With an average income, a modest amount of savings, Mr. Hai and his wife still have the secret to owning a house in Ho Chi Minh City.
Below is the sharing of Mr. Hoang Hai, 29 years old, a computer technician about his family's home buying story.
My wife and I got married at the end of 2013. When we were about to get married, we saved more than 100 million after a few years of working. Before the wedding, both of them really wanted to buy a house, but the money was too little, so they had to temporarily put aside the plan and wait to save some more time. For the purpose of saving money to buy a house, we only did a simple wedding in the countryside, a small celebration for friends and colleagues in the city, and took photos right in Saigon so it was not expensive.
After the wedding, our parents gave us some money and gold as a dowry. In terms of money, the couple has about 100 million more. So there are more than 200 million, we immediately started the plan to buy a house, before having children. Of course, only 200 million can not buy or sell anything, have to borrow more. With an income of about 20-23 million/month (my wife's income is about 8 million, I am about 12-15 million, depending on how much or little overtime work each month), I expect if a bank loan is 500 million, then monthly we still have about 10 million to live on. That's why we're looking for homes around 700 million or less.
We want to have a house right away, it doesn't matter whether it's a house or an apartment. However, when we searched for houses on the ground, we only saw fourth-grade houses in deep alleys, handwritten papers or shared red books with a few other households, so we did not dare to take risks. After researching apartments in all places such as District 12, Tan Phu, Thu Duc, Binh Tan, Nha Be, Binh Chanh, we decided to buy a 59m2 apartment in Binh Tan, priced at 730 million. Although it's quite far from here to the center (my husband and I both work in District 1), we go to Vo Van Kiet street and it's never congested, so it only takes about 40 minutes for a distance of about 14-15 km.
Fortunately, we borrowed 150 million from friends, so we only applied for a bank loan of 380 million. We always borrow from the bank introduced by the apartment owner, so the procedure is not too difficult, our income level is accepted. After paying off the house 700 million (we can keep 5% until we receive the red book, we have to pay it back to the investor), we still have 40 million in case of unforeseen circumstances.
Fear of difficulty in paying each month, so we made a loan application for 12 years, the interest rate was about 10-11%/year (exactly the first half of the year was promoted, so we only had to pay 8%/year). After that, we have to pay a floating interest rate, equal to the bank's deposit rate for 12-month term savings +3%). We only have to pay 2.65 million principal each month and the highest interest is 3.5 million.
After paying the bank, we still have about 14-17 million left to spend monthly, but the couple only spends about 10 million, so there is little savings. Because we are in debt, we are not in a hurry to buy anything for a new house, just bring old furniture from the inn to continue using. An advantage when being far from the center is that the prices of food as well as other services are quite cheap. Every day my wife goes to the market near my house for only 100,000 VND and can still cook three meals for the couple. Every day we are lazy to cook, we have a very cheap breakfast near our house, 10,000 VND for a wet cake, 15,000 VND for a bowl of noodle soup. We bring lunch to eat, sometimes we eat out. Services such as haircuts, car washes, repairs... in our area are quite cheap.
Tet 2015, the total Tet bonus and 13th month salary of the couple is more than 60 million, plus the monthly savings, we have 160 million. We paid 20 million less to acquaintances, 130 million to the bank (accepting a penalty of 2% on the early payment), only keeping 10 million for Tet. So after a year, our bank debt is only 220 million, the debt of acquaintances is 130 million.
In mid-2015, my wife gave birth to her first child. My wife has two health insurances (one from the state, the other from an insurance company purchased by the company for employees), so we don't have to spend too much on the birth and still get enjoy good service. We still haven't used our 40 million reserve.
Although during my wife's maternity leave, the whole family lived on my income, but it was not too difficult for us: breastfeeding, clothes, diapers were mainly asked by acquaintances, grandmother took care of grandchildren, return home every week to bring food up…). At the end of 2015, my wife received the maternity allowance, plus the couple's Tet bonus, we spent 100 million to pay down the original bank debt. So after Tet 2016, our balance at the bank is 90 million, the debt of acquaintances is still 130 million.
After Tet, we still work and pay the bank. On the last 30/4-1/5 occasion, I had a bonus of 10 million dong, plus a little money we accumulated every month, totaling 30 million, we paid it back to the bank, now the balance of our family is outstanding. Our family at the bank only has about 50 million left.
If life is as stable as it is now, we will definitely pay it off by the end of this year