In the first months of 2026, the real estate market recorded a clear trend of differentiation in the context of investor sentiment being more cautious and liquidity not recovering strongly. However, real housing demand remains stable, creating a foundation for the market to gradually find a balance.
Mr. Bach Duong - General Director of Batdongsan. com. vn technology platform - said that this is a favorable time for buyers with available cash flow to access good real estate products at more reasonable prices.
Data from Batdongsan. com. vn shows that the market has a slight price adjustment. In Hanoi, the asking price for land plots in the first quarter of 2026 decreased by about 4% compared to the end of 2025. In the old Ho Chi Minh City, the price of private houses decreased by about 2%.
This trend shows that products that are speculative or heavily dependent on loans are under pressure. Conversely, the segment serving real housing needs still maintains stability and high level of interest. Apartment searches in Hanoi increased by 50% right after Tet, and demand for old Ho Chi Minh City private houses also increased by 36%.
Mr. Bach Duong said that looking at the long process from 2015-2025, each investment channel has its own cycle. In the past 10 years, gold has increased rapidly when there were fluctuations, but there have also been long periods of sideways movement. This is a quick response channel to investors' defensive psychology. Meanwhile, real estate does not create shock increases in the short term, but shows a steady growth line in the long term.
10-year data shows that real estate is a channel of sustainable value accumulation, less influenced by short-term shocks than gold or stocks. The value of real estate comes from real housing needs that always exist, infrastructure improvement and prolonged urbanization," Mr. Bach Duong said.
Besides, Mr. Bach Duong believes that 2026 will be the period when the market moves to a consolidated state. Current challenges such as geopolitical fluctuations or high interest rates are having the effect of "filtering" the market.
According to him, despite many difficulties, this is also a favorable time for investors and cash buyers or those who rarely use financial leverage to access good products at more reasonable prices.
At the same time, this stage forces investors to restructure their portfolios, remove risky assets and focus on sustainable values. After the purification process, cash flow is expected to shift to projects of large investors with transparent legal status and guaranteed progress.
Assessing the current real estate market, Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh - Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Real Estate Association - said that the market basically still has a good foundation and is on an impressive growth trajectory after more than two decades of development.
However, according to him, the market still has many internal problems. Supply has not been strictly controlled, leading to low quality and the emergence of mismatch between segments. Notably, products serving investment and business purposes are overwhelming real housing demand, causing some areas to fall into a "surplus crisis".
Meanwhile, demand in the market is still maintained at a high level but is lacking in the low-priced housing segment. Conversely, short-term investment activities are increasing sharply, especially in the context of the emergence of cheap capital flows. This capital flow is not clearly oriented towards essential segments but is dispersed into many fields, posing a risk of not meeting the needs of the majority of people.
Mr. Dinh warned that if the market health is not improved soon and investors continue to make mistakes in choosing products, the real estate market may face the risk of falling into crisis.
