Tran Gia Quang fears he may be sharing his rented flat with a friend for a long time to come.
The 24-year-old Hanoi man wants to buy a flat. His current place is a bit seedy, and renting a home is looked down upon in Vietnamese society. This is especially true if you're a well-educated young professional like Mr Quang, who has a relatively high-paying job with a foreign non-government organisation.
The trouble is homes are scarce, at least the ones in his price range. There has been a flurry of new residential construction in the past several years, which has seen hundreds of new blocks of flats spring up all over the Vietnamese capital, and as many as half of their units sit empty.
But they are priced beyond the reach of even those with above-average incomes.
It costs about US$35,000 for an average flat and US$95,000 for a small house on a plot of land hardly bigger than the structure itself. The average per capita income is less than US$1,000 per year.
'It's very difficult,' said Mr Quang. 'The only [suitable] places I've found are quite far out of town.'
What keeps willing buyers out of the flats built expressly for people like them?