In recent months, some old apartment buildings and residential areas in Ho Chi Minh City have recorded a significant increase in the number of buyers' interest as well as the number of sales ads. Especially products located in central districts such as District 3, District 4, Phu Nhuan District or Binh Thanh District.

Mr. Le Bao Nam - a real estate salesman in Ho Chi Minh City said that while many people are interested in new products, projects or urban areas with many accompanying utilities, there is still a group of customers interested in old apartments due to many advantages in price and location.

For example, a 2-bedroom apartment located in Chu Van An residential area (Ward 26, Binh Thanh District) with an area of ​​60 square meters is being offered for sale at 2.3 billion VND. Meanwhile, apartments with the same area located in new projects are priced twice as much. However, along with the market recovery, in recent times, some old apartment projects have recorded significant price increases from the sellers.

Accordingly, advertisements for sale of old apartments and condominiums such as those in Chu Van An residential area, 1050 apartment area, Dat Phuong Nam apartment building, My Phuoc apartment building, etc. are being advertised at prices 10-20% higher than in the first half of 2023.

For example, at My Phuoc apartment, the average selling price in the first quarter of 2023 was about 38 million VND/m2, home buyers only need to spend 1.5 billion VND to own a 40m2 apartment in this project. But at present, the average selling price of this apartment has reached 51 million VND/m2 and it takes 2 billion VND to own the above apartment.

"Old apartments are much cheaper than new projects, and are located near the center, so they are still sought after by some customers. Besides, many homeowners have seen the market recovery, so they have proactively increased their selling prices, causing many old products to increase in price...", said Mr. Bao Nam.

In addition, the reason for the increase in selling prices of old apartments is also related to the shortage of supply, especially affordable products. Meanwhile, the demand for housing with criteria of living near the center in the Ho Chi Minh City market is still very high.

According to a report recently released by the Ministry of Construction, real estate supply in 2023 continues to be limited in all segments. Of which, 42 commercial housing projects were completed, providing the market with about 15,966 houses, only 46.15% of 2022.

The Ministry of Construction also said that the high price of apartments is due to the impact of scarce supply. Meanwhile, the price of low-rise housing and some other real estate segments has decreased by 10-20% depending on location and area.

The lack of supply to meet demand has also had a strong impact on the actual liquidity of the market. By the end of the third quarter of 2023, there were only about 324,300 successful real estate transactions, equal to about 41.3% of the same period last year. The number of transactions of apartments and individual houses decreased sharply, only equal to 63.07% of 2022.

Meanwhile, the development of low-cost housing such as social housing, worker housing or renovation of old apartments has not yet achieved many positive results. Nationwide, only 5 social housing projects with a scale of 850 apartments have been completed in the past time.

In addition, the increase in prices of types of housing serving real housing needs also comes from the fact that the introduction of credit packages to the market is not really effective. For example, the preferential credit package of 120,000 billion VND for loans to develop social housing, worker housing or renovate old apartments, has so far only disbursed 143.3 billion VND. Meanwhile, according to reports from localities and investors of social housing projects, up to now, 23 provinces and cities have announced a list of 54 projects eligible for loans from the preferential credit package of 120,000 billion VND with a loan demand of more than 25,884 billion VND.