Cost of living in South Korea in 2025

South Korea is an unusual destination as housing is complex, hence all proper expat jobs come with housing.  There is also a tax advantage as housing paid for by your employer is tax free. A paid allowance is taxable (although there might be some tax deductions you partially apply). However, deposits are huge.

Hence Rule 1 of expat offers in Korea, if they say no housing don't take it, they are not a proper employer.

Cost of living is relatively high for Asia in some areas.

Car. Relatively cheap, car loans are next to impossible so leasing or buying in cash best. Cheapest cars 400 USD a month lease.

Schooling. Super expensive so if you have kids of school age and it isn't paid for, don't take a hob. That's rule 2. If you self pay budget 3,000 USD per month per kid. That is three thousand USD. Not a typo. Legally you can use local schools but that is tantamount to child abuse, and they need to be fluent in Korean.  Homeschooling is illegal.

Food, fruit especially is sky high price. South Korea important a lot of food so is expensive.  Electricity is cheap, so is gas and water  electricity is 75% cheaper than UK! Overall 2 million won (1500 usd per month) for food, bills and some cafe trips a month for a couple.

Salary wise for expats the real salaries for expats is from 100 million won a year plus, less than that not worth it. I get 125 million as a teacher a year (not TEFL they get min wage) and it's enough to live, travel and save on.

Higher end expats get 200 - 300 million a year.

Beware of "local hire expat market ". A strange thing in Korea is that these expats earn less than locals as they are predominantly in SMEs that pay half of large company pay. The big pay is in big companies like Samsung NOT startups.