There are currently about 115 real estate companies on the Vietnamese stock market. The total estimated value of these companies’ inventories at the end of the second quarter was approximately VND400,000 billion. Notably, among these companies, there are many companies holding inventories that account for more than half of their total assets.
The enterprise with the largest inventory value in the industry is No Va Real Estate Investment Group Joint Stock Company - Novaland (stock code: NVL) with a value of more than VND 142,000 billion, up more than 2% compared to the beginning of the year and accounting for 59% of total assets. NVL's inventory structure includes nearly VND 8,400 billion of completed and under-construction real estate with nearly VND 134,000 billion.
Khang Dien House Investment and Trading Joint Stock Company (stock code: KDH) has an inventory value that increased by 14% after 6 months of 2024 to nearly VND 21,500 billion and accounts for 76% of total assets.
According to the explanation, the value of unfinished construction at the 5.8ha residential area project in Binh Trung Dong Ward (Binh Trung Dong 1) increased by more than VND1,000 billion compared to the beginning of the year, to nearly VND4,200 billion. The value at Binh Hung 11A residential area also increased by more than VND900 billion, to more than VND1,500 billion.
Nam Long Investment Joint Stock Company (stock code NLG) with inventory value increased by 10%, up to nearly 19,200 billion VND, accounting for 64% of total assets, including the unfinished value of the Izumi project (nearly 8,700 billion VND), Waterpoint phase 1 (over 3,800 billion VND) and phase 2 (over 2,000 billion VND), Akari (over 2,400 billion VND).
Another case is Quoc Cuong Gia Lai Joint Stock Company (stock code QCG) with more than 7,000 billion VND in inventory value, accounting for nearly 75% of total assets, of which unfinished real estate remains at 6,500 billion VND.
According to experts, the real estate industry has its own characteristics, so the amount of inventory partly reflects the potential for project development and future revenue of the business. However, a large amount of inventory will be risky, especially if most of the inventory is projects with legal problems and difficult access to capital.
Meanwhile, the business situation of real estate enterprises in the first half of 2024 is still assessed to be worse than the average of the past 5 years. Except for a few large-scale enterprises with clean land funds and clear legal status that can record positive business results, the profits of most remaining enterprises are still only at an average level.
One of the reasons why the liquidity of the real estate market is still quite weak is that apartment prices are still increasing strongly in the context of many businesses not being able to escape from difficulties. According to the Ho Chi Minh City market report for the second quarter of 2024 by Savills Vietnam, in the first 6 months of 2024, the average primary selling price of the apartment segment reached 73 million VND/m2. The supply of apartments under 3 billion VND (about 50 million VND/m2) is increasingly scarce in Ho Chi Minh City, accounting for only 18% of the primary supply, mainly located more than 10 km from the city center.
In fact, data from market research companies also shows that projects announced in the recent period have low liquidity. Although absorption is currently quite slow, businesses cannot reduce prices.
"Finding a suitable land fund to develop a project at the present time is extremely difficult and costly. More than anyone, investors want to sell at low prices to boost product consumption, but in fact this period cannot be done. Even in the most difficult market, housing prices still increase because input costs are all going up," shared the director of a real estate company in Ho Chi Minh City.
