Apartments less affordable for locals in Hanoi than in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok

The income-to-apartment price ratios for Hanoi and HCMC are 2.4 and 2.7, property consultancy CBRE said in a market report it published Tuesday.

The price used for the calculation was the average price per square meter, it said.

Nguyen Hoai An, senior director at CBRE Hanoi, said, nominally, the lower the ratio, the harder it is for people to buy an apartment in their respective cities.

In Asia, the ratios for the two Vietnamese cities are much lower than those of Kuala Lumpur (10.8), Tokyo (7.9), Singapore (4), and Bangkok (3.6).

An pointed out that the average apartment price in Kuala Lumpur is around the same as in Hanoi at VND66 million (US$2,600) per square meter, but the former city’s income per capita is $28,000, more than four times Hanoi’s.

A recent report from real estate trading platform Batdongsan indicated that residents of Hanoi and HCMC need to save up 14-15 years worth of income to afford an apartment in their respective cities.

For Singapore and Tokyo they are 11.2 years and 13 years.

CBRE also reported that in the second quarter of this year, the average primary market price in Hanoi rose by 6.5% from the previous one and nearly 25% year-on-year.

The average price in the secondary market was up 22% year-on-year to VND38 million per square meter, according to CBRE.