After many years of saving, Mr. Nguyen Minh Tuan (Ha Tinh, Hanoi) had about 1.5 billion VND in hand and planned to buy a house to settle down. However, when he started looking for an apartment, Mr. Tuan realized that the supply of low-cost apartments in Hanoi is currently very scarce. While the people's housing needs are increasing, the number of low-cost apartment projects is not enough to meet the demand.
"With more than 1 billion VND in hand, you have to borrow a lot more to be able to buy a house in Hanoi. If you want to buy an apartment worth about 2-3 billion VND, you have to go very far and the old quality has been built for decades. I have researched and participated in many new sales and viewed many apartments, but most of them are beyond my financial capacity" - Mr. Tuan said.
With limited financial resources, owning an apartment in the central area has become a big challenge for many young people in Hanoi. The story of rising housing prices and the dream of settling down that is unknown when it will come true reflects the difficult situation that many people are facing.
According to the Ministry of Construction's third quarter real estate market report, the total number of successful transactions for apartments and individual houses reached 38,398 products, an increase of 48% over the previous quarter.
Apartment prices in Hanoi continued to record an upward trend in both new and old projects. Prices in new projects increased by 4-6% quarter-on-quarter and 22-25% year-on-year. Some areas saw sharp increases, ranging from 35% to 40% compared to the previous quarter.
According to a survey by Lao Dong reporters, apartments priced between 2.5 and 2.9 billion VND are usually old apartments, have a rather small area or are located in the suburbs.
In Hoang Mai district, some projects with apartments priced at around 2 billion VND include: HH1 Linh Dam, Kim Van - Kim Lu Urban Area, Den Lu II Urban Area...
In Ha Dong district, some projects have apartments priced at over 2 billion VND, usually with 1 bedroom, area from 48 - 55 m2 such as in Nam Xa La apartment building (Phuc La ward), Kien Hung urban area...
In Long Bien district, the number of apartments for sale is about more than 2 billion VND such as Viet Hung urban area - Duc Giang ward, apartments in Sai Dong urban area...
According to Savills Vietnam's real estate market research report, in the first 9 months of 2024, apartments priced above VND4 billion accounted for 70% of the number of units sold. Apartments priced between VND2 and VND4 billion accounted for 29% of the market share and only 1% of the market share of apartments priced below VND2 billion.
Research data from the Vietnam Association of Realtors (VARS) shows that the affordable apartment segment (priced below VND25 million/m2) - affordable housing - has become "extinct" in the past few years and is very difficult, even impossible, to reappear in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
According to VARS statistics, in the period of 2018 - 2023, not only has the quantity continuously decreased, the structure of apartment supply in the two special urban areas is also increasingly unbalanced. The supply structure is increasingly "leaning" towards the high-end and luxury segments. The proportion of newly opened apartment supply in the affordable price segment under 25 million VND/m2 has continuously decreased and officially "disappeared" in Ho Chi Minh City in 2021, in Hanoi in 2023.
