Apartment prices in the two major cities continued to escalate in the first quarter of 2026 as new sources of goods coming to the market are mainly high-end and luxury projects. Although liquidity has improved significantly compared to the previous period of sluggishness, the scarcity of affordable and mid-range housing is causing the market to become increasingly unbalanced, forcing real buyers to move.
According to the Ministry of Construction, in the first 3 months of the year, the whole country had 30,857 transactions of apartments and detached houses and 108,998 land plot transactions. The inventory of real estate is still about 29,860 products, including 10,496 apartments.
Notably, the price of newly opened apartments continues to increase sharply due to the escalating cost of materials and financial costs, while the fund of goods eligible to go to the market is not large. In Hanoi, the average apartment price has risen to about 128 million VND/m2, while Ho Chi Minh City is at about 112 million VND/m2.
Data from research units also shows that the price increase trend has not stopped. Knight Frank Vietnam recorded the primary selling price of apartments in Ho Chi Minh City reaching an average of 4,078 USD/m2, equivalent to about 107 million VND/m2, an increase of 11.8% compared to the same period last year. In Hanoi, the price reached 4,274 USD/m2, equivalent to about 112 million VND/m2, an increase of 38% year-on-year.
Similarly, data from the Vietnam Association of Realtors (VARS) recorded that in Hanoi, the average primary price reached about 128 million VND/m2, an increase of 28% compared to 2025, with newly opened projects mainly in the luxury segment. If adding supply from Hung Yen, the average price of new projects is about 87 million VND/m2.
In Ho Chi Minh City, the average primary price remains around 110 million VND/m2, equivalent to the previous year. Meanwhile, in Da Nang, the average primary price reached about 91 million VND/m2, an increase of 10% compared to 2025, when more luxury projects appeared in the market and subsequent sales phases all adjusted to increase prices.
The sharp increase in price levels is mainly due to new supply concentrated in the high-end segment, pulling the average price of the whole market to a new threshold.
In Ho Chi Minh City, new supply is still limited and mostly comes from high-end projects in the central area. Meanwhile, in expanded areas and adjacent areas, some more affordable housing projects have appeared. Although home purchase loan interest rates tend to increase, demand is still maintained positively thanks to financial support policies from investors, thereby improving the absorption rate.
Mr. Troy Griffiths - Deputy General Director of Savills Vietnam - commented: "The supply of apartment segments is still limited and concentrated in high-priced segments. This continues to create differentiation between groups of buyers.
Savills forecasts that in the period 2026-2028, the Ho Chi Minh City apartment market will add about 58,000 units from 80 projects, of which the East area accounts for about half of the supply and continues to play a leading role. However, in the short term, new goods still mainly come from the next phases of existing projects or restarted projects, showing that the project approval and development process needs more time to improve substantially.
In the context of increasingly scarce supply in the mid-range segment, buyers are forecast to continue to move to suburban areas and neighboring provinces such as Binh Duong to find more suitable products in terms of price.
In the long term, the completion of the legal framework, removal of investment procedures and the formation of large infrastructure projects are expected to help increase supply. In particular, the urban development model associated with public transport (TOD) will open up more housing funds along key infrastructure axes. However, at the present time, when new goods are still strongly inclined towards the high-end segment, apartment prices are likely to continue to linger at the peak.
