Is Lagos expensive to live in?

It depends entirely on which Lagos you live in. On paper the city is cheap: CostLiving’s moderate benchmark is $1,500 a month for a single person, well below what the same lifestyle costs in Europe or North America. But Lagos runs two parallel economies, and the expat-facing one is not cheap at all. Rent in the secure, generator-backed apartment blocks of Ikoyi and Victoria Island, plus international-school fees, imported groceries, and ride-hailing across a congested city, can push a comfortable household past the $2,325 comfortable tier into luxury territory near $3,600 a month. Live on the mainland, shop in local markets, cook at home, and use shared transport, and the same person spends a fraction of that. The costs that surprise people are rarely rent: it is the standing spend on power (a generator or inverter is effectively compulsory), private security, and water treatment that adds up, because you are quietly paying for infrastructure the state does not reliably provide. So Lagos is inexpensive for anyone willing to live locally, and expensive for anyone recreating a Western standard. Full tier breakdown on our Lagos cost of living page.