Asklemmy

600 square feet? What do you do with all the space? I can't even conceive of having such a large house.

The house I live in is about the cheapest in my area that has an actual land deed. So it's an effective minimum for a house in my city -- smaller houses can't get land deeds, so you can't properly buy them. It costs about the equivalent of USD 150k.

I live in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The median salary is not so high here. So correcting for cost of living, that's 'something like' the equivalent 600k in the USA.

The other catch is that the house is 2.3 meters wide and maybe 9 meters long (including the walls). That's about 225 square freedom units. No yard in the front or back. Typically 2-3 families would live in a house like this, but it's just my wife and I, because I need half the space for my business. My previous residence was smaller, about 2 meters by 4.5 meters. The roof fell on me once, but otherwise it was quite acceptable. That cost about USD 5k to build (building only -- not land price), but you can't legally buy or sell it.

Home ownership is basically impossible here except through inheritance, or owning a successful business (which is quite a battle in a cost-driven market). Even then, most families get a small room, with no ownership paperwork or land deed -- the theoretical value of these is about 60k USD based on the rent vs. value of other buildings. So, equivalent to ~240k in the USA.

The other other catch is that bank interest rates are very high -- and unless you are already rich, chances are you cannot get a loan. So typically buying a home is done in cash. Some people who work at big companies with upper middle class salaries have been able to get loans in recent times too.

Off in the countryside, you can still get a decent plot of empty land for ~30k USD and build your own home (10k to 200k depending on whether it's a hut or a villa). However, there are basically zero employment opportunities out there, and you're far from advanced hospitals and so on. Basic services are available, roads and power are OK, and it's quite lovely. If you're in good health, know how to catch fish, and speak Vietnamese, it's actually a pretty good good life.

Anyway there are many things about life here that are really great (I mean, I chose to immigrate), but the path to home ownership is brutal. I thought it was brutal in North America but really I had no idea.