Kien has complained to VietNamNet about the high high real estate prices in Vietnam.

“With VND22 billion, in Australia, you can buy a 1,100 sq m house with 5-7 bedrooms which you can lease to other people for VND90 million (5,400 AUD) a month. But when I sought to buy a house in Hanoi, I was told what with that amount of money, I can’t buy anything,” he said.

Kien, 32, now lives and does business in a coastal city in Australia, not far from Sydney. He plans to return to Vietnam to settle down in some more years, therefore, he wants to buy a semi-detached villa in Hanoi.

In July 2023, he began searching information on the internet and asked his relatives and friends in Vietnam to help him find a villa priced below VND25 billion in Vietnam.

Through a real estate broker, he found a villa in My Dinh, which has an area of 115 sq m and quoted price of VND25.5 billion (the real selling price could be lower after negotiations). 

However, because of urgent affairs, he postponed the plan to buy the villa.

In July 2024, after he decided to return to Vietnam the next year, he resumed the process of seeking to purchase a villa. But he felt shocked as the prices had soared.

A villa in My Dinh, similar to the one shown to him one year ago, is now offered at VND36 billion, which means an increase of 40 percent just within one year.

The man commented that VND36 billion is not a ‘good price’, and that there are many villas in the same area, and the prices are not higher than VND22 billion.

In reply, the broker told him: “With VND22 billion, you won’t be able to buy anything.”

Kien said he was shocked by the information.

“VND22 billion must be a big amount of money for Vietnamese. In Australia, VND22 billion is equal to 1.3 million AUD, and it is also a big amount of money. But the broker told me that nothing can be bought with VND22 billion in Hanoi,” he told VietNamNet.

Kien lives in a populous coastal city in Australia. With 1.3 million AUD, he can buy a house with an area of 1,100 sq m there, and a 600 sq m house in Sydney which can be leased for VND70 million (4,400 AUD).

Meanwhile, if he buys a villa in My Dinh, he will have to spend VND3-4 billion at least to repair and redecorate it. And the expected rent is low.

“In general, more valuable houses have weaker liquidity and the rents are also low. I cannot understand why the prices have soared so dramatically within one year,” he said.

He believes that housing prices in Hanoi are higher than their real value. In Australia, the prices increase by 6 percent per annum. Sometimes the prices soar, go flat, or decrease, but the fluctuations are explainable and predictable.

He heard that in Vietnam, real estate prices perform in accordance with the principle ‘3 years and twofold’, which means that real estate prices increase by twofold after two years.

“In theory, the more valuable products are, the slower the price increases will be. So, such a shockingly sharp price increase is surprising,” he commented.

Kien said he faced difficulties when seeking to purchase housing in Vietnam, because the information is chaotic, and cannot be verified.

“Buyers like me just can seek information through brokers, but brokers give different information and I don’t know if the brokers are telling the truth,” he said.

“I was told by a broker that the house I found was sold. But another broker said a buyer has paid a deposit. But the next day I received a call from a broker who affirmed that the house had not been sold,” he said.

He said it was easier to buy real estate in Australia than Vietnam. There are two prestigious websites on which sellers and buyers can seek necessary information. 

“You just need a click to learn about the history of a house: how many times the house has been sold, and at which prices the houses were sold,” he said. “You can also find the information about when the house was put for sale, which helps you negotiate selling prices with the landlords."

Finally, Kien decided not to buy houses in Hanoi, because the prices are ‘abnormally high’.

Hong Khanh