52 - 70 million VND/m2 for an apartment 20km from the center of Saigon ward
Posing as home buyers, we were taken by brokers to see some new projects being opened for sale in the eastern area of Ho Chi Minh City. With a location about 20km from the central area in Saigon ward, some apartments are open for sale but the transaction price is from 52 - 70 million VND/m2, the buyer also has to pay 3.1 - 4.9 billion VND for an apartment.
If it is closer to the center, the selling price level from the investor has increased to 100 - 150 million VND/m2. If buying a 1-bedroom apartment of about 56 square meters, buyers will have to spend 5 - 6 billion VND, a 2-bedroom apartment will cost up to tens of billions of VND. If right in the city center, the selling price for an apartment is around 230 - 300 million VND/m2.
Meanwhile, if you go to apartments that have been put into use, the selling price is not much easier. About 5 years ago, in the old Thu Duc City, there were many apartment projects with an average price of only 30-35 million VND/m2, but now, there cannot be found a new apartment project with a price below 60 million VND/m2, while the average price segment is almost "extinct".
Or in Binh Duong area, just a few years ago, the average selling price of apartments was from 20-25 million VND/m2, now most projects are over 40 million VND/m2. Many new apartment projects in areas near Ho Chi Minh City that have recently been opened for sale such as Bien Hoa, Nhon Trach, Phu My... also have prices above and below 40 million VND/m2.
This is hindering those who are looking for a place to settle down and make ends meet. Mr. Nguyen Hung and his wife (Binh Trung ward) rented an old resettlement apartment for 9 million VND/month since 2023, at that time the homeowner was selling it for about 2.2 billion VND. Although it has been accumulated for many years, the price has now been pushed up to nearly 3.8 billion VND. With small childcare costs and the pressure to pay installments beyond their ability, they had to continue living for rent and completely lost the motivation to buy a house in Ho Chi Minh City.
Mr. Le Hoang Chau - Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association - assessed that to buy a 2-bedroom apartment, priced at 2 billion VND, an average income household with 10 million VND per month needs to accumulate continuously for 20 years, in a state of tightening spending. With the current apartment price (4-5 billion VND), it is necessary to save for over 40 years, and if you borrow, it will take a lifetime of labor to pay off the debt.
It is increasingly difficult to build affordable housing
The latest report from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction shows that in the first 6 months of 2025, Ho Chi Minh City has 4 commercial housing projects, including 3,353 high-end houses eligible for capital mobilization (100% of high-end houses), no mid-range houses and affordable housing.
In reality, if before 2018, the supply of apartments priced at 1.5 billion VND/unit in Ho Chi Minh City was quite abundant, then in 2019, the time of the stress of project legal bottlenecks, the apartments above and below 2 billion VND had disappeared from the market.
The reason for projects facing difficulties in legal procedures has been prolonged for many years, and housing prices have also increased due to increased financial costs. An apartment project in Tang Nhon Phu ward was launched by the investor at a price of around VND30 million/m2 7 years ago. Stop due to procedures, only now have there are signals that can be restarted, forcing businesses to recalculate new prices if they build, at least double. The reason is that one of the major costs is bank loan interest, which has now increased to more than 60 billion VND, not to mention many other costs.
The general director of a real estate company in Ho Chi Minh City confided that more than anyone else, investors want to sell at low prices to boost product consumption, but in fact, this period cannot be done.
The areas surrounding Ho Chi Minh City no longer have clean land funds but have to go further and further, along with that, the procedures to complete a project are still prolonged with costs constantly increasing.
A few years ago, land use fees only had to be paid less than 20 billion VND for each small-scale project, but now they have increased more than 4 times to more than 80 billion VND, not to mention a series of other accompanying costs - this director said.
Therefore, instead of building low-cost housing, investors have pre-positioned the high-end segment, because they also put in that effort, but building high-end projects brings better economic efficiency.
