After saving for a while, Ms. Hong Nhan, an employee of an insurance company in Thu Duc City, said that she had prepared a financial source of more than 2.5 billion VND, including loans from banks, to find an apartment in this area to stabilize her life and make it convenient to go to work.
However, old and new projects have increased in price quite a lot compared to a year ago. A two-bedroom apartment with the smallest area of about 55-60 m2 of an old apartment project is also being sold for more than 3 billion VND but is located nearly 20 km away from the center. Projects with good quality and good locations have too high prices, the lowest is also from 4.5 billion VND. Even for projects that are being opened for sale, the selling price is around 70-80 million VND/m2. far from the center, it is nearly 60 million VND/m2, but there are very few projects to choose from.
Ms. Nhan's story is not too rare at the present time. Many people want to buy a house but it is very difficult when the price increases faster than their savings ability. And the important thing is that the supply-demand imbalance is getting bigger
In a recent report on the real estate market situation in Ho Chi Minh City, One Mount Group Market Research Center said that in the first quarter of 2025, Ho Chi Minh City had about 6,000 apartments for primary sale (investors offered for sale), successfully trading 855 apartments, the consumption rate only reached 12% of the total shopping basket. This corresponds to the last quarter, the city still had inventory of 5,200 apartments.
In terms of inventory structure, according to One Mount Group, most of the unsold products are concentrated in the high-end segment (60-120 million VND/m2), luxury (120-290 million VND/m2) and super luxury (over 290 million VND/m2). Of which, the number of luxury apartments accounts for 60%, luxury apartments are 1.5% and super luxury apartments are up to nearly 13.5%.
A similar data released by Knight Frank Vietnam market research unit shows that in the first quarter of 2025, more than 90% of primary supply baskets for sale were mid-range and high-end, with an average selling price of about 3,648 USD per m2 (more than 91 million VND/m2), surpassing the finances of most buyers. The basket of affordable inventories under 55 million VND/m2 only accounts for 10% and is mainly 3-bedroom, large area.
According to Ms. Giang Huynh, Director of Research and S22M ( Savills Vietnam), the supply of affordable apartments, the segment most popular with buyers, in Ho Chi Minh City is still low.
The Savills expert said that the main cause of clogging the supply of affordable apartments comes from two factors: Firstly, the land fund in Ho Chi Minh City is increasingly scarce; Secondly, land prices and development and construction costs have increased. Therefore, investors owning the land fund tend to prioritize the development of middle and high -end segments to maximize profits, instead of focusing on affordable segments with lower profit margins. Besides, in the past few years, the legal procedures have been blocked, so the supply of housing has not recovered.
Looking at the prospects in the remaining 9 months of 2025, according to Savills, the supply of apartments is expected to remain limited, estimated at about 7,000 units. Notably, most of this supply will come from the next phases of existing projects. Only four projects are expected to open for sale, accounting for a modest proportion of 10%.
In general, the apartment market in Ho Chi Minh City is going through an adjustment phase. Although new supply and transactions in the first quarter of 2025 have decreased, positive signals from planning approval and legal clearance efforts are expected to create momentum for market recovery in the medium and long term, Savills stated its opinion.
