Recently, the real estate market has been hot with stories about real estate prices and supply, especially for some segments such as apartments, houses in alleys, villas, etc. Information about real estate prices constantly increasing and scarce supply especially attracts the attention of both investors and those with real estate needs.
However, according to the report of the Vietnam Association of Realtors, in the third quarter of 2024, the whole country had 22,412 products offered for sale. Of which, 14,750 products were newly launched. This figure is 60% higher than the same period in 2023.
Thus, the real estate supply has increased sharply but housing prices have not decreased but have continued to increase. Particularly for the apartment segment, in Hanoi, the average price of new project apartments has increased by about 4-6% per quarter and 22-25% per year.
Explaining the reasons for the increase in real estate prices, the Ministry of Construction said that it was partly due to the recent increase in land-related costs as well as the impact of applying new land calculation methods and price lists, and partly due to the lack of new supply. However, it is worth mentioning the phenomenon of "creating virtual prices" and "inflating prices" by speculators and individuals working as real estate brokers, pushing up real estate prices.
In some localities, there is also a phenomenon of land auctions with winning prices many times higher than the starting price. In which, many investors also form associations and groups to participate in bidding high prices, then abandon their deposits after winning the auction, with the aim of establishing a virtual price level in the area to make a profit.
Dr. Nguyen Van Dinh - Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Real Estate Brokers (VARS) said that many investors participating in these auctions are people who have a "profession" in land auctioning. They do not care about the real value, they win the auction and then immediately buy and sell to make a profit or are ready to forfeit their deposit if the market does not respond.
Or the more dangerous purpose is to create a land "fever". These individuals take advantage of the auction deposit to inflate the price of related land. Even disregarding the risks, legalizing the price by paying in full according to the winning bid, to use this price as a basis to stimulate land prices in outlying districts, causing land prices in many places to escalate, even creating a virtual "fever".
The consequence of these situations is that real estate prices, which were already high, have increased even more, making the dream of owning a home increasingly out of reach for people, especially young people.
Experts also analyzed a rather painful situation in the current real estate market: some real estate developers, those who "have goods",... have hoarded products, creating a shortage of supply, pushing up primary prices or waiting for the market to increase in price and sell for profit.
According to the analysis of economic expert Dinh The Hien: "Even investors who have projects but have not been able to bring products to the market, due to reasons such as legal bottlenecks, slow progress, or not yet opened for sale... may have created surrounding information, making the market seem to be heating up, supply is scarce,... causing investors to rush to put money down for fear of missing out on opportunities, fear that real estate prices will continue to increase if they miss out."
However, according to the expert, information about the real estate market with scarce supply and continuously increasing prices is not entirely correct, reflecting only a small part of the market. In reality, the real estate market is still quite quiet, many apartment projects have been completed but left empty; there is also no shortage of vacant land for project construction.
Therefore, investors and real buyers need to be really calm in the face of information sources and market developments, not rushing to follow the crowd to buy recklessly, pushing up real estate prices.
