The report expected the increase to be 7-10 percent in Ho Chi Minh City and 2-3 percent in Hanoi as the licensing hassles hit supply and land prices remain high.

Housing projects are inspected to ensure complete legality if they are on land parcels of which even a portion used to be public in the past, and this is delaying licensing, said the report.

Nevertheless, SSI forecast average pre-tax profits of listed property companies to grow by 10 percent this year.

Some developers have been expanding to the suburbs of major cities and building large townships, attracting an increasing number of buyers, it said.

The report also referred to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the housing market. In the first half of the year sales of premium apartments, or those costing over VND60 million ($2,600) per square meter, fell 30 percent year-on-year, it said.

Apartment rents have dropped by 20-25 percent due to a shortage of foreign tenants, it added.