Where to live in Vietnam
We track 7 cities in Vietnam, including Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Da Nang. Average temperatures run from 24°C to 28°C. We estimate a couple needs €2,291 to €2,475 a month to live centrally. Vietnam sits in our low to medium tax tier. For foreigners, long-term residency is possible, with conditions.
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- Tax tier
- Low to medium
- Moderate personal income tax
- Languages
- Vietnamese
- Limited English
- Safety
- 62/100
- country-level
- Healthcare
- 60/100
- country-level
- Internet
- ~130 Mbps
- median fixed broadband
The 7 cities we track
| City | Size | Setting | Avg temp | Rain a year | Est. cost a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biên Hòa | large | coastal | 27°C | 2,080 mm | €2,291 |
| Cần Thơ | large | coastal | 27°C | 1,558 mm | €2,304 |
| Da Nang | large | coastal | 26°C | 2,040 mm | €2,291 |
| Haiphong | large | coastal | 24°C | 1,690 mm | €2,347 |
| Hanoi | major | near the coast | 24°C | 1,530 mm | €2,432 |
| Ho Chi Minh City | major | coastal | 28°C | 1,846 mm | €2,475 |
| Huế | large | coastal | 26°C | 2,641 mm | €2,297 |
Source: City size from GeoNames, temperature from the Open-Meteo archive (2019 to 2023 averages), rainfall from TerraClimate (1991 to 2020 normals), coast distance from Natural Earth. Cost is our model estimate for a couple living centrally.
Taxes
Vietnam sits in our low to medium tax tier: moderate personal income tax. The tier applies to every city here, and couples who cap tax below it will not see these cities in their results.
Source: OurNextCity tax tiers, assigned by hand from each country's top marginal personal income tax rate and overall tax reputation, with no fixed rate cut-offs. Coarse by design; not tax advice.
Residency and visas
Possible, with conditions. Realistic long-term residency runs through an employer-sponsored work-permit temporary residence card or the DT investor visa, since Vietnam has no retirement, passive-income, or digital-nomad route and its touted 10-year golden visa remains an unenacted proposal.
The cheapest self-funded routes we track for Vietnam:
- Investment: about $114k (Vietnam DT3 investor visa, capital contribution VND 3 billion (lowest tier granting a multi-year temporary residence card), converted at 26,348.5 VND/USD; as of June 2026)
For short visits, 27 of 198 passports can enter visa-free and 171 can get an e-visa or visa on arrival.
Source: OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed approximations researched against published immigration rules, figures as of June 2026. Not legal advice: check the official source before you apply. Short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT).