In early 2022, Do Quang Hai in Dong Da district in Hanoi sought to purchase a house to move to live in the suburbs. He liked the villas and houses in Hoai Duc, Quoc Oai and Gia Lam after reading information about them.

However, to Hai’s surprise, the prices of villas were sky high, at tens of billions of dong, though only the raw building was completed. There were only several families living in the area, while most of the villas were abandoned and the infrastructure was not good.

A broker led him to Van Canh urban area and introduced a house with the floor area of 100 sqm priced at VND88 million per sq m. Hai was disappointed after seeing the project abandoned. If he had bought a house there, he would have had to spend VND3-4 billion more to complete the house.

In the urban area, the row houses with red books (land use right certificates) on 12.5 meter roads had an average selling price of 88 million per sq m, while products on 15.5 meter roads were at over VND100 million per sq m. Hai was told that a house on a 30 meter road had been put up for sale at VND132 million per sq m, though the house did not have a red book.

The broker said that though there were few people living there, the prices of the products in the urban area had increased by twofold over the last two years, despite the pandemic.

Tran Van Lam from Ha Dong district told reporters that he once sought to purchase a villa in Me Linh, but gave up the plan because prices were too high. A 300 sq m villa there was priced at VND10 billion.

According to Lam, the price was below VND25 million per sq m at the end of 2020, but it rose during  land price fever.

“Five or six years ago, a relative of mine bought a house in the area at a price which was much lower. However, prices there have become too high, though the products are unchanged,” he said.

Poor infrastructure and high prices exist in many urban areas in the suburbs. 

At Vuon Cam villa project, the price is VND50 million per sq m and because of the large area, each villa is priced at VND10-15 billion.

Similarly, at Xuan Phuong project, abandoned villas are offered at VND115-160 million per sq m. The owners of the villas are investors who buy the products for speculation, not for accommodation.

Duy Anh