2010 set to be a year of low cost houses

It’s smaller cheaper houses that will sell well in 2010 according to property experts.

They say that it will be a good time to sell the apartments priced at 15 million dong per square meter and lower, according to Chairman of the HCM City Real Estate Association Le Hoang Chau.

Anticipating a high demand for apartments with low prices in the post-economic downturn period, many real estate developers have focused on low cost apartment projects. These include the Binh Tri Dong B project in Binh Tan district in HCM City with 352 apartments with the area of 45.9-67.3 square meters priced at 11.6 million dong per square meter.

Elsewhere there is a project in Long Thanh district in Dong Nai province with 1,000 apartments priced at 8 million dong per square metre. Van Phat Hung Company has announced the sale of 100 apartments among its 1,486 apartments of Binh Tan Complex project.

In addition, thousands of apartments in District 12, Go Vap and Thu Duc districts, developed by other real estate companies have been or will be launched onto the market in the first quarter of 2010.

According to deputy minister of Construction Nguyen Tran Nam, in 2010, HCM City and Hanoi plan to market 7,000-10,000 apartments for low and medium income earners, much lower than the demand forecast at 20,000 apartments. As such, analysts believe that the apartments will be selling like hot cakes right after they are launched onto the market.

Luong Tri Thin, general director of Dat Xanh Real Estate Company, which is carrying out Phu Gia Hung project with 240 average-priced apartments in Go Vap district in HCM City, believes that demand for the apartments priced at 14-16 million dong per square meter is really very high. He said that Phu Gia Hung and other projects of the same type prove to be very feasible.

Real estate developers in the north and central region have also pushed investment in the low and medium cost housing market. Vinaconex Xuan Mai, besides the project in HCM City, plans to develop 3,000 apartments in Danang City and Ha Dong in Hanoi in the first quarter of 2010.

To date, real estate developers have registered 263 low cost projects with the total investment capital of 72,710 billion dong. Once operational, the projects will provide 205,380 apartments to serve the accommodation demand for 821,520 people.

While confirming the high demand for low and medium price apartments, analysts have also said that there are also opportunities for high grade products.

One hundred high grade apartments at Kenton Residences in Nha Be district were sold out just within two weeks since the apartments were put on sale in January 2010.

Many other high grade products have also been selling well, including Him Lam Riverside, Sunrice City, Satra Dat Thanh and Blooming Park. Though the State Bank of Vietnam does not encourage the funding of  real estate projects, commercial banks have still been disbursing for real estate projects when they view the project as feasible.

Nguyen Ngoc Duong, deputy general director of Phuong Trang Car and Real Estate Investment Company, which is offering a price of 4,000-4,800 dollar per square meter for New Pearl’s apartments in the centre of HCM City, believes that there are still many customers for high grade products, saying that his apartments will be selling well at the prices quoted.

VietNamNet/TP

Tags: Vietnam low cost houses, vietnam real estate market