After living for more than 10 years in a rented room in Go Vap district in HCM City, L, 42, from Thanh Hoa, wanted to settle down in an apartment of his own. As L and his wife only had VND1.5 billion, they had to borrow money from the bank.

However, it was difficult for them to find a suitable apartment because of the shortage in recent years. Very few apartment projects have been launched, while apartments on sale are quoted with sky high prices, which are unaffordable for them. And apartments they can afford are located too far from the central area.

Finally, they decided to buy an old apartment as many are on sale and the prices vary. They considered apartments on Pham Van Dong Road in Thu Duc City, which is near their offices.

They found a 70 sq m apartment priced at VND2 billion at an apartment building which was eight years old. There was also a 72 sq m apartment located which was delivered to the primary buyer 10 years ago.

Finally, they decided to buy the latter, valued at VND2.7 billion.

“The former is affordable, but the construction quality is bad and there is ‘pink book’. The latter is older, but it looks almost brand new thanks to high construction quality,” he explained.

“Pink book” is the "Certificate of housing ownership and land use rights". The certificate, granted by the Ministry of Construction, has a pink cover.

M, 37, from Dong Nai, said she and her husband had to spend many months looking for an old apartment. 

After visiting three apartments, they decided to buy a 72 sq m apartment on Pham Van Dong Road in Thu Duc City at VND2.4 billion. The apartment belongs to a resettlement apartment block which was delivered more than 10 years ago. 

M revealed that one of the reasons that prompted them to buy the apartment was that there is a pink book for the apartment, which proves the legality of the property.

In general, housing products without certificates of land use rights and housing ownership all have lower prices than those with full legal status.

She said the apartment has degraded after 10 years of use by the previous owner, but it is located near the central area and a shopping center, which makes it convenient for them to buy daily essential things.

“With VND2 billion, this is the best choice,” M said.

According to a resident living in the same apartment building with M, the prices of the apartments have increased twice since they were first opened. The first owners only had to pay VND700-800 million for one apartment. Later, as Pham Van Dong Road was upgraded and put into traffic in 2013, the prices of the apartments increased by twofold, and once again recently because of shortage of apartments in entire HCM City.

In fact, housing product shortage has existed for the last three years. High-end products is plentiful, but affordable products are not.

The HCM City Construction Department reported that only four housing projects with 3,722 apartments in the fourth quarter of 2023 could meet requirements to sell apartments to take shape in the future (buyers register to buy and pay a deposit when projects are under execution). And all the products were in the high-end market segment.

In the entire year of 2023, only 19 housing projects could meet the requirements to be put on sale, with total supply of 17,753 apartments. Of these, 11,334 apartments belonged to the high-end market segment, and 5,051 in the mid-end segment. There are very few affordable products available.

The agency said that administrative procedures are partially behind the shortage. Of the projects which satisfy requirements to be put on sale as mentioned above, many projects kicked off some years ago and the investors could only fulfill the procedures last year.

A survey of a market analysis firm found that, in the last 10 years, apartment selling prices in HCM City increased by about 12 percent yearly.

Anh Phuong