The cost of buying a home in Vietnam has skyrocketed, is it still worth it?

The price for an apartment in a big Vietnamese city has jumped from VND3 billion (US$117,460) to VND8 billion in seven years. But I don't believe it will hike the same way in the next seven years.

For young couples, renting is the better option. Instead of buying a house, they can spend their money elsewhere. Take an apartment in HCMC listed for VND8 billion—it only generates VND20 million a month in rent, a 3% annual return. That's before mortgage interest and debt payments, making rental yields even less attractive.

A woman opens the windows in her apartment's bedroom. Illustration photo by Pexels

Consider a VND3 billion apartment bought in 2018. It's now worth VND8 billion. But will it double in the next seven years? I don’t think so. A five- to tenfold increase, like a decade ago, seems even more unrealistic.

I earn well to afford an apartment in Hanoi, but I will not buy a VND8 billion home. The cost is too much. I refuse to overwork, sacrifice my time and health, just to pay off a mortgage or enrich investors who hoard properties and inflate prices.

Instead, I'd rather rent and invest in tech, the field I work in. Renting is far cheaper than buying, and Hanoi and HCMC are not New York or Tokyo, where home prices could jump fivefold in a decade.

A friend of mine, a talented 29-year-old startup founder, has saved VND3.7 billion. If he bought a VND5.5 billion two-bedroom apartment in HCMC, he’d need a loan and would have to put off his master’s degree and business expansion. His words stuck with me.

Housing, once a path to financial security, now seems like a burden. Many young people now face a choice between owning a home and investing in their future.