With a budget of less than 2 billion VND, the only way left is to buy a mini apartment.

Although mini apartments still have many limitations, because of the attractive price of less than 30 million VND/m2, many people still look to buy this type of apartment to soon have a place to settle down.

Although mini apartments still have many limitations, because of the attractive price of less than 30 million VND/m2, many people still look to buy this type of apartment to soon have a place to settle down.

Following the footsteps of home buyers, reporters from the Investment Electronic Newspaper - Baodautu.vn had the opportunity to listen to their confidences about their concerns about settling down. Although they know that mini apartments are not safe and that they may face risks, because of the burden of making a living, Ms. Y's family still looks for this type of apartment. Because, in the middle of the splendid capital, it is difficult to find a place to live that costs less than 30 million VND/m2.

The alley leading to the mini apartment building on Vu Tong Phan Street, Thanh Xuan District. Photo: Thanh Vu

From an alley on Vu Tong Phan Street (Thanh Xuan District), go about 100 meters further and you will see a 4-meter wide alley. When turning here, home buyers will find an 8-story mini apartment building. This is where Ms. Y came to buy.

In front of the mini apartment, there is just enough space to park a small car. Photo: Thanh Vu

The mini apartment building has 8 floors, each floor has 6 apartments. Photo: Thanh Vu

Fire prevention and fighting equipment has been replaced after the fire at a mini apartment building on Khuong Ha Street, Thanh Xuan District. Photo: Thanh Vu

The apartment for sale is located on the 2nd floor, with an area of about 60 square meters. Normally, this area is only enough to design 2 bedrooms. However, in order to maximize rental profits, the seller divided it into 3 bedrooms. The result is a bedroom of only 7 - 8 square meters, just enough to put a bed.

The apartment's interior has been completely renovated. Photo: Thanh Vu

The third bedroom that was "crammed" in has a relatively small area, only about 7 - 8 square meters. Photo: Thanh Vu

The neighboring building is less than 1 meter from the apartment window. The tarpaulin in the picture belongs to the house next door. Photo: Thanh Vu.

All three bedrooms have windows. However, two-thirds of them are blocked by the building next door. The distance between the two buildings is less than 1 meter, almost next to each other, so the natural light received is almost negligible.

Through the pictures, readers can see that the apartment is quite new, because the seller has proactively repaired the ceiling, repainted the walls and equipped it with new furniture such as beds, cabinets, kitchen shelves, etc. However, the glossy appearance cannot cover up the limitations in the quality of the construction. Although the owner has covered the floor with imitation wood plastic flooring, you can still feel the unevenness of the tiled floor below.

A resident is sitting and plastering a peeling wall. Photo: Thanh Vu

From the outside, a man was also busy plastering the peeling walls. These were just the initial signs of deterioration, other problems may continue to arise in the future. According to the broker, this mini apartment building was built about 8 years ago. This is not a very long time but the quality has clearly degraded.

The service fee of this mini apartment is 300,000 VND/month. The parking fee is 130,000 VND/month/motorbike. Photo: Thanh Vu

In return, after a series of fire and explosion incidents, this project has carefully installed additional fire prevention and fighting equipment. This helps Ms. Y's family feel somewhat secure. In addition, the price of apartments here is also really attractive, at only about 1.7 billion VND, equivalent to 28 million VND/m2. The service fee is also only 300,000 VND/month.

“Even an old apartment without a red book like HH Linh Dam (Hoang Mai district) costs 37 - 40 million VND/m2. It is really difficult to find an apartment for less than 2 billion VND in the central area. This is the reason why my family is looking to buy a mini apartment,” Ms. Y shared.

According to data from Savills, in the third quarter of 2024, the price of secondary apartments in Hanoi fluctuated around 51 million VND/m2, nearly twice as high as the mini apartment that Ms. Y referred to.

It is known that this 3-bedroom mini apartment has a rental price of about 8 million VND/month. This amount is only half of the rental price in old commercial apartments in the area.

According to the Vietnam Association of Realtors (VAR), the market is currently facing a serious shortage of affordable housing products. This has forced many "poor" homebuyers to choose to buy mini apartments, despite knowing that the quality and safety of these projects are limited.

Besides mini apartments, homebuyers are also placing great expectations on social housing projects. However, Hanoi is considered by the Ministry of Construction to be “slow” in developing this type of housing.

According to the Government 's project to develop at least 1 million social housing units, Hanoi must complete 18,700 apartments by 2025. However, over the past 4 years, the city has only had 3 projects started (1,700 units) and 5 projects completed (5,200 units), achieving nearly 37% of the target.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/batdongsan/voi-ngan-sach-duoi-2-ty-dong-chi-con-cach-mua-chung-cu-mini-d230031.html