According to information from the Vietnam Association of Realtors (VARS), over the years, housing prices in large cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang have continuously escalated, establishing new levels, while people's income has increased much more slowly. This increasingly wide gap makes owning an apartment a big challenge, even for high-income workers.
According to research data from the Vietnam Institute for Real Estate Market Research (VARS IRE), in the second quarter of 2025, the apartment price index in Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City increased by 87.7%, 69.8% and 48.3% respectively compared to 2019. Currently, the average selling price in these three cities has reached 75.5 million VND/m2 in Hanoi, 66.4 million VND/m2 in Da Nang and 77.1 million VND/m2 in Ho Chi Minh City.
In the period from 2014 to mid-2025, the average income per capita in Hanoi will increase from VND 4.11 million/month to VND 8.3 million/month, equivalent to an average increase of 6.4% per year. On the contrary, the average apartment price has doubled rapidly, about 11.7%/year, from 25 million VND/m2 to 75.5 million VND/m2.
If calculated by the level in 2014, a family with an average income and spending all their income to buy a house can own a 2-bedroom apartment (70m2, worth about 1.75 billion VND) after nearly 18 years. However, if the principle of housing costs not exceeding 1/3 of income is applied, the accumulation period will last up to more than 50 years. By mid-2025, when the price of a 70m2 apartment had reached 5.3 billion VND, the accumulation period increased to nearly 27 years if the entire income was spent and up to 80 years if only 1/3 of the income was spent.
Even in the banking industry - one of the highest-income sectors in the country - the pace of salary increase still cannot keep up with housing prices. In 2014, the highest salary in the banking system was 22.5 million VND/month. By mid-2025, this figure will reach 55.44 million VND/month, or double after more than a decade.
Meanwhile, apartment prices have increased more than 3 times. With the income of a family with both husband and wife working in a bank, if they accumulate all their income, it will take about 3.5 years to buy an apartment, but if they follow the 1/3 income principle, the time will increase to 10 years, not to mention the fact that house prices will continue to increase.
The large gap between income and housing prices has forced many young people to give up or postpone home buying plans. A group of people aged 25 - 35 choose to rent a long-term house instead of focusing all their financial resources to own a house.
However, a survey from real estate trading floors that are members of VARS shows that since 2019, the proportion of young people participating in the housing market, especially in the apartment segment, has tended to increase. Currently, the group of customers aged 25 - 35 accounts for an average of over 40% of the total transaction volume, even in some projects, this rate is up to 70%.
The reason partly comes from the population structure. Vietnam is in the golden population period, with more than 50% of the population under the age of 35, the demand for housing and real estate investment is very high. However, VARS IRE believes that the number of young people who are able to buy a house still accounts for only a small proportion of the total housing demand, while the majority still face difficulties due to income increasing much more slowly than housing prices, increasing living expenses and prolonged pressure to repay loans.
According to VARS IRE, without comprehensive policy solutions such as strong development of social housing and affordable housing, while strictly controlling the price level to avoid the situation of increasing far beyond real income, the "housing dream" will still be far away for the majority of young people.
