Mr. Nguyen Van Nhan (Hoang Mai district, Hanoi) shared his story of buying a house full of difficulties. 3 months ago, after being taken to many places by a broker, Mr. Nhan finally found a satisfactory house in Thanh Xuan district.

The house has an area of ​​40 square meters, 4 floors, located in an alley about 2.2 meters wide, about 30 meters from the car road, priced at 6.1 billion VND.

At that time, because Mr. Nhan had not yet sold the land in Hoang Mai district, he negotiated with the homeowner to deposit 200 million VND in advance and the deposit period was 3 months. During this period, when he had arranged enough money, he would go to the notary with the homeowner to sign the sale contract and transfer the red book.

However, because his land is quite large (80m2) and located deep in a small alley, it is difficult to find buyers. When the 3-month payment deadline for the house in Thanh Xuan district was almost over, Mr. Nhan had to deeply reduce the price to find a buyer for the land at 6.2 billion VND.

With the money, Mr. Nhan immediately brought it to the owner of the house he had paid a deposit for to proceed with the transaction. However, what Mr. Nhan did not expect was that the owner immediately returned his deposit of 200 million VND and compensated him 200 million VND because he decided not to sell the house.

The reason given by the homeowner is that the market price of this house has increased by 1 billion VND, so they are not selling it anymore or if they do sell it, they will sell it at a new, higher price.

" When the landlord unreasonably increased the price, I was very upset because in order to have money to buy this house, I had to accept selling a piece of land in Hoang Mai district for nearly half a billion dong. But when I calmed down and looked up the land prices in the area where I planned to buy a house, it was true that the prices had increased quite a bit in the past 3 months. I did not expect that real estate prices could increase so dramatically in such a short time ," said Mr. Nhan.

In the same situation of being "returned" by the landlord is Ms. Nguyen Thi Nguyet (from Hung Yen). Ms. Nguyet shared that after many years of working, she and her husband had accumulated more than 4 billion VND. Last August, they decided to buy an apartment on Nguyen Tuan Street (Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi) for 4.2 billion VND.

However, at that time, her savings book of more than 4 billion VND was about 2 months away from maturity. Because she felt sorry for the interest when withdrawing early and also afraid of losing her favorite house, Nguyet and her husband decided to deposit 100 million VND in advance and committed to paying it off in 2 months.

Thinking that such a deposit was quite reassuring, Ms. Nguyet did not rush to borrow money and did not take precautions against unforeseen situations that might occur. However, when the payment deadline was near, Ms. Nguyet and her husband were called by the landlord to talk.

It turned out that the landlord had received a deposit from another customer, so he called her to return and compensate for the deposit. According to the landlord, the price of apartments here is increasing rapidly, many brokers are asking for high prices, so the landlord sold it to another customer for 4.7 billion VND (500 million VND higher than the price for Ms. Nguyet and her husband). Thus, after deducting the amount of money that had to be paid to Ms. Nguyet, the landlord still made a profit of 400 million VND.

" With such a high profit, they didn't have any reason to sell to my husband and I. What I didn't expect was that in such a short time, the apartment price increased so quickly that the landlord reneged on the deal. Buying and selling a house at this time is really hard. It took several months to find a house that I liked. If you find it but don't close it quickly and deposit a lot, you'll lose it. This is a lesson for my husband and I, because we regretted paying 100 million in bank interest and lost half a billion in house price increases ," Ms. Nguyet complained.

Hanoi real estate prices increase continuously

In fact, recently, real estate prices in Hanoi have continuously increased, even in some areas increasing by several hundred million VND/month.

Market data from PropertyGuru Vietnam shows that the apartment market in Hanoi has only had one "quiet period" since the beginning of the year, falling in April and May. The rest of the year has recorded an upward trend in selling prices, especially increasing in the last months of the year, when the increase reached hundreds of millions of VND/month.

For example, in Thanh Xuan district, a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment at the Imperial Plaza project was priced at 5.2 - 5.3 billion VND/apartment in August, but by October the price had increased to 5.4 - 5.5 billion VND/apartment.

At the same time, the price of 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartments at the Rivera Park project also increased from 5.5 - 5.6 billion VND/apartment to 5.7 - 5.9 billion VND/apartment. The price of 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartments at the Goldseason project increased from 5.4 - 5.5 billion VND/apartment to 5.6 - 5.8 billion VND/apartment.

In Nam Tu Liem district, 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom apartments at Vinhomes Smart City project, in August, were offered at 3.5 - 3.6 billion VND/apartment, but now they have increased slightly to 3.7 - 3.8 billion VND/apartment. Golden Palace project, the selling price for an area of ​​85m2 in August was still popular at 4.7 - 4.8 billion VND/apartment, but now the offering price is over 5 billion VND/apartment.

The price of a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment at Mon City apartment complex has increased from the common price of 4.1 - 4.2 billion VND/apartment to 4.3 - 4.5 billion VND/apartment. At the Sudico My Dinh project, the 57m2 apartment has also increased from 3.6 - 3.7 billion VND/apartment to 3.8 billion VND/apartment.

In Cau Giay district, apartment A10 Nam Trung Yen, with 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, area of ​​66m2, the asking price continues to increase, from 4.6 - 4.7 billion VND/apartment to 4.8 - 5.2 billion VND/apartment.

Projects A14 Nam Trung Yen, buildings B10, A6 Nam Trung Yen also recorded an average price increase of 100 - 200 million VND/unit in the past 2 months.

Home City project apartments, 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom type, also continued to increase in price from 4.8 - 5.1 billion VND/apartment to 5.2 - 5.5 billion VND/apartment. An increase of about 300 million VND in the past 2 months was also established at the 219 Central Field Trung Kinh project.

Ms. Nguyen Hoai An, Senior Director of CBRE Vietnam in Hanoi, said that the selling price of apartments in Hanoi will continue to increase in the coming time. It is forecasted that in the last quarter of 2024, new supply will record more than 10,000 units, bringing the total number of newly opened apartments for sale in the whole year of 2024 to nearly 30,000 units, nearly three times the number of apartments opened for sale in 2023 and the highest supply in the past 5 years. However, a large proportion of the supply is expected to be concentrated in the high-end segment.

Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh, Chairman of the Vietnam Real Estate Brokers Association, also commented that the primary selling price of apartments in Hanoi will continue to increase because although the supply has improved, it is still very difficult to meet the demand. Because most of the new supply continues to be completed at a high standard with high investment costs, especially costs related to land, it is very difficult for the primary price level to decrease. The increase in primary prices will lead to an increase in the selling price of apartments in Hanoi in the secondary market.