Sale of apartments soars by 70%

Sales of apartments, villas and townhouses were up in the first quarter of this year, according to experts.

Savills Viet Nam, at the launch of its quarterly report in Ha Noi this week, said that apartments had good sales, with about 70 per cent of stock being sold, despite a doubling in available property compared with the previous quarter.

Meanwhile, average secondary asking prices increased 3 per cent compared with the fourth quarter of 2010. In which, Long Bien achieved the strongest increase at around 8.5 per cent, followed by Gia Lam at 6 per cent against the last quarter of 2010, the report said.

CB Richard Ellis Ltd Company (CBRE), another real estate market research firm, also released its quarterly report this week echoing Savills’ optimism.

CBRE said sale rates in the high-end segment improved. Newly-launched projects sold well, partly due to new market techniques.

For instance, developers had offered discount of up to 8 per cent to special group buyers.

This had encouraged buyers to take advantage of preferential offers, with advantages including index-linking contract value to the CPI (consumer price index).

Apartments had continued to prove lucrative as speculators had shifted investments due to the devaluation of the dong and restrictions on the trade of gold bullion, said the CBRE.

However, buyers would be more selective by aggressively comparing prices against other factors such as location, reputation, quality and project facilities.

Savills also saw some indicators that revealed increasing demand for apartments for sale in the coming time because more than half of the total population is under 30 and average incomes of Ha Noi residents has continued to increase.

The market showed potential demand among medium and low-income earners for apartments, as land prices were too high, said Savills.

More than 20 projects

HCM City is expected to launch more than 20 apartment projects containing 15,000 units in the second and third quarterss, according to figures from Savills Viet Nam.

About the same number of units are currently available, making the market fiercely competitive for developers, according to Truong An Duong, the company’s head of research in HCM City.

He added that around 24,000 units were planned to be completed between 2012 and 2014.

“This requires developers to have a suitable strategy to react to the rapidly changing market,” he said.

Several developers have already made a move by lowing their prices, including Dai Thanh, which has cut prices for its project in Tan Phu District to VND12.7 million (US$605) per square metre for a complete unit, from the previous VND14.9 million ($709.5) for a raw one.

Another developer, ThuDuc-House, has also lowered prices by VND500,000 ($23.8) for each square metre of its project in Thu Duc District.

In the first quarter, around 3,500 apartments were sold, up 16 per cent from the previous quarter’s figure. However, a large number of them went to wholesale investors rather than end users. — VNS

Tags: Vietnam apartmments, vietnam real estate market