Talking to Lao Dong reporter, Ms. Duong Thu Hoa (born in 1960, living in Kim Lien apartment building, Dong Da district) shared that the apartment building has been showing signs of deterioration in recent years but is being sold by many homeowners at prices ranging from 100-150 million VND/m2, depending on the area, which has shocked many people like her.
"I was very surprised when many collective houses with red book area of only about 15m2 were being sold by the owners for 2.28 billion VND, equivalent to more than 152 million VND/m2.
Because it is located in the central area of the city, this apartment building is surrounded by full amenities, close to schools and shopping centers, so even though it is in a degraded state, it is being sold at an expensive price," Ms. Hoa added.
Similarly, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Huy (living on To Hieu Street, Cau Giay District) informed that many collective houses have an area of only 10-15m2 on the red book but the usable area is expanded to 30-50m2.
According to Mr. Huy, some apartment buildings here have been renovated with moldy areas and reinforced with tiger cages, and are being sold for more than 150 million VND/m2.
According to Lao Dong reporters, in reality, although the selling price has been pushed up quite high, there is still no data on the actual transaction volume of the old apartment segment in Hanoi.
According to experts from the Onehousing real estate ecosystem, with less than 2 billion VND, owning a house in the central district of Hanoi is difficult.
The biggest advantage of old apartment buildings in Hanoi is their location in the city center with complete surrounding infrastructure and amenities.
However, according to Onehousing, buyers need to pay attention to the quality of old apartment buildings because most of them are degraded and the quality of construction has decreased.
Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh - Chairman of the Vietnam Real Estate Brokers Association (Vars) - assessed that the reason why the old apartment segment in Hanoi has recently attracted many people's attention is because it is located in central locations of Hanoi, sought after because of the scarce supply of housing and new apartment projects.
Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh said that buyers of old apartment buildings also need to pay attention to the actual area and the expansion area when finalizing the purchase. Because during their stay, many households have expanded their "tiger cages and bird cages" by tens of square meters with many risks.
Notably, the expanded area of the apartment building is usually not included in the area granted in the red book, and is not considered when transferring or in compensation when the apartment building has to be demolished or rebuilt.
Therefore, even though there is information that the city is renovating and rebuilding old collective houses, which have the potential to become prime land, people still need to consider carefully before closing the transaction.
