" dizzying" increase in apartment prices
"After many years of working, I still haven't been able to buy 10m2". That is a heartbreaking statement of Ms. Nguyen Thuy Hong (27 years old, Hanoi) when sharing about her arduous journey to buy a house. Her story is not only a personal experience but also reflects the "difficulty buying a house" situation of many young people, when apartment prices in Hanoi are constantly increasing.
With a budget of 8 billion VND, her family initially set a goal of finding a suitable apartment in central areas such as Cau Giay and Thanh Xuan. However, after many months of searching, Ms. Hong realized: "With that budget, in this area, there are only old apartments, smaller areas than expected or projects that are not legally clear". At a time when they thought they were " powerless", Ms. Hong's family found a suitable 3-bedroom apartment in Ha Dong, and decided to " put in a loan", but had to borrow an additional 3 billion VND.
Mr. Nguyen Vu Thanh (An Khanh, Hoai Duc) and his wife have also bought a satisfactory apartment located along Thang Long Avenue, and are currently in debt to a bank loan of 1 billion VND.
"My wife works as a private school teacher and is the main income of the family. I work in construction but the company has owed me for 3 months now, so my wife has to worry about all living expenses and interest.
Having just married, not having children, and being given more money by both families to buy a house, but borrowing 1 billion VND from the bank puts a lot of pressure on my family. Every month, my wife and I spend about 10 million VND on living expenses, weddings, weddings, and taking care of the cost of medical examination and treatment for my mother" - Mr. Thanh confided.
Mr. Thanh said that after more than half a year of buying a house, the value of the apartment has increased by more than 600 million VND, but the cost of interest and the pressure to work due to unpaid wages also keep the family atmosphere in a state of tension.
Vietnam's housing prices are far beyond people's means
Speaking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Associate Professor, Dr. Pham The Anh - Head of the Faculty of Economics, National Economics University (NEU) - said that when looking at current housing prices, even apartments in the inner city or the suburbs have reached hundreds of millions of VND/m2. With the average income per capita of Vietnam, the majority of people cannot pay. Mr. Anh cited: "Now a two-bedroom apartment far from the suburbs is worth 5 billion VND... the average income per capita of Vietnam, as in 2024, is only about 4,700 USD, which means only about 120 million VND per year".
Mr. Anh further analyzed that with that income, if a person saves everything (without eating or drinking), it will take 40 years to buy an apartment. It took 20 years for the two to work together. "While the cost of food and living in the city is also expensive. Housing prices in major cities of Vietnam such as Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City have far exceeded the affordability of working people" - Associate Professor, Dr. The Anh shared.
As a result, real estate transactions are mainly conducted by the rich, super-rich and speculators, while the majority of transactions are not for ordinary workers.
According to Dr. Dinh The Hien - Economic expert, the current situation of high apartment prices needs to be viewed from many perspectives: "Given the reasonableness of the increase in apartment prices in the past 3 - 4 years, we must look back at the period before 2020, apartments are mainly products for living, not popular investment channels like land. At that time, apartment prices increased slowly, only at a relatively modest level, for example, a 70m2 apartment in Ho Chi Minh City after many years only increased by 20-30%".
Meanwhile, according to Mr. Hien, the price of land and townhouses at that time had increased by 300 - 500%. Therefore, when the demand for apartment buildings increases thanks to amenities, urban lifestyle trends and rental capabilities, the increase in apartment prices in recent years has been a catch-up adjustment.
Second, the change in investment behavior. Mr. Hien commented: "Many investors see that land and townhouses have increased too much, so they have turned to buy apartments. Although the rental yield of apartments is currently only about 2-2.5% compared to the spent capital, in terms of liquidity and convenience when renting, apartments are still more attractive than "holding" underdeveloped land".
Third, costs and risks in implementing apartment projects. Compensation, site clearance, complicated project procedures; public land for project allocation is rare; increased input costs make investors tend to develop high-quality projects, providing many utilities, which will push up selling prices. When the project is newly positioned as high-end and the selling price increases, the secondary prices of the projects will also be attracted.
According to the Ministry of Construction, in Hanoi, the average primary selling price reached 70-80 million VND/m2, an increase of 5.6% compared to the beginning of the year and 33% compared to the same period in 2024. Notably, many luxury projects have recorded very high prices, from 150 to 300 million VND/m2.
