In the third quarter, 85-90 square meter apartments had an average selling price of VND37 million ($1,600) per square meter, up 11.8 percent over the same period last year, according to a recent survey conducted by real estate trading site Batdongsan.com.vn.
Meanwhile, apartments the same size had an average listed rental price of VND14.2 million ($614) per unit per month, a year-on-year increase of 5.4 percent.
According to the site, the fact that the selling price of condominiums increased faster than the rental price will reduce the attractiveness of apartments-for-rent investment channel.
On online markets, the number of listings for houses and rooms for rent increased by 38 percent while those for apartments for rent increased by around 40 percent.
The report said one-bedroom apartments offer higher rental yields than larger ones. Affordable small-sized apartments provide a 6.2 percent yield while three-bedroom units in this segment only offer a return of 5.5 percent.
According to the city's Department of Statistics, Saigon’s base population at the end of 2018 was 8.85 million people.
