Ms. Bui Thi Oanh (43 years old) and her husband borrowed capital from the preferential package of 30,000 billion VND to buy a 67 m2 apartment at the social housing project Rice City Linh Dam (Hoang Mai district) in 2015 for about 1 billion VND. This is equivalent to about 15 million VND/m2.
"Because I still owe the bank, I have no intention of changing houses, and rarely care about apartment prices. But recently, I was quite surprised when brokers called every week asking if I wanted to sell my house for about 58 million VND/m2" - Ms. Oanh shared.
Thus, according to Ms. Oanh, the price of this social housing unit has now increased nearly 4 times compared to the original purchase price.
Nearly 2 weeks ago, after only a short time of being put up for sale, an apartment on the same floor as Ms. Oanh's house, 66.7 square meters wide, was also traded for about 3.8 billion VND, equivalent to more than 58 million VND/square meter.
In this project, the price of apartments with two-sided open corner locations or beautifully furnished interiors can be 3-5 million higher per square meter.
Mr. Phan Thien - a broker specializing in apartments in Linh Dam area - said that currently, the demand for customers looking for apartments at 55-60 million VND/m2 in this area is quite high, but not many homeowners want to sell.
Therefore, apartments for sale under 4 billion VND at this time "fly away" very quickly, sometimes just a few days after being posted.
Not only Rice City, the secondary selling price of some social housing projects in Hanoi is also increasing sharply, exceeding 40 million VND/m2.
Lao Dong's research shows that since the end of 2017, social housing apartments at the 987 Tam Trinh, Yen So social housing project (Hoang Mai district) have been priced at around VND14.2 million/m2 (excluding VAT). Meanwhile, commercial apartments in the same project are priced at around VND18 million/m2.
Up to now, after 7 years, social housing units and commercial apartments of the 987 Tam Trinh social housing project are being offered for sale at 50 - 53 million VND/m2, nearly 3 times the initial asking price.
This price is similar to the Ecohome 3 social housing project in Dong Ngac ward, Bac Tu Liem district. The apartment with an area of nearly 58 square meters is also being advertised for over 2.9 billion VND.
Financial expert Nguyen Ngoc Tu - Lecturer at the University of Business and Technology - said that apartments transferred at good prices will reflect certain positive aspects of the project, affirming factors of quality, convenient location, and guaranteed management and operation.
At the same time, the transfer of social housing apartments after 5 years at good prices also proves that the market is lacking projects that meet the needs of middle and low-income earners in society, especially in the two major localities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Regarding social housing projects, the Ministry of Construction recently pointed out a series of localities with great demand for this segment, but limited investment, including Hanoi.
