Recently, a group called “Hanoi Homebuyers’ Community to Avoid Price Gouging” emerged on social media, attracting over 69,000 members. According to the group’s introduction, the founders shared their exhaustion from house hunting in Hanoi in early 2024: “I decided to take a break and stop following the market. It’s not that I don’t want to buy a home anymore, but the prices of land and apartments are increasing daily at an unimaginable rate, surging by 30-50% within just six months.”
They further added, “Money doesn’t come easy, and the product no longer seems worth the asking price. There’s no point in forcing a purchase. We don’t aim to buy cheap; we just want to pay the right price.”
The shocking increase in apartment prices in Hanoi has left many bewildered. (Illustrative image: Minh Duc)
Many members of the group shared similar experiences and stories of their own house-hunting journeys in Hanoi, expressing shock at the rapid increase in property prices.
For instance, a member named Nhat Huy shared that in early March, he was looking to purchase an apartment at the EcoGreen Nguyen Xien project. At that time, he was offered a three-bedroom apartment on a lower floor for 3.9 billion VND. As he wasn’t satisfied with the floor plan and was waiting to sell a piece of land in his hometown to gather funds, he decided to hold off on the purchase.
However, when he returned to inquire about the apartment in July, the asking price had surged to 4.65 billion VND, a whopping 750 million VND increase in just three months. Upon checking various real estate forums, he was astonished to find that the prices of apartments in the same project had increased by hundreds of millions of VND compared to when he first started looking.
“With my initial savings of 2.8 billion VND, I would have only needed to take out a 30% loan to afford the 3.9 billion VND apartment. But now, with prices increasing by hundreds of millions every month, I feel helpless. At this rate, workers from other provinces coming to Hanoi will never be able to afford a home,” shared Nhat Huy.
Similarly, Pham Duc Hai, a native of Hai Duong province, shared his recent experience of having his plan to purchase a home fall through due to the seller backing out of the deal and selling the apartment to someone else at a higher price.
“In July, I found an apartment in a project in Ha Dong district and agreed on a price of 4.9 billion VND with the owner. I even made a deposit of 100 million VND. However, before the scheduled date for the full payment and apartment handover, the owner informed me that they were returning my deposit and no longer wanted to sell,” said Hai.
To his surprise, he later discovered that the very same apartment he had intended to purchase was sold to someone else for 6.2 billion VND, a difference of 1.3 billion VND in just a matter of days.
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