At the end of 2022, Ms. Hoang Ngoc Linh (42 years old, Dong Trieu, Quang Ninh) bought a house in an alley in Nguyen Trai (Thanh Xuan, Hanoi) for more than 4 billion VND.
According to Ms. Linh, her house is more than 40 square meters wide and is located in an alley, about 200 meters from the street. However, the road into the alley is very small, only about 2 motorbikes can pass each other. Buying for investment purposes, at the beginning of 2024, seeing that the house was offered at a reasonable price, Ms. Linh sold the house for more than 5.6 billion VND.
"While waiting for the house to be sold, I rented it out as a whole house for more than a year. In total, I earned more than 100 million VND from the money I rented out," said Linh.
According to Ms. Thanh, investing in houses in alleys is quite safe, but you need to have money available to invest because borrowing will put financial pressure. In particular, you need to choose houses in alleys that are in good locations to have high liquidity. Realizing that houses in alleys are of interest to many people, Ms. Linh plans to continue hunting for houses in alleys in the price range of 3-5 billion VND to invest.
According to Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Dinh - a real estate broker in Hanoi, the segment of houses in alleys with prices ranging from 3 - 5 billion VND/unit has recently been chosen by many people to meet real needs. Cheap houses, competing with apartments, despite their small area and location in alleys, are still inquired by many customers.
"Private houses in Hanoi, located in small alleys and not associated with commercial activities, have recorded relatively good transactions since the beginning of the year. Newly built houses with good prices, locations that are not affected by planning or feng shui errors, and have certificates, have relatively good liquidity," said Mr. Dinh.
Commenting on the reason for the increase in house prices in alleys, Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh - Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Realtors (VARS) - said that the reason is partly due to the high price of the apartment market, which has prompted a group of home buyers to change direction. Houses in alleys priced at 3-4 billion VND are of great interest because with a similar budget, to buy an apartment, one must move to an area far from the center and are increasingly scarce.
Demand for investment in this housing segment has also increased again. Mr. Dinh said that this segment has good liquidity with full legal documents, reasonable selling prices, and high rental yields in the context of abundant rental demand.
Along with that, the demand for renting space in alleys also tends to increase, as many small and medium-sized enterprises want to reduce space costs to sell goods through e-commerce platforms.
According to the Ministry of Construction, in the third quarter of 2024, the number of transactions in the type of apartments and individual houses tended to increase compared to the second quarter of 2024. Accordingly, in the third quarter, there were 38,398 successful transactions of apartments and individual houses, equal to 148.3% compared to the second quarter of 2024, equal to 129% compared to the same period in 2023.
In addition, the inventory of individual houses and land plots in the third quarter of 2024 was 21,249 units/plots (12,250 individual houses; 8,999 land plots), equivalent to 150.6% compared to the second quarter of 2024 (the inventory of individual houses and land plots in the second quarter of 2024 was 14,106 units/plots, of which: 7,045 individual houses, 7,061 land plots).
