[EN]
Hey guys :) It's been almost two months since I moved to Vietnam, and I wanted to talk about how I feel about the cost of living in Vietnam. Today's topic is gonna be housing and utility bills.
Depends on your budget, you can get all kinds of houses in Ho Chi Minh City. You could get nice and clean western style brand new apartments, and also super cheap rooms in local area.
I'm living in an apt which lots of foreigners prefer to live, it's clean and safe and brand new. We have two bed rooms, two bathrooms, one living room, and separated kitchen. And the rent is about $700 which is similar price that I was paying for rent in Korea.
I don't really know the prices of housing in another countries, but if I compare to Busan, south Korea, the price is pretty similar. Which means they both really expensive ;) BUT... the key money is way cheaper than Korea here(the key money is usually 2 month of your rent). Probably renting house was super cheap 5-10 years ago, but since the realaste price is keep going up in this country, rent is also getting more expensive. I heard the realistate price went up like crazy last two years. Which is a shame.
The maintain fee for my apt is about $50 it includes 24/7 security, swimming pools, barbecue place, tennis court, park etc. I love the swimming pool in my apt, so I'm using it almost everyday, whenever I want to use it ;) It's a big swimming pool but not many people using it so sometimes I feel like this is my personal pool hehe.
As you know weather in HCMC is pretty hot, we have three AC at home and we're using them all the time. And the electricity bill was $35 - $40 last month. I can't really say it's really cheap but I'd say it's affordable. We paid internet fee when we moved in, and it was about $200 for 12month. We chose the most expensive plan but it still felt so cheap. And the quality is really good and fast :) For the water it was $2 or 3. Ohh fyi, I'm paying $5-7 every month and I can use data almost unlimited. The phone bill is so much cheaper compare to Korea :)
So I guess this is the cost of housing + utility bills that I'm paying every month. For me everything is cheaper than Korea so I don't really have to worry about.. except the rent. Do you think it's over priced or cheap? :) How much are you spending for your apt?