The real estate market in Ho Chi Minh City is facing a shortage of supply, especially in the affordable housing segment.
Data from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction shows that during the 11 months of 2024, the city only had 12 housing projects approved for investment, of which only 1 was a social housing project, the rest were luxury housing projects.
This is the lowest figure in many years, clearly reflecting the serious shortage of housing supply. Notably, only 2 commercial housing projects were licensed for construction and only 4 projects were eligible to mobilize capital to bring products to the market, with 1,611 apartments, a sharp decrease compared to previous years.
Meanwhile, a large amount of housing supply is still stuck because dozens of projects have not yet had their legal problems resolved. Mr. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA), said that in the first 10 months of 2024, the Prime Minister's Working Group 1435 transferred 64 projects to Ho Chi Minh City for consideration and resolution; the Specialized Working Group of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee held 10 meetings to consider and resolve 34 projects, of which 8 projects have been resolved.
However, the more concerning issue is that there are still 86 commercial housing projects that have stopped construction or have not yet started construction. These are projects that are stuck in legal issues, waiting to be rescued, but because the investment policy has been approved, they are classified as "inventory" projects.
According to Mr. Chau, currently, Ho Chi Minh City has 30 projects that have stopped construction with a land use scale of up to 210.30 hectares with 21,676 houses. There are up to 56 projects that have not been constructed with a land use scale of 754.08 hectares with a number of 32,375 houses. There is a project that is still in the process of site clearance, which is the Investment Project for Construction of Technical Infrastructure and Social Infrastructure of Tan Tao Residential Center - Area A, Binh Tan District with a very large land area of up to 329.96 hectares.
“The 86 projects are in stock due to many reasons, mainly due to legal problems, which will be basically resolved in the near future with the system of laws and sub-law documents that have just been issued. However, having 86 projects in stock during the 2015-2023 period has led to negative consequences for the economy,” said Mr. Le Hoang Chau.
Mr. Le Hoang Chau said that the total land use scale of up to 964.38 hectares of 86 "inventory" projects led to an extremely wasteful situation of land resources, because it violated the principle of economical and effective land use of the Land Law.
In addition, the total number of houses in 86 "inventory" projects is up to 54,051 units, including 46,986 apartments and 7,065 low-rise houses, which increases the shortage of housing supply and the imbalance of housing products, leading to a phase difference in the high-end housing segment, a lack of affordable housing and is the main reason for the continuous increase in housing prices over the past many years, exceeding the purchasing power of middle-income and low-income people in society.
“Efforts from authorities at all levels, the business community, credit institutions and the support of investors and customers have contributed significantly to helping the real estate market overcome difficulties, initially recover and show signs of growth again in the past two years. In 2025, many businesses expect legal problems to be resolved soon so that the market can recover faster,” said Mr. Le Hoang Chau.
