Exhausted from home loan

Young people learn about a housing project

Selling house, driving motorbike taxi…

For young people, the story of borrowing money from banks to buy a house is no longer strange, especially in the most populous city in the country like Ho Chi Minh City. The psychology of finding a place to settle down and start a career is always in everyone's mind. Many people have taken out loans to pay off in installments over 20-30 years, but not everyone has been successful.

A few weeks ago, Ms. NT's family (living in Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City) decided to sell their small house near Thu Duc wholesale market to pay off their bank loan. Ms. T. sadly said that in 2020, she and her husband bought a house of more than 50 square meters in a small alley for nearly 3 billion VND. At that time, Ms. T.'s husband was still working in an industrial park in Dong Nai with a salary of about 20 million VND/month. The couple's total income was nearly 40 million VND, raising 2 small children was not too difficult. Every month, they still paid 17 million VND for a mortgage loan of 1.6 billion VND and 2.5 million for a credit loan of more than 100 million VND.

“Although the new loan interest rate on the market is currently very good, only about 7%/year, while my debt is still more than 1.3 billion VND and the floating interest rate is up to 11%/year (the initial 2-year fixed incentive is 8.7%/year). But because my husband currently has no stable income because he is unemployed, he cannot roll over the loan. Nearly 20 million VND/month to pay for the bank loan, not to mention food, education for young children, family... makes me really exhausted, forced to sell the house, although I regret it", Ms. T. shared. Ms. MH, Ms. T.'s neighbor, also expressed regret: "The house is offered at a very low price of 3.7 billion VND, but I don't have the money to buy it. If I had, I would buy it right away for my son who is about to get married. The house is clean, 1 ground floor, 1 upper floor, convenient to the market, school... The children have paid the bank installments in the past, the interest is nearly 600 million VND".

In the same situation, Ms. MTL, living in Tan Phu district (HCMC), working at a media corporation, is also struggling to pay off her family's installment loan and investment losses of nearly 4 billion VND. Each month, Ms. L. and her husband pay about 30 million VND in interest, and the principal will be paid later when they have it. According to Ms. L., she will try her best as long as she can. In addition to working during the day, Ms. L. takes advantage of the evening to livestream and sell various specialty fruits, while her husband takes advantage of the time to drive a technology vehicle to earn extra income. From a plump girl weighing nearly 70kg, after 2 years of pressure, Ms. L. is now only less than 50kg.

Cut your coat according to your cloth

Recounting her own experience, Ms. HCD, a teacher living in Go Vap District (HCMC), said that knowing how to let go at the right time is also a good thing. Ms. D. said that at the peak of the Covid-19 epidemic, her husband had a stroke and passed away, leaving her alone to struggle with her two growing children with a bank debt of more than 1.5 billion VND, while both parents were facing difficulties. At that time, Ms. D. suffered from severe depression, a relapse of her stomach disease, and ineffective work... "After more than half a year of living with medication, going in and out of the hospital, I decided to sell my assets to pay off my debt. After all, if you have a person, you have property, and if you have health, you will make money. Luckily, looking back now, I see that it was the wisest decision of my life," Ms. D. confided.

Analyzing data from a number of real estate websites in Vietnam, real estate prices in big cities like Hanoi , Ho Chi Minh City, especially in the central area, rarely decrease. Not to mention, the demand for housing in these areas is also very large. With the apartment floor area, in the past 10 years, the selling price of apartments in some districts has also increased significantly. Typically, in Hung Ngan apartment complex (Duong Thi Muoi street, district 12, Ho Chi Minh City), in 2014, a 1-bedroom apartment cost 720 million VND/unit, but by the end of 2024 it was about 1.5 billion VND/unit and at present, successful transactions are at 1.5-1.7 billion VND/unit depending on the interior. Ms. BKL, a young teacher, living in District 12 (HCMC) informed that the townhouse her family is living in has an area of 48 square meters, the alley leading to the house is about 5 meters wide, at the beginning of 2014 she bought it for less than 800 million VND, but by last May, someone offered nearly 4 billion VND but she had not sold it. The surrounding houses were successfully traded at 3.4-3.8 billion VND depending on the area, location...

This shows that if you have not had time to buy a house before, now that house prices have increased, and salary increases cannot compensate for inflation, it will be even more difficult for young people to buy a house. However, this is related to the story of "first - where is the money", because young people do not have much savings. Mr. BQT, a chef at a restaurant in Binh Thanh District (HCMC), said: "I have worked in HCMC for nearly 20 years and have saved more than 1.5 billion VND, but if I want to buy an apartment or a private house in HCMC at this time, I have to consider carefully. I plan that if I have to borrow too much, I will go to the outskirts of Long An to buy residential land and then build a house. When the water rises, the duckweed rises, when the price is right, I will sell, like selling far away to buy near, instead of working hard to pay installments right now".

Difficulties always exist and people need to proactively balance their lives and anticipate risks. Many economic experts advise that each person should maintain a reserve of 100-200 million VND to prevent illness, unemployment, etc. Along with that, they should only borrow from the bank 30%-50% of the value of the house they intend to buy (banks usually lend 70%-80%) to ensure a balance between income and expenditure, as well as safe long-term debt repayment.

NGOC LAM

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/duoi-suc-vi-vay-mua-nha-tra-gop-post800440.html