Entering the beginning of 2024, both primary and secondary real estate markets are still quite sluggish, but p...
Entering the beginning of 2024, both primary and secondary real estate markets are still quite sluggish, but prices continue to rise. Many forecasts suggest that the market will undergo a transformation this year.
Exhausting search for buying houses
Ms. Kim Ngan (District 4, Ho Chi Minh City) has finally found a condominium of nearly 80 square meters, with 2 bedrooms, in the Masteri Thao Dien apartment complex (Thu Duc District), for nearly 5 billion dong. According to Ms. Kim Ngan, to purchase the aforementioned apartment, she had to search extensively. While the apartments in District 4 are convenient in terms of transportation being close to the city center and District 1, their prices are too high and most of them do not have pink books, so she had to "run" to Thu Duc District.
"I searched many places and decided to buy an apartment at Masteri Thao Dien because it is also close to District 1, right next to metro station No. 1. The apartment complex is fully equipped with amenities, and the prices are cheaper compared to newly opened projects. Currently, the apartments have been handed over and have pink books, so they are very 'hot'. There were a few apartments that I liked, but just as I was about to make a deposit, someone else reserved it before me, so I didn't have the opportunity to negotiate the price. That's why I saw this apartment and immediately made a deposit to buy it, afraid that someone else would buy it first," Ms. Kim Ngan said.
Customers participating in a sales event at a recent project in Binh Tan District (Ho Chi Minh City)
DINH SON
For several days, Thien Anh, an office worker renting an apartment in The Sun Avenue (Thu Duc District), has been scouring various apartments to buy, but has not yet found a satisfactory one. According to Thien Anh, the apartments that have been put into use, although cheaper than newly constructed ones, are still very expensive compared to his income. So far, he has saved up 2 billion dong, but with that amount, he cannot afford a 2-bedroom apartment.
"I have visited apartments in many buildings. If the apartment is far, even a 2-bedroom apartment costs nearly 3 billion dong, and if it's near the city center, it's 4-5 billion dong, and even luxury apartments are even more expensive. I thought the real estate market was sluggish and prices would decrease, but in reality, the prices of apartments for buying and selling are still rising. There are some cases where homeowners urgently need to sell, but the prices only decrease by 100 million dong, and such cases are rare," Thien Anh explained.
Ms. Dinh Quynh, a real estate broker in the Phu My Hung area (District 7), said that in this area, the prices of secondary market apartments are not only not decreasing but also increasing. For example, at the newly completed Cardinal Court project, customers are selling 2-bedroom apartments for a profit of 300 - 500 million dong, depending on the unit. Meanwhile, at the Antonia project, most customers buy for rental or living purposes, so there are very few resale transactions. Meanwhile, in the newly launched Aurora project, prices are only increasing, not decreasing. "The prices of houses in the Phu My Hung area are only increasing because the rental and resale market here is still stable due to actual housing demand," Ms. Dinh Quynh said.
Expectations for 2024
According to CBRE Vietnam, 84% of the condominium supply launched in 2023 in Ho Chi Minh City belongs to the high-end segment with prices ranging from 50 - 98 million dong/m2. Meanwhile, the proportion of segments below 50 million dong/m2 is decreasing, and the affordable segment has completely disappeared in recent years. The high prices of Ho Chi Minh City apartments will drive the trend of shifting to suburban provinces to find affordable housing. Meanwhile, 96% of the future condominium supply in Binh Duong, Dong Nai, and Long An with prices below 5 billion dong per unit have become destinations for many homebuyers.
This year, the real estate market has started rather slowly as housing prices remain stubbornly high.
Ms. Giang Huynh, Deputy Director and Head of Market Research and S22M Department (Savills Company), believes that the market is facing increasingly expensive housing prices, with 90% of transactions falling in the 2 - 5 billion dong/unit segment. In fact, Ho Chi Minh City has not had any apartments priced below 2 billion dong for many years. After many high-end projects had to temporarily suspend sales, the prices of primary market apartments in Ho Chi Minh City have returned to below 2 billion dong in the past year. The liquidity of expensive projects has also slowed down. In the next two years, the new supply will mainly be priced from 5 - 10 billion dong per unit, while the segment priced from 2 - 5 billion dong will become increasingly scarce.
Ms. Thuy Ngan, Head of Sales Department at T&A Real Estate Company, noted that Ho Chi Minh City has almost no new projects at the moment, except for the Gamuda project in Thu Duc District, which is still under reservation and has not been officially launched for sale. Moreover, from the beginning of the year until now, the secondary market is also very slow, with only 9 transactions, while in other years, the company had dozens of transactions. Customers are still viewing properties, although most of them intend to actually live in the houses, they are still hesitant and have not made decisions. Currently, the economy is difficult, and the market is still sluggish, so they expect prices to decrease further before buying.
"For projects that have been established and are operating stably, the prices will not decrease. However, for some projects that are still under construction and are unaffordable for some investors, they may incur minor losses. Meanwhile, the primary market will naturally not decrease in price, but developers will have attractive sales programs, as well as diverse payment methods such as installment payments, interest support, increased discounts... to encourage customers to pay quickly. Currently, the number of new projects in Ho Chi Minh City available for sale is very small, and most new projects are appearing in Binh Duong, Long An," Ms. Ngan said.
Mr. Doan Ngoc, CEO of PropertyX Company, also believes that moving into 2024, prices and transactions in the market will hardly have much fluctuation. At present, most real estate companies are just marking the date, and people are still on vacation. There will be more transactions when January ends. Meanwhile, currently, there are only a few products in the primary market from projects that have been on sale since 2023, and even from previous years. The primary market is starting to have resale transactions, but they are still rare. Looking at the national perspective, in the fourth quarter of 2023, the real estate market has shown improvement in both supply and transactions. The strong actions of the government in issuing mechanisms and policies will contribute to accelerating the market recovery process in 2024.
In the future, along with completing the implementation of the Land Law, the government will continue to study and issue positive mechanisms and policies to accelerate the market recovery process. Although it cannot be affirmed that the market will achieve brilliant results in 2024, this is the foundation for a new development
Via Bao Thanh Nien