Every country has its unique styles regarding property that reflects the local culture and living.  The most popular property types in Vietnam vary across regions: It has many interesting types of properties, ranging from large private homes and spacious apartments to tightly spaced “tube houses” interwoven in narrow alleys and streets.

These diverse properties are often separated into smaller categories, which may be confusing at first and without prior research. But don’t worry: In this article, you can find a brief overview, some facts, and see some of these property types along with the markets you can purchase them from.

What are the most popular property types in Vietnam?

Apartments

Apartments are buildings with separate living units, usually with 20 to 50 levels depending on the place and the construction limits. In bigger cities like HCM City, these are the most popular. Usually, they are constructed by large real estate developers, foreign and domestic, and their wide-ranged prices go from affordable to luxury. The average monthly rental fee for a two bedroom apartment in central Ho Chi Minh city costs around 1,500 USD.

The level of comfort and the range of facilities are important determining factors of apartment classification, because almost all apartment buildings have fairly good infrastructure.

Some facilities and amenities may include:

• Cafes
• Children’s play areas
• Swimming pools
• Sports fields
• Small lakes
• Underground parking

Some of the really fancy apartment buildings can have schools, banks, and even shopping malls! It’s like living in a mini city. You never have to go far to enjoy the multitude of services.  

Apartments can be separated into different types. So what is a high end apartment? Where does it stand out from mid range and affordable apartments? Why are people willing to spend so much money on them?

Since 2015, the Vietnamese government has allowed foreigners to buy and rent in Vietnam. In apartment projects, there are usually less than 30% of units available to foreigners, and their price is generally 5-8% higher than the price of the units available to locals.

However, it doesn’t matter if you want to buy an apartment with a foreigner or local quota, Homebase is always here to help you access all types of property, or make a property investment in Vietnam.

Villas

Villas are standalone houses on the larger side in gated communities with gardens, a yard, and several stories. Generally, they all look the exact same, but could be developed by either a company or an individual.

They could be compared to laid-out apartments. Different villas are separated by land, or, in other words, their yards. Like apartments, villas will have community centres and facilities open to the residents, such as pools, gyms, meeting spaces, etc.

An example of this is LakeView City in HCM city, shown below. These villas are built on a 30 hectare urban area, are close to schools of all levels, include shopping centres, healthcare, playing areas, sports facilities, meeting spaces, a huge parke and pool, have good security, and are pretty fancy.

The price of these villas start at 7 billion VND/300,000 USD for sale.

Their average price is around 2,700 USD per square metre

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Why Villas?

Purchases of villas are becoming more frequent, and there are many reasons for this. Here’s a quick list and explanation of them.

Eco-environment - The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the entire world. Therefore, choosing a safe place to live, a quality living environment is being chosen by the rich and super-rich. The trend is to choose to live in eco-urban areas in the periphery with less than an hour's commute time being a top priority.

Privacy - The villas are standalone, offering privacy you wouldn’t necessarily get in condos, apartments, etc. This is also one of the best features that make villas one of the most popular property types in Vietnam.

A good investment - Vietnam’s economy is growing, and prices will increase in the coming years, especially for this type of property because of the limited quantity. The weakness is that liquidity will be slow because not everyone can buy. Safe - most villas are in gated communities with security, which makes people feel safer.

Convenience - As mentioned before, some luxury projects will have so many amenities that it will feel like a small city. Having everything close to where you live is pretty nice.

Luxurious lifestyle/exclusivity - Some people are just looking for the life they could have in such an exclusive environment.

Officetels

An officetel is a combination of a hotel and an office, and they are a perfect choice for you if you’re looking to do business more conveniently, because these can be officially licensed to do business.

They’re usually located in the apartment complexes that are on the larger side. It is a larger apartment complex, except there are units where people do business instead of just living units. You can live in a room and reuse it as an office at the same time, while you can only use a regular apartment for living. Because of this versatility, officetels are on the rise to becoming one of the most popular property types in Vietnam.

In HCM city, there are lots of these projects located in Districts 2, 4, and 7. In District 2 there is the Lexington Residence and The Sun Avenue. In District 4 there is Millenium, City Gate, and Goldview. Finally, in District 7 there is Sunset City View. If you’re looking for an officetels, these would be great places to start off from.

These are quite convenient for those setting up smaller businesses or working remotely. Something to consider though, is that there is no mortgage or pink book for an officetel.

Here’s a picture of an officetel from the inside. It basically looks like a regular apartment.

Condotels

Condotel, or condo-hotel, is an acronym for condo and hotel which are apartments that operate as hotels, and are usually built in big cities or large resort areas.

Their owners can be real estate investors that buy and resell property, more successful people who buy them while on vacation, or just general people who put their spare money into these to earn some side money.

Condotels have gained a more stable footing among the most popular property types in Vietnam, especially in coastal cities such as Nha Trang and Da Nang because of their convenience. However, the regulations here usually aren’t as rigorous as ones for normal apartments (condotels are relatively new properties, they haven’t been specified much in legal documents), resulting in cases of disputes with the developers in the past.

As of February 2020, the ministry of natural resources and environment created document 703, which covers the topic of issuing pink books for property like this. However, hotel projects like these usually have a land use period of 50-70 years, so as pink books for condotel are valid no more than the previously mentioned 50-70 years. Something else to note is that this pink book will not give you permanent residence.

Below are some pictures of the VinPearl condotels, which include many facilities, a large dining area, and modernly furnished rooms.

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Land

The land lease period in Vietnam is 50 years, 70 years in special cases.

The 50 years is a shorter period of time compared to the 70 year period of some other countries, but unlike many other countries, you can own land that isn’t in use. After signing a lease agreement for the land, you don’t have to use it for any purpose and can just leave it. With government permission, you can build things on your land, divide it into smaller sections, etc.

Land in Vietnam is separated into many different types, but here we’ll just focus on the four most common ones - residential land, agricultural land, forest land, and industrial land.

Residential land is what people build property on and live on, so just the regular land you would see houses or apartments in.

Agricultural land (shown below) can be used for farming and agriculture, as the name suggests, but you can also send an application to the government to convert it into residential land. More people are considering this option because it is cheaper to buy and convert agricultural land than just buy residential land, but this process does take a while. Do keep in mind that not all agricultural land could be converted, and there’s obviously a process along with special conditions.

Forest land is just what it sounds like, it’s land that has forests covering it, and can be like parks. These lands are generally heavily protected by the government, so you can’t really do anything with the land, nor can you cut the trees or the plants. So, if you are looking to build property, then forest land isn’t for you.

Industrial land is land that companies buy to build factories, warehouses, and such on. This land is designated only for this purpose, and it’s not for housing or for anyone to live on.

Below are some pictures of these land types.

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Landed Property

Landed property are standalone houses just like villas, the only difference being that every house here is different, and aren’t necessarily all built by the same developer.

In HCM city, if you spend time walking around in alleys, you’ll quickly learn what these look like. A lot of landed houses have long, narrow facades and stand close to each other. These are the most commonly owned types of property in Vietnam.

However, landed properties do come with land, and though they don’t have facilities specifically for their group of residents, there will still be facilities nearby for use.

Additionally, landed properties can have residential land mixed with agricultural, in cases like farms. Below are some examples of different landed properties.

Start purchasing from today with Homebase

No matter which popular property types in Vietnam you want to buy, Homebase can help you with it!

We’re here as a consultant for any troubles you may have selling, investing, or if you just want information in general. You can contact us by phone/Zalo/WA at (+84) 964 245 404 or email at contact@gethomebase.com. Learn how you can easily buy property in Vietnam with advice and guidance from our experts.