Land prices continue to increase
In the past 2 years, in some areas of Dong Anh commune, Hanoi, land prices have been recorded to have continuously increased, each year being twice as high as the previous year. Especially since a number of high-end real estate projects have been implemented here.
According to the reporter's records in early November 2025, many plots of land in alleys in Dong Anh commune, where cars cannot enter, are being offered for sale at nearly 200 million VND/m2. With beautiful locations, the price is much higher.
Ms. Nguyen Dieu Anh (Dong Anh commune) said that in 2022, the 150m2 residential land right next to her house, behind it is a rice field worth more than 40 million VND/m. Up to this point, the price has increased more than 4 times, currently being offered for sale at 190 million VND/m2.
"Real estate brokers go all day to ask each household if they are selling land or not. Most of the vacant land is already owned by the owner, but I have not seen anyone build a house, they just buy it to wait for the price to increase" - Ms. Dieu Anh said.
According to Mr. Hoang Anh (37 years old, Dong Anh commune) - a real estate broker in the locality, increasing land prices is also understandable because when high-end housing projects are built, surrounding land tends to increase. This increase is due to the psychology of eating and drinking, but the demand for accommodation is almost very low.
"Most of the purchases are for speculation, buying and selling. There are plots of land that have not been questioned for decades, but after just one land auction in a nearby area, the price of neighboring land will certainly increase.
Normally, in a certain area, there will be a group of real estate brokers, they will together come up with a floor price to offer for sale. Buyers can almost not find a lower price," Mr. Hoang Anh revealed.
Land prices are inflated, profiteering
In fact, the situation of land being overpriced and pushed up is happening in most suburban areas of Hanoi such as Soc Son, Thanh Tri, Dan Phuong... depending on the location, there is a difference. However, most of them will be decided by a real estate business community.
Meanwhile, the current land price list issued by the locality is often much lower than the transaction price on the market. However, when calculating land use fees, financial obligations, and site clearance compensation, the adjustment coefficient is applied. This coefficient is often built on reference transactions that have been inflated in free markets.
Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc - Vietnam International Arbitration Center said that real estate prices are too high compared to the level of the socio-economy, compared to the income of the people and compared to the cost of composing those products and goods.
"Of course, there are many reasons, many causes, but certainly there are reasons for price inflation, price manipulation, stimulating behavior, and simulation to lead to profit-taking," said Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc.
According to data from Batdongsan.com.vn, in the past 5 years, Hanoi has led the country in real estate price increase with 112%, Hai Phong increased by 71%, Da Nang increased by 53%, and Ho Chi Minh City is 42%. This situation has not shown any signs of slowing down and disappearing, creating a hot real estate market, increasing prices uncontrollably.
The monitoring report of the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee at the 10th session also clearly stated that real estate prices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have increased rapidly, ranking in the top 8 out of 220 major cities in the world in terms of the high cost of real estate compared to income.
Land prices are being unusually raised not by real housing needs, but by speculation, hoarding and especially land valuation based on comparisons with auctions or surrounding "hot" projects, causing prices to always follow the previous price, creating an uncontrolled price increase spiral.
The Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Environment has just submitted a draft on the development of the first land price list to be announced and applied from January 1, 2026. In particular, the proposed increase in residential land prices is concentrated in suburban communes with an increase of 20% - 26% depending on the area.
