Interior design costs in Hanoi: what to budget

Updated July 2026. Most apartments in Hanoi — new-build or resale — are handed over as a bare or lightly finished shell, so interior design and furnishing is a project you plan and pay for separately from the purchase itself. How much it costs depends far more on the finish level you choose than on the size of the apartment, which is why thinking in tiers is more useful than a single average figure.

Budgeting by tier: essential, mid-range and premium

At the essential end, buyers of a well-kept resale often need little more than a coat of paint, a handful of updated fixtures and a base furniture package — roughly €8,000–€18,000 (~220M–495M VND) all-in. A mid-range turnkey project — a full furniture package, custom kitchen cabinetry, curtains and lighting designed as a coordinated scheme — typically lands between €18,000 and €45,000 (~495M–1.24B VND). At the premium end, a fully bespoke, luxury interior design project with imported materials, custom joinery and branded furniture can run well beyond €90,000 (~2.48B VND) for a two-to-three-bedroom apartment, with villas and larger units scaling further still. None of these figures include the statutory costs of buying the property itself — registration, notary fees and, on a new-build, the maintenance fund — which are set out in our guide to taxes and fees.

What an interior designer's fee actually covers

A design fee is separate from what you spend on furniture, materials and labour. In Hanoi, most independent designers and turnkey fit-out studios charge either a flat fee or 8–15% of the total project cost, billed in stages — typically a smaller amount at the concept and mood-board stage, more at design development once drawings and specifications are finalised, and a final instalment at handover. For a typical two-to-three-bedroom apartment this works out to roughly €2,500–€12,000 (~69M–330M VND). Ask upfront whether the fee is quoted on the furniture budget alone or on the full construction-plus-furnishing spend, since the two produce very different totals — and get the fee schedule and what triggers each payment in writing before work begins.

The 70/30 rule: how to allocate your furniture budget

A widely used rule of thumb for allocating a furnishing budget is the 70/30 split: around 70% goes to the pieces that carry the room and will stay for years — sofas, beds, dining tables, wardrobes and any bespoke cabinetry — while the remaining 30% covers lighting, textiles, art, rugs and accessories. The logic is durability and flexibility: big-ticket items are expensive to replace and set the tone of a space, while accents are comparatively cheap to swap out as your taste evolves. Applying the rule early — before you fall in love with individual pieces in a showroom — keeps a design budget honest.

The 3-5-7 rule: styling and pacing decisions

Where the 70/30 rule governs how much you spend, the 3-5-7 rule is a styling guideline for how objects are grouped once they arrive: shelves, console tables and gallery walls generally read better with an odd number of items — three, five or seven — of varying height and scale, rather than pieces lined up evenly. It has no direct bearing on cost, but designers use it to avoid over-ordering accessories: a well-edited grouping of five considered objects usually looks better, and costs less, than a shelf crowded with a dozen.

Local studios, turnkey firms or a full luxury designer

Buyers choosing between a local fit-out contractor, a turnkey design-and-build studio and a full-service luxury interior designer are really choosing how much of the decision-making and coordination they want to hand over. A local contractor working from a furniture list you supply is the most economical route but requires the most of your own time on-site or by video call. A turnkey studio bundles design, procurement and installation into one contract and one point of accountability — the most common choice for buyers based overseas. A full-service luxury designer adds bespoke joinery, art sourcing and a fully custom scheme, and prices accordingly. Several studios and fit-out firms in Hanoi work specifically with foreign buyers and are used to remote approvals, milestone photos and international payment — see the directory below for partners experienced with foreign buyers.

Importing furniture and timing your project

Sourcing furniture from abroad can be tempting for buyers who want a specific brand or style, but shipped items attract import duties, VAT and freight on top of the sticker price, and lead times can stretch a project by months. Most buyers furnish through local or regional suppliers and reserve international sourcing for a handful of statement pieces. A full design-to-handover project — from the first design meeting to moving furniture in — typically takes eight to sixteen weeks for a mid-range apartment and longer for a fully bespoke premium fit-out, so build the timeline into your handover planning alongside the steps covered in our furnishing guide.