As an office worker with an average salary of about 12-14 million VND/month, Ms. Luong Thi Linh (Thanh Xuan, Hanoi) has calculated every possible way but still does not know when she will be able to buy a house in Hanoi.
"Living expenses in Hanoi include many expenses, you don't even need to step out of the house to spend money. Fixed expenses such as room rent, food, gas... take up half of your salary. Not to mention, many months there are additional expenses such as weddings, friends' birthdays...
"Even if I'm very frugal, I can only save about 6-7 million VND/month, equivalent to nearly 100 million VND/year. Meanwhile, currently, with 2 billion VND, it's not certain that I can buy an apartment in Hanoi's inner city," said Ms. Linh.
Similarly, Ms. Nong Thi Tam - an office worker (Dong Da, Hanoi) - said that with an income of more than 10 million VND/month, without resources for business and investment, it is difficult to stay in Hanoi, let alone save money to buy a house.
"I plan to work a little longer in Hanoi to learn and gain more experience, then I will return to my hometown to work. In my hometown, the standard of living and real estate prices will also be much lower than in Hanoi," Ms. Tam shared.
The story of "leaving the city to return to the countryside" is also a common situation for many young people working in big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City when they have an average income and cannot afford to buy a house.
In fact, since the beginning of this year, real estate in Hanoi has been continuously hot in most segments such as apartments, houses in alleys... Not only in the central areas, but the heat has also shifted to the suburban districts and counties when supply is scarce. In particular, recently, the type of auctioned land in the suburbs of Hanoi has also attracted great attention with sky-high winning prices.
The price increase cycle started in the apartment segment. According to CBRE's Hanoi real estate market focus report for the third quarter of 2024, the average primary selling price of apartments in Hanoi has reached nearly 70 million VND/m2, only about 3% lower than the Ho Chi Minh City market. Experts from this unit also commented, "For the first time in history, Hanoi apartment prices have increased rapidly in such a short period of time."
Along with apartments, the prices of land, villas and townhouses in Hanoi have also increased. In the third quarter, the price of townhouses in Hanoi increased by nearly 27% compared to the same period last year, reaching VND235 million/m2. The transfer price also increased by nearly 7% year-on-year, reaching nearly VND170 million/m2.
In a recent press conference, Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Viet Hung pointed out that the two main reasons for high housing prices are speculation and market psychology. Speculation causes prices to increase unreasonably and home buyers have the mentality of buying houses to wait for prices to increase, which causes house prices to increase even more.
