Taxi 1hour Waiting (Normal Tariff) | 1.29 $ | |
| Gasoline (1 gallon) | 3.54 $ | |
| Volkswagen Golf 1.4 90 KW Trendline (Or Equivalent New Car) | 42,982.16 $ | |
| Toyota Corolla Sedan 1.6l 97kW Comfort (Or Equivalent New Car) | 34,535.96 $ | |
| Utilities (Monthly) | [ Edit ] | |
| Basic (Electricity, Heating, Cooling, Water, Garbage) for 915 sq ft Apartment | 63.67 $ | |
| 1 min. of Prepaid Mobile Tariff Local (No Discounts or Plans) | 0.09 $ | |
| Internet (60 Mbps or More, Unlimited Data, Cable/ADSL) | 12.12 $ | |
| Sports And Leisure | [ Edit ] | |
| Fitness Club, Monthly Fee for 1 Adult | 25.18 $ | |
| Tennis Court Rent (1 Hour on Weekend) | 7.67 $ | |
| Cinema, International Release, 1 Seat | 4.30 $ | |
| Childcare | [ Edit ] | |
| Preschool (or Kindergarten), Full Day, Private, Monthly for 1 Child | 121.89 $ | |
| International Primary School, Yearly for 1 Child | 9,249.24 $ | |
| Clothing And Shoes | [ Edit ] | |
| 1 Pair of Jeans (Levis 501 Or Similar) | 42.16 $ | |
| 1 Summer Dress in a Chain Store (Zara, H&M, ...) | 31.29 $ | |
| 1 Pair of Nike Running Shoes (Mid-Range) | 97.83 $ | |
| 1 Pair of Men Leather Business Shoes | 85.47 $ | |
| Rent Per Month | [ Edit ] | |
| Apartment (1 bedroom) in City Centre | 518.30 $ | |
| Apartment (1 bedroom) Outside of Centre | 359.73 $ | |
| Apartment (3 bedrooms) in City Centre | 1,152.22 $ | |
| Apartment (3 bedrooms) Outside of Centre | 744.64 $ | |
| Buy Apartment Price | [ Edit ] | |
| Price per Square Feet to Buy Apartment in City Centre | 268.21 $ | |
| Price per Square Feet to Buy Apartment Outside of Centre | 118.71 $ | |
| Salaries And Financing | [ Edit ] | |
| Average Monthly Net Salary (After Tax) | 397.04 $ | |
| Mortgage Interest Rate in Percentages (%), Yearly, for 20 Years Fixed-Rate | 9.42 |
Prices in Ho Chi Minh City
These data are based on 2326 entries in the past 18 months from 239 different contributors.
Last update: May 2020
Last update: May 2020
Sources and References
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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
17 Comments so far
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.
"local" people will not use half of it - and the other half, that is what well-paid expats pay (paid in low Western salaries)
that is, reading the prices says nothing. if you want to paid this, you can. you also can go somewhere else, and pay almost nothing for it - maybe it's not clean then, but maybe, even it is.
one word to health care (that is a meaningful question). it is good, in general. BUT it might be, that there is no expert available for special issue. or the only expert is in Hanoi (say: in another city in VN). That is - you might have to fly out to your country (if it can wait), or to Singapore or BKK (have heard about this) - then it is expensive. That is - when you are from a more developed county, and in need or something, and you know in advance, maybe to check where in the area (of SEA) a medical expert is working .. and when s/he has days off/vacations! .. knowledge is _not_ available in abundance, neither in the medical field.
Avg salary - hahaha. What do you expect @OpenWater .. ?? average paid people _do not take a taxi_ and _do not shop in the city_ ..
so with 200/month, if living in their area, going by motorcycle and buy in markets, _and live in their own house_ living is ok. You might not know _because the city is like another planet_ ..
I think the average salary of this table is wrong. I would say its the average salary for FRESH GRADUATES.