Home buyers change their "taste" to suit their budget

Ms. Do Thu Hang, Senior Director of Consulting and Research, Savills Hanoi commented that, in the face of escalating prices, some projects have been priced beyond their actual value, so buyers need to carefully consider the value of use and the reasonableness of the project.

According to Ms. Hang, if prices continue to increase, buyers will have to consider financial issues. While real housing demand still accounts for the majority, if prices continue to rise, buyers can consider and choose the option of renting apartments in the inner city or accept shifting demand to supply sources in provinces neighboring Hanoi to get a reasonable price.

Homebuyers with real housing needs can choose from supply sources in neighboring localities such as Hung Yen or Bac Ninh, belt 4 or belt 3.5. Infrastructure development plays an important role as a lever in changing the value structure of the housing market.

Practical experience shows that infrastructure development will bring suburban areas "closer" to the city center, helping to reduce travel time. Above all, in neighboring provinces or suburban areas, investors can access land at lower costs, creating a more affordable housing supply.

In the coming time, many products in neighboring provinces will increasingly meet the housing needs of Hanoi. Supply in Hung Yen and Bac Ninh will provide about 203,000 apartments from 2024 to 2026.

In addition, the revised laws (Housing Law, Real Estate Business Law, Land Law) are also expected to facilitate the development of the real estate market, helping to improve the supply. From 2025 onwards, it is estimated that about 84,400 apartments from 101 projects will be launched on the market.

In Hanoi, in the first quarter, the apartment segment continued to have an imbalance between supply and demand. In particular, the supply of affordable apartments continued to be limited. This caused the housing demand in Hanoi to continue to be suppressed.

A survey by Savills shows that the market continues to record a shortage of products under VND30 million/m2 (Grade C). These products account for only 4% of new supply and have been sold out. Since 2020, the primary supply of Grade C has decreased by 47% per year.

Ms. Do Thu Hang affirmed that the current supply is mainly focused on Class B apartments, accounting for nearly 90%. The Class C apartment segment in the primary market and Class A apartments only account for a very small proportion. Moreover, from now until the end of the year, although major laws have been passed, the new supply cannot be improved immediately.

Meanwhile, in both big cities like Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City, the natural annual demand for housing is about 50,000 houses. This is the result of immigration, moving out of the house of adults and the average number of people in a house decreasing…

This demand figure has not been met by supply constraints for a while, causing pent-up demand for housing. In addition, macroeconomic factors such as the fluctuating gold market and low interest rates have caused investors to seek reasonable and long-term investment channels, which has invisibly increased the demand for apartments in the Hanoi market - Ms. Hang analyzed.

Notably, buyers are starting to see a change in mentality. Apartment products in big cities are now considered an asset instead of a "consumer asset" as before.

Nowadays, many buyers are gradually realizing that apartments in big cities are also an asset. Even if in the past, the decision to buy an apartment needed to be considered for a long time because it was also considered a large amount of money, recently home buyers do not wait too long to make a decision to buy. The decision to buy is now made faster and the deposit is also faster.

However, experts say that this is not the story of the entire market. With apartment projects where prices do not match product quality, buyers may not make quick decisions.

Because transactions in the first quarter of 2024 show that the projects attracting the attention of the market all belong to reputable investors. The product lines of these investors when launched on the market have a certain guarantee of quality as well as other legal factors.

At the same time, these investors often use leading brands and consulting units from design to landscape, products... In many projects, investors have even chosen reputable foreign units to enhance the reputation of the product itself. Good projects, reputable investors, and guaranteed legality still record positive transaction volumes.