A private home sits in an odd spot between an apartment and a villa: too personal and too permanent to treat like a rental fit-out, but rarely the scale or budget of a bespoke estate. That middle ground has its own planning logic, and most of the advice written for villas or apartments does not quite fit it.
What a townhouse or family home design typically costs
Design fees for a high-end townhouse or landed family home in Ho Chi Minh City typically run 350,000 to 700,000 VND per square meter (roughly US$13 to US$27), sitting between the apartment tier below it and the villa tier above it. Where a project lands in that range usually comes down to how much of the home is custom built-in storage and joinery versus off-the-shelf furniture, since built-in work is where most of a townhouse’s design and construction hours actually go.
Renovation or new build changes almost everything
A ground-up private home and a renovation of an existing one are different projects with different risks. New builds give you a clean structural slate but need full architectural and permit work from day one. Renovations move faster on paper but carry hidden risk: aging electrical systems, structural walls that cannot move, plumbing that was never mapped correctly the first time. Any credible quote should tell you which one it assumes, and a renovation quote should always include an allowance for what a structural survey might find once walls are opened.
Design for the whole family, not just the primary bedroom
Multi-generational living is common in Vietnamese homes, and it changes the brief. Ground-floor rooms for aging parents who should not manage stairs daily, separate but connected living zones for different generations’ schedules, and a staircase that is not just circulation but a real design decision in a narrow townhouse footprint, all need to be part of the conversation before layouts are drawn, not adjustments made after.
Timeline and what slows it down
Concept and detailed design typically take 4 to 8 weeks; construction for a full renovation or new build generally runs 4 to 8 months depending on scale and structural scope. In dense Ho Chi Minh City streets, the most common delay is not design at all, it is logistics: narrow lot access for materials and equipment, working-hour restrictions in residential areas, and coordinating with neighbors during structural work. An experienced local team plans around these from the start rather than discovering them mid-project.