In April 2023, when applications opened for social housing at Hanoi's N09B1 apartment building, people began lining up from 2 a.m. By 8:30 a.m., those waiting filled the lobby and extended onto the pavement. Amid rising housing costs, capacity to submit paperwork for income-restricted homes was limited.
What distinguishes this queue is that people waited before dawn not for a home itself, but for the opportunity to file an application. Scarcity appeared before any lottery or eligibility review, in the physical capacity of the receiving desk.