10-Year-Old Apartments in Vietnam Skyrocket, Residents Perplexed

Prices for apartment buildings around 10 years old in Vietnam are experiencing a dramatic surge, often more than doubling their original value, leaving residents bewildered. Factors such as infrastructure development and the completion of urban projects, like new bridges and metro lines, are cited as contributors to this abnormal price hike. One reader shared their astonishment: "My apartment building is 10 years old. Since the expansion of National Highway 13, the completion of Ba Ca Bridge, and recently, the metro line survey running just behind us, the price of my two-bedroom apartment, which had been stagnant at VND 1.7-1.8 billion for four years, has suddenly jumped to over VND 3 billion. I am bewildered and don't understand why it's so 'overpriced'." While the overall market is showing signs of a price decrease, older apartment projects in prime locations are now approaching the price point of new apartments. This surge is pushing prices beyond the affordability of a large portion of the working population seeking actual housing. Another reader commented, "Even with the current price drops, old apartment prices are only cutting into profits, not returning to their true value. In my area, about 10 km from Hanoi's center, a small 56 sqm apartment cost only about VND 700-800 million in 2020-2021. Last year, it was listed at VND 4.5 billion, and this year, although it has decreased, it's still around VND 3.7-3.8 billion. I believe there should be clear legal regulations to prevent hoarding for profit and speculative price inflation." Questions are also being raised about the logic behind these price increases. "I truly don't understand why old apartment prices have to increase so much when their value should decrease over time? The number of new apartments is increasing, not stagnating, while the population growth is slowing down. Therefore, the selling price of old apartments is very unreasonable," stated one reader. Concerns are mounting that this trend is driven by speculation rather than actual housing demand. "The demand for housing is indeed very large, but the 'hot' increase in old apartment prices is mainly due to speculative price inflation. Salaries for employees are almost insufficient to buy a home. If managed well, I believe housing prices will gradually return to their true value, allowing people to buy homes like in other countries," added another reader. One reader highlighted the extreme disparity: "At prices of VND 100 million per square meter, nearly equivalent to the annual per capita GDP, it would take almost 100 years for a person to buy a 100 sqm old apartment in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City without spending on anything else. This is an unimaginable irrationality." To bring housing prices to a reasonable level, several solutions were proposed, including curbing investor profits, increasing the supply of new apartments, social housing, and rental units, expanding projects in suburban areas, supporting developers of low-cost housing projects (under VND 40 million/sqm), imposing high taxes on vacant apartments, and implementing strict penalties for real estate agencies and brokers involved in price manipulation and creating virtual demand. Furthermore, a regulation on the expiry date for all apartment buildings, regardless of age, was suggested. This situation underscores the critical housing challenges in Vietnam's urban centers, where the gap between actual housing demand and purchasing power is widening, potentially exacerbating social inequality.