Saigon cost of living compares favorably to prominent SEA cities
Housing and food cost less in Ho Chi Minh City than Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, says a major real estate consultancy firm.
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| Ho Chi Minh City skyline and the Saigon River at sunset. Photo by Shutterstock/Efired |
According to the Global Living 2019 report prepared by CBRE, the average price of a house in HCMC is around $103,000, ranking 34th among 35 cities surveyed in the report, just above Istanbul in Turkey.
The prices in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok were ranked 2nd, 32nd and 33rd, respectively. A house in Singapore costs $874,000 on average.
House prices in HCMC in 2018 rose 2 percent year-on-year, while that of Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok saw a 4 percent increase.
Average price of a prime residential property in HCMC, estimated at $403,000, was lower than $415,000 in Kuala Lumpur and $456,000 in Bangkok, the report said. The corresponding price in Singapore was almost triple that of Vietnam at over $1.2 million.
The report said apartments were becoming a popular housing choice for HCMC residents.
"Rapid population and employment growth is creating high demand for new housing. This is partly being met by the condominium market, which has emerged as a hugely successful concept in recent years," the report said.
It also referred to HCMC as a ‘Silicon Valley of Asia".
"More than 24 incubators and 12 start-up spaces have been created, encouraging more than 800 new ventures to begin operating and attracting overseas technology companies to invest," it said.
The CBRE report said that a mid-range meal for two people in HCMC costs $17, compared to $26 in Bangkok. HCMC had the lowest food costs among all the cities listed in the report.