Vietnamese people need 169 years of income to buy a townhouse, more than 20 years to buy an apartment.

According to a survey by Batdongsan.com.vn, the average selling price of different types of housing in Hanoi is currently 22.8 billion VND/unit for townhouses, 17.8 billion VND/unit for villas, 6.3 billion VND/unit for private houses and 3.1 billion VND/unit for apartments.

With an estimated average income of people in Hanoi in 2023 of 135 million VND/year. If using all income to buy a house, to own a street-front house in Hanoi, people need to work 169 years, to own a villa it takes 132 years, to buy a private house it takes 47 years, and to buy an apartment it takes 23 years.

A high-end residential area in District 7, Ho Chi Minh City. (Photo: Hoang Ha)

Meanwhile, in Ho Chi Minh City, the average selling price of a street-front house is 25 billion VND, equivalent to 169 years of average income. The average price of a villa is 24 billion VND, equivalent to 162 years of income. The price of a private house is about 7.9 billion VND/unit, equivalent to 53 years of income.

The apartments are for sale at an average price of 3.5 billion VND/unit, nearly equal to 24 years of income. The average income of Ho Chi Minh City residents in 2023 is estimated at about 148 million VND/year.

Although the number of years of savings to buy an apartment in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City is more than 20 years, much lower than other types, this is still a large number.

According to data from market research company Statista (Germany), the average price of an apartment in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area (Japan) in 2019 was only equal to 8.8 years of the average household income in Tokyo and surrounding areas.

According to this unit, the price of primary apartments in Singapore in 2020 is equivalent to 15.4 years of average household income.

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Anh, Deputy General Director of Batdongsan.com.vn, commented that buying a house in big cities in Vietnam will become increasingly difficult, so people need to have a plan to accumulate and increase their income to buy a house soon instead of waiting for prices to drop sharply.

Vietnam ranks first in Southeast Asia in terms of the gap between housing prices and average workers' income.

From 2018 to 2021, the ratio of real estate prices to average income of Vietnamese people has continuously increased, surpassing Singapore. Meanwhile, this index in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand shows signs of decreasing.

“Domestic real estate prices will hardly decrease and the gap between housing prices and average income of people will continue to increase,” Mr. Nguyen Quoc Anh predicted.

However, people's actual income may be higher than the statistics, many Vietnamese people do not live on salary alone.

Batdongsan.com.vn's Vietnam Real Estate Consumer Sentiment Report (CSS) in early 2023 reflects that 80% of survey participants already own at least one property and 66% - 87% of the money they plan to spend on buying a second or third property within the next year.