The cost of living in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s commercial hub, is the second cheapest among six Southeast Asian cities, according to a research report by iPrice Group.

iPrice has conducted a comparison research on the average monthly cost of living for six famous cities in Southeast Asia using data from Numbeo, one of the world’s largest user-contributed databases.

HCMC is one of the cheapest cities to live in Southeast Asia. Photo: Xuan Trang

Numbeo measures the cost of restaurants, house renting, groceries and the purchasing power to come up with the average index for the cost of living in each country.

The average monthly cost of living, including rent, food, transportation and other utilities, for a single person in Ho Chi Minh City was US$819.

This number is lower than Singapore, Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta by 202%, 30%, 28% and 4% respectively.

Numbeo records Singapore as the city with the highest cost of living in the region, at around US$2,467, followed by Bangkok (Thailand), Manila (the Philippines), Jakarta (Indonesia).

Kuala Lumpur is the cheapest destination with an average monthly cost of US$789, a negligible difference compared to Ho Chi Minh City.

Accordingly, cost of renting a house in Singapore is four times higher than Ho Chi Minh City while home rental in the Vietnamese city is higher than Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur, the two cities in the bottomof the list.

Ho Chi Minh City, home to 13 million people including migrants, has consistently been the most popular tourist destination in Vietnam, with its modern skyscrapers, French colonial buildings and war relics.

Balancing living needs and income will help workers in Ho Chi Minh City enjoy a comfortable life, especially in the period when people have to “tighten their belts” because of the global epidemic.