Apartment transactions in Hanoi have dropped sharply.

(Dan Tri Newspaper) - Some real estate agents say that apartment transactions in Hanoi have dropped sharply, but homeowners are still continuously increasing asking prices.

Apartment transactions are declining?

Despite diligently posting advertisements to attract buyers for apartments for the past two months, Nguyen Hong, a real estate agent in Hanoi, has yet to make a sale. He said that since the beginning of the year, the asking prices for apartments in Hanoi have been continuously pushed up, even changing daily.

"Since the beginning of the year, many apartments have doubled in asking price. Prices are very high, with a two-bedroom apartment costing around 4-5 billion VND. Some people think that the high prices benefit brokers because their commissions also increase. But in reality, the prices are too high for people to afford, so transactions are very few. I haven't sold an apartment in the past two months," he said.

According to him, most people looking to buy apartments nowadays are just viewing them and waiting for prices to drop. Conversely, homeowners continue to increase their asking prices even without buyers.

According to Mr. Vu Tung, the owner of a real estate brokerage firm in Hanoi, apartment transactions in Hanoi have decreased significantly in the past two months. The reason is the high price of apartments, leading buyers to adopt a wait-and-see attitude.

In addition, most of the apartments currently on the market are priced high, unsuitable for the majority of buyers. Currently, most of the apartments in Mr. Tung's company's portfolio are two-bedroom units priced at around 5 billion VND.

"Two-bedroom apartments priced between 2.8 and 3 billion VND will sell quickly. Conversely, apartments priced at 5 billion VND or more take a long time to sell but still struggle to find buyers. However, the high prices are actually due to the sellers' expectations. They all want to sell their apartments at the highest possible price, so they constantly increase the asking price. This makes real estate agents unhappy because they can't find buyers," he said.

An apartment complex in Hanoi (Photo: Ha Phong).

For example, Mr. Tung said that about half a month ago, he introduced a client to a 67m2 apartment in Nam Tu Liem district (Hanoi) for 4.5 billion VND. However, when the client brought the deposit, the owner changed the price to 4.8 billion VND. Because they couldn't reach an agreement, the client refused to buy it.

Experts: People are less prone to FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

Speaking to a reporter from Dan Tri newspaper, Mr. Pham Duc Toan, General Director of EZ Property, said that the recent surge in apartment prices in Hanoi was only localized due to the imbalance between supply and demand. Currently, Hanoi's apartment prices have surpassed their peak.

"I have a group of friends who are all high-income earners, but when they look at the current apartment prices, they all think they are too high, disproportionate to the value, and very inaccessible," he said.

According to him, apartment prices are too high, causing many people to postpone their home-buying plans. Apartment liquidity has been very low recently.

Mr. Toan predicted that apartment prices would be unlikely to rise further in the near future. However, it would also be very difficult for apartment prices to fall immediately, except in cases where those in need of cash lower prices to sell quickly.

According to Dr. Nguyen Van Dinh, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Real Estate Brokers (VARS), the issue of real estate prices has recently been a "hot" topic attracting much attention from the public. In this price increase, it's not uncommon to see cases of speculation and profiteering, exploiting the imbalance between supply and demand to hoard properties and inflate prices for short-term gains.

He believes that interest in apartments has cooled down because people are less prone to FOMO (fear of missing out). However, once a new price level is established, it will be difficult for prices to fall in the short term, especially since the supply and demand issues in Hanoi have not yet been resolved.

"Although the price increase shows signs of being influenced by speculative groups creating artificial supply and demand to drive up prices in the buy-and-sell market, buyers need to carefully compare prices before making a purchase, regardless of the timing," the expert said.

Dr. Nguyen Van Dinh believes that to reduce apartment prices in Hanoi, efforts should be made to accelerate the progress of social housing construction projects. Proactively regulating supply by effectively utilizing planning tools, adjusting existing plans, and allocating additional clean land should help investors implement social housing projects as soon as the planning is complete.

According to him, in the long term, stabilizing apartment prices in particular and housing products in general requires decisive involvement from the State. This includes continuing to promote the development of transportation infrastructure, shortening travel time from satellite areas to the city center, and bringing supply from suburban areas to reduce housing prices.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/bat-dong-san/giao-dich-chung-cu-tai-ha-noi-giam-manh-20241210015520874.htm