Old apartments stop being hot

Thu Van and her husband, from Hoang Mai District, put their apartment up for sale in early April after deciding to move back to their hometown. The two-bedroom apartment they bought five years ago in Linh Dam Urban Area was priced at VND1.6 billion (about VND25 million per square meter). With an expected price of VND3.05 billion, nearly double the purchase price, Van sent the house information to 4-5 brokers.

A month passed, and the number of inquiries gradually decreased. In the first week of posting the house for sale, the couple received nearly 20 visitors. The visitors wanted to reduce the price by one or two, but she did not agree because she thought "at this time, apartments are hot, and there are no houses for sale on the market."

Unable to close the deal, Ms. Van posted the sale on a resident group. Most brokers asked for information and told her to reduce the price by 200-300 million to find a buyer. She decided to reduce the price by 100 million, down to 2.95 billion, but the number of buyers did not improve. In the last week, she only welcomed 3 people to come see the sale and has not closed the sale yet.

This situation is completely different from about two months ago, when apartments were "sold out as soon as they were available". "My husband regrets not selling a month earlier, but who would have thought the market would change so dramatically," the 34-year-old woman shared.

Ms. Van's situation is not uncommon. Mr. Trung Duc, from Ha Dong District, said that his 74-square-meter apartment on To Huu Street has not found a new owner after three weeks of being put up for sale. Three years ago, he and his wife bought it for VND1.7 billion (about VND23 million per square meter), now it is listed for VND3.3 billion, nearly double.

The male construction engineer said that an apartment of the same area and floor had been sold for 3.4 billion VND nearly two months ago. Therefore, the price he offered was "very reasonable when apartments are still scarce".

After three weeks, switching to a fourth broker, the apartment was still not sold. Mr. Duc was impatient because his family's moving plan was delayed.

Le Vuong, a secondary apartment broker in Nam Tu Liem district, said that demand for buying has slowed down for nearly a month now. After Tet, there were weeks when he took more than a dozen customers to see houses. Customers closed the deal after one or two viewings because they were "afraid that prices would continue to climb."

Since mid-April, many people have asked but "after hearing the price quote, they hung up and did not contact again". This broker said that some homeowners who needed to sell urgently at this time also reduced the expected price by about 100 million or gave away furniture, but buyers complained that it was too expensive and wanted to reduce it further.

The director of a secondary apartment floor based in Hoang Mai district said that the unit's transactions in April dropped by nearly half compared to the time after Tet.

Data from Batdongsan channel also shows that since the second half of April, the level of interest in Hanoi apartments has decreased by 40% compared to the peak in March. In some long-term handover projects, transactions in April decreased sharply, half of the previous two months.

Mr. Pham Duc Toan, General Director of EZ Real Estate Investment and Development Joint Stock Company, said that the recent "fever" of apartments in Hanoi was like a "summer thunderstorm" that lasted for a very short time. While most segments were facing difficulties, apartment products were easily pushed up in price due to high real demand and low supply.

Currently, the psychology of buying due to FOMO (fear of missing out because prices continue to rise) has cooled down, buyers have switched to waiting, waiting for the market to "peak". Sellers are also observing, adjusting their expected prices. According to Mr. Toan, the apartment segment is returning to the gloomy trend of the real estate market this year.

According to the CEO of EZ Property, the psychology of buying apartments has cooled down partly because there are few new products that have recently been launched, so the communication campaign has been reduced. This is a factor that has stimulated the market psychology recently.

Sharing the same view, Ms. Do Thu Hang, Senior Director, Consulting and Research Department of Savills Hanoi, said that the mentality of "being ready to immediately deposit money" has decreased because people have realized that the prices of many projects do not go hand in hand with the quality of the products. In recent months, the prices of some projects have been pushed beyond their actual value.

Experts recommend that buyers carefully consider the current condition and usage value to consider the price. Instead of buying immediately when the market is excited, buyers can choose to rent an apartment in the inner city or buy a house in the suburbs at a more reasonable price.

Savills data shows that this year, there will be an additional 12,300 units coming to the market in Nam Tu Liem, Ha Dong and Dong Anh districts. Supply from neighboring markets, such as Hung Yen and Bac Ninh, will also help quench Hanoi’s thirst for apartments, with about 203,000 units coming up for sale in the next two years.