Savills has released a report showing the housing ownership ability of people in Hanoi and HCM City.

The company cited the 2023 Asia Pacific Home Attainability Index Report by Urban Land Institute (ULI) as saying that HCM City and Hanoi are the two cities with housing prices at medium levels in the region, but there are big gaps between housing prices and people’s incomes.

In HCM City, the average house price is $296,000, or VND7 billion, while the average income of a household is $9,120, or VND220 million, a year. As such, according to ULI, the gap between the house price and family income is 32.5x, the second highest level in the region, following Shenzhen (35x), and even higher than Beijing (29.3), Shanghai (24.1) and Hong Kong (26.5).

Meanwhile, in Hanoi, the indicator in Hanoi is 18.3x with the annual average income of a household at $9,967, or VND240 million, higher than Seoul (17.3x), Tokyo (16.1), and commercial housing in Singapore (13.7).

In the market of houses for lease, the average monthly rent of apartments in HCM City is $592, or VND14 million. The market is mostly reserved for young workers with high incomes or expats in Vietnam.

Giang Huynh from Savills HCM City said the majority of people can only own "affordable" apartments which are understood as those priced at VND2-4 billion. 

Previously, housing of this type accounted for 60 percent of total supply in the market, but the figure dropped to 25 percent in 2023, which has affected people’s chances to own a home.

Giang believes that the state’s support is key in establishing people’s payment capability. The experiences from other countries show the positive impact of  housing solutions on socio-economic development.

“The fact that the government has reconsidered taxes to restrict speculation and increased the land bank for low-cost housing projects shows its commitment to accelerate the housing market and make it develop in a sustainable way, thus bringing benefits to home buyers,” Huynh said.

She said that developing social housing should be a priority because it helps settle  problems for low-income people, stimulates socio-economic development, increases development areas, expands urban areas to the suburbs, and improves sustainability in urban development planning.

Hong Khanh