Yes, $25,000 US can get you a comfortable house in Laos, but not in the middle of the city.

People who have very little money like to build a simple house to begin with, and slowly add/fix things along the way into a bigger house.

There's a lot of nice house in Vietiane, some really nice one are expensive too. How come most house don't have a garage? They don't like to use them?

Admin Saovaluck wrote on 21^st Aug, 2010 at 11:13pm:


Even in US without Bank loan and government support. Most people will not be able to buy a decent house. Most people don't have $100,000-$200,000 cash laying around. You had to have good jobs, credit, 20% down payment to buy decent house. But if you're a low income or first time home buyer. You can get help from charity or government program. Right now house is cheap because of economic recession, but its still difficult to get loan, bank are very strict.

I think it depend on the design. You can build house above the garage instead of on the side of the house to save space. I think some house in Lao are well build and well design. But in the US average house are simple design, they make good use of the space. Average house can be build in three month. Let say 3 bd rm, 2 bath, 3 car garage. About 95% house in have car garage and all the new build house come with garage. Time is money here, they has to build it quickly as possible.

   

$25,000 is about 205,000,000.

Admin Saovaluck wrote on 22^nd Aug, 2010 at 10:30pm:


My calculation was way off. Thank for the correcting me. hehehe

Longhang, We use 500 kip, 1000 kip, 2000 kip, 5000 kip, 10000 kip, 20000 kip and the highest denomination is 50000 kip.

At the present time, 50000 kip bill is about $6 US.

Maybe they will introduce a 100,000 kip bill in the future. Lao people usually don't have alot of money to carry around. Those with alot of money will have some Thai baht in their wallet/purse.

Some people have debit and credit cards. These days, there's lots of ATMs around so bosses like to deposit employee's salaries into their bank account and they can withdraw cash using their card.

Not many places in Laos accept plastic cards for purchases. Major hotels, travel agents and some high class restaurant will accept cards, but you can't use them for general shopping.