Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Linh (Dong Da, Hanoi) gave up her dream of buying a house in Hanoi because the longer she waited for apartment prices to decrease, the higher the increase. Ms. Linh said that she had lived and worked in Hanoi for more than 5 years but had not saved much money. Meanwhile, her salary had not increased significantly while housing prices continued to climb.
"Young people from other provinces who come to Hanoi to work like me may never be able to buy a house if prices keep rising like this. I am also gradually thinking about whether I will return to my hometown to stabilize my job or continue to stay in Hanoi" - Ms. Linh shared.
According to Mr. Vo Huynh Tuan Kiet - Director of CBRE Vietnam's Housing Marketing Department - if Ho Chi Minh City was always the leader in supply and price, in the first 9 months of this year, Hanoi has shown a tendency to develop more.
In the third quarter of 2024, Hanoi had more than 8,200 apartment products, while Ho Chi Minh City had 127 products for sale - the lowest level in the past 10 years. In addition, in terms of purchasing power, Ho Chi Minh City has always had a good apartment absorption rate. While Hanoi 5-6 years ago, the absorption rate was only 40-50%, but up to now, the absorption rate in the Hanoi market has almost reached 80-90%.
In particular, the issue that is attracting the most attention is the price of apartments. Currently, the price level between the North and the South has changed. About 3-5 years ago, the price level of apartments in Ho Chi Minh City was 15-20% higher than in Hanoi, but now, the price gap is gradually narrowing in both the primary and secondary markets, to 3% - 4% (equivalent to 2 million VND/m2).
Meanwhile, in terms of price increase rate, the Hanoi market is much faster than that of Ho Chi Minh City. Hanoi's price is currently 26% higher than the same period last year, while Ho Chi Minh City is 4 - 8%. According to Mr. Kiet, this is due to supply issues, so Ho Chi Minh City has little room to change prices much, but Hanoi has a stable supply, along with the shift of many investors and individual investors to the northern region, so the price increase rate is fast.
This expert predicts that within the next 1-2 quarters, the apartment price level in Hanoi may surpass that of Ho Chi Minh City. Although the secondary market price level in Ho Chi Minh City is still higher than that of Hanoi, in the future, if the primary market in Hanoi surpasses that of Ho Chi Minh City, the secondary market will also surpass that of Ho Chi Minh City. In fact, the rate of increase in apartment prices in Hanoi is very high, from the first quarter to the third quarter, each quarter increased by an average of 8-26%.
According to international real estate consultancy Savills Vietnam, in the three quarters of this year, apartments priced above VND4 billion accounted for the majority of units sold. This proportion increased from 2% to 70% in the period 2020 - 2024. Only 1% of the units traded were priced below VND2 billion, also known as Class C apartments due to almost no new supply. People who own affordable apartments have a high and stable occupancy rate, so there is no need to transfer.
