According to the new regulations issued by the Hanoi People's Committee, the minimum area of a residential land plot after subdivision in Hanoi is 50 square meters (an increase of 20 square meters compared to the previous regulations).
Increasing the area of land division aims to reduce overload, reduce pressure on technical and social infrastructure systems, and at the same time, help protect the general planning, avoiding imbalance in infrastructure development.
However, this creates scarcity in the small-scale housing market, especially in Hanoi’s inner-city districts. Houses with an area of 30-40m2 become “rare goods” when supply cannot be renewed in the future.
According to many brokers in Hanoi, real estate prices usually increase by 3-5% per year. However, in the past 3 months, house prices in alleys have increased significantly, exceeding 20%, even 30%.
Notably, not only in inner-city districts, small houses in alleys in suburban districts such as Ha Dong and Thanh Tri also increased sharply.
Mr. Le Quang Khai, a real estate broker in Hanoi, said that since the new regulation took effect, a house of about 30 square meters has had the strongest price increase among all types of residential land areas.
Explaining the reason for the high price of 30m2 houses, Mr. Khai said: “The current price of 30m2 houses in the alley ranges from 3.5 to 5 billion VND. However, if the minimum area of the land is increased to 50m2, the value of the house will increase to 6.5 to 8 billion VND. Many people cannot access housing at this price. Therefore, people are rushing to hunt for 30m2 houses, causing a shortage of supply.”
Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa (48 years old), currently living in a collective housing area in Bac Tu Liem district (Hanoi), was surprised when the price of land and houses in the alley increased beyond imagination. It is known that she found a house that suited her finances on Kim Giang street (Thanh Tri, Hanoi) in October 2024. However, after only a few days of hesitation, the price of the house increased from 100 million VND/m2 to 120 million VND/m2.
“All the money I saved was 2.8 billion VND. I had to borrow another 200 million VND to have enough money to buy that 30m2 house. However, after spending about a week trying to find out, when I asked again, I was shocked when the price of the house had increased to 3.7 billion VND, beyond my ability,” Ms. Hoa expressed.
Discussing this issue, Dr. Nguyen Van Dinh - Vice President of the Vietnam Real Estate Association said that one of the reasons for the high price of small houses is due to concerns about scarcity. Accordingly, buyers believe that houses with an area of 30 - 40m2 will become increasingly rare, creating a strong demand for buying and selling.
Mr. Dinh also emphasized that buyers need to be careful with price reduction and loss-cutting tricks from investors, to avoid falling into the virtual price trap.
In addition, the expert also expressed his agreement with the new regulation. According to him, this regulation will help Hanoi control urban quality better, no longer having houses and plots of land with too small areas, fragmented, spoiling the urban beauty.
