An opposite scenario between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City realty market seen in previous years will disappear this year. For many years, the realty market in the two cities has shared many things in common.
Apartment segment is unmarketable
In the two biggest cities, the number of people who seek information about land and subdividing land has on the rise; meanwhile, apartment segment has become less attractive to investors.
At all realty trading floors, investors and people who are keen on the apartment segment have on the downtrend. As of the first quarter, the number of apartments which were successfully traded in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City reached the lowest level over the past years and a quite atmosphere is covering the real estate trading centres.
Head of the realty brokerage department from a firm located in Le Van Luong street, Hanoi, said, people often come to the centres to study the market and trade. However, the situation is very different so far this year. Each day, the company receives several customers who come here for market exploration, but trading.
Explaining this, experts said, investors are still waiting new changes of the stock and gold market which affects the realty sector the most.
Therefore, apartment projects in Hanoi such as Park View in Thai Ha, Unimax in Ha Dong, CT3 Hoang Quoc Viet Residentials have not yet attracted investors although they will be completed soon.
After Tet Holiday, the pressure of high interest rate has forced brokers to offer apartments in suburban areas at low prices, event below basis prices. For instance, a square metre of Mulberry Land in Ha Dong town is sold at just VND30 million, while the price was VND40 billion before Tet Holiday. In Linh Nam area, for a project of 20 separated houses situated between two apartment blocks, a square metre is offered at VND10.8 million, but it has not drawn customers’ attention.
In reality, investors and customers with the real demand are still wondering whether they should buy apartments or not because of information that apartment prices will remarkably drop in the coming time.
The Ho Chi Minh City realty market is also in the same boat with Hanoi. Sales of luxury apartments are in the standstill due to big supply and not many medium-income projects that lured customers’ attention have been carried out.
The biggest difference between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City is the majority of investors in the southern hub are private; therefore, they are more dynamic in market study. They have quickly moved to the medium-income housing segment in this context. This has helped to eased Ho Chi Mimh City’s frozen situation of apartment segment.
Land becomes attractive
Unlike the apartment segment, after Tet Holiday, land in the two cities is getting extremely exciting.
Manager of a realty trading centre in Ha Dong Town, Hanoi, said “Most of the centre’ customers want to seek information for land purchase in the outlying district of Hoai Duc, Dai Mo, Tay Mo and Mo Lao. The high demand has partially pushed the land prices up. In these areas, The prices have increased by VND1-VND2 million/m2 at VND15- VND17 million”.
Tran Minh Hoang, Chairman of Vinaland, said despite being more quite than Hanoi, land prices in Ho Chi Minh City has started growing by VND200,000-VND400,000/m2 in some districts.
A survey by Vinaland showed that East-West Highway (district 2) have been raised by VND1 million/m2 compared to before Tet. This area has attracted many investors the most as it is now home to many projects which are being offered for sales at prices ranging from VND32 million and VND45 million/m2.
Experts said apartment prices remain high, fluctuating from VND2 to VND4 billion each; therefore, investors have rushed into the land attractiveness. With this money, many can buy a land plot and build a house on it. It explains why many people who need accommodation still turn back on apartments to buy land.
Luong Tuan
Vietnamese
