Mr. Nguyen Van Dang (from Hai Duong) shared that he started his career in Hanoi in 2012, then 2 years later he got married and now has 2 children. Each month, the couple's income is about 40 - 50 million VND, but because the cost of living in Hanoi is too expensive, the amount of money saved is only about 15 million VND. After more than 10 years of working and saving, the couple has about 2 billion VND in savings.
Mr. Dang said that each month, the cost of renting a house is about 7 - 8 million VND for a 54 m2 apartment in Hoang Mai district. Finding it too expensive, he and his wife tried many times to buy a house to reduce costs but failed.
" 3-4 years ago, I planned to buy a house, but then my family needed a large sum of money. Now, with about 2 billion VND, I can't afford it anymore, even though I'm trying to find a cheap apartment. The skyrocketing price of apartments in Hanoi makes me dizzy. With 2 billion VND now, I can only buy a house of about 40-50 square meters, in the low-cost or social housing segment. My family of 4 would be very cramped and inconvenient if they lived in such an apartment, while if they wanted a larger apartment, they would have to borrow a large amount of money ," said Mr. Dang.
According to Mr. Dang, for the past 3 months, he and his wife have traveled all over Hoang Mai and Hai Ba Trung districts but still cannot find a house worth 2 billion VND with an area of about 70 square meters.
Too tired, Mr. Dang and his wife had to think of another solution. Instead of trying to spend 2 billion VND but still having to live in a cramped, stuffy and inconvenient house, he switched to finding a place far away but with convenient transportation for comfort and, importantly, a reasonable price.
" Once, when I attended a project launch, I saw people introducing the trend of working in Hai Phong but still being able to live in Hanoi when the travel time is only about 1 hour. This made me think of going back to my hometown to build a house and still go to work in Hanoi every day ," Mr. Dang shared.
Many people accept buying houses far away because they cannot afford the sky-high prices of houses in Hanoi. (Illustration photo)
Mr. Dang was left a 300m2 plot of land by his parents in Gia Loc district (Hai Duong). Luckily, this plot of land is located right at the exit of the Hanoi - Hai Phong highway. Normally, it only takes him and his wife nearly 1 hour to travel from their hometown to Hanoi if there is no traffic jam.
His wife and children all work and study in the Linh Nam area, so from their hometown to their workplace they almost only have to go via the highway and Thanh Tri bridge. If they go to work early, it only takes about 1 hour.
After careful consideration, Mr. Dang and his wife decided to use the 1 billion VND they had saved to build a large house in the countryside and accept traveling nearly 200 km every day instead of trying to buy a house in Hanoi. With the remaining amount of nearly 1 billion VND, Mr. Dang invested in corporate bonds and used the interest to spend.
" My house in the countryside is airy, spacious, and comfortable to live in. While the cost of living is not as expensive as in Hanoi, I can save a little more money on living expenses to make up for gas and highway fees ," said Mr. Dang.
However, there is also an inconvenience because the distance to work is far and the highway is frequent, so the travel expenses for the couple are quite expensive. He calculated that in a month, he goes to work about 22 days, the highway fee is about 4.5 million VND, and the cost of gas is about 10 million VND for travel. However, Mr. Dang is still satisfied with this option because the total cost is still much lower than in Hanoi, and at the same time, he has a more ideal place to stay.
Similar to Mr. Dang, Ms. Le Thi Man (from Hung Yen) also accepts to travel hundreds of kilometers a day to have a place to live because she has struggled to buy a house in Hanoi.
She shared that the couple's monthly income is only about 25 - 30 million VND, and they have to raise 2 children, so they cannot save much.
Therefore, she agreed to buy a house of about 70 m2 (3 floors) in an alley in Van Giang district (Hung Yen) for only 1.3 billion VND. Although her daily commute to work is about 120 km, at least she and her husband have a house of their own.
" I sell fruit at Long Bien market, I have to wake up early every day to get the goods so there is rarely any traffic jam, so it only takes me about 50 minutes to get there. My husband works in the Mai Dong bridge area so the commute is not too far. Only on rainy or cold days is it a bit difficult to travel by motorbike, but now if I want to have a house to live in, the only way is to go to the provinces around Hanoi to buy one, because in Hanoi I don't know when I will be able to buy one ," said Ms. Man.
According to Ms. Man, before buying a house, her family of four had to rent a house of only 20 square meters. On hot days, the cramped house became extremely hot. " Even though I work far away, my children live in a spacious, well-furnished house, with better living and studying conditions ," said Ms. Man.
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