In the first 8 months of 2024, the real estate market in Ho Chi Minh City and neighboring areas recorded significant signs of recovery compared to the period 2022 - 2023, but unevenly between segments.
The apartment segment in Ho Chi Minh City and surrounding areas recorded 30 projects launched for sale in 8 months, including 7 new projects, the rest were the next phases of previously launched projects. New supply to the market reached 5,378 units, down 24% compared to the same period in 2023, mostly the next phases of projects, mainly concentrated in Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong. The absorption rate reached 76% of the newly launched supply to the market, with 4,086 successful transactions, down 22% compared to the same period.
Currently, real estate businesses are racing to launch products by the end of 2024 when the market is gradually recovering. Notably, the affordable housing segment is reappearing in the neighboring areas of Ho Chi Minh City.
Nam Long Group said it will launch about 5,000 apartment products at the Waterpoint Project (Ben Luc District, Long An). The project has a total area of 355 hectares, the price of this product is about 1 billion VND/unit. Also in Ben Luc District, the project named Destino Centro is being launched by the investor, Seaholdings Real Estate Joint Stock Company, in the fourth quarter. The selling price given by the investor is 1 billion VND/unit.
In Ho Chi Minh City, Khai Hoan Land Group said it will open a project called Khai Hoan Prime in Nha Be District (Ho Chi Minh City). The project is built on an area of 19,730m2, with 3 apartment blocks, including 1,257 apartments. Gamuda Land Group and Vingroup continue to open a project in Thu Duc City (Ho Chi Minh City) with about 7,000 products. These projects are mainly in the mid-range and high-end segments.
Looking at that, it can be seen that the affordable housing segment in Ho Chi Minh City is still absent. In general assessment of the market, many experts believe that the imbalance between supply and demand is still a difficult problem for the market in the past decade. New supply in Ho Chi Minh City is mainly in the high-end and luxury segments, lacking affordable housing and social housing to serve the real housing needs of the majority of people.
In addition, market demand has increased, but remains low (both primary and secondary markets). There are many reasons why the real estate market has recovered more slowly than expected, in which the "waiting" mentality of investors is considered the main reason affecting the recovery process.
According to Dr. Nguyen Duy Phuong - Investment Director of DG Capital, there are still many challenges awaiting the market in the upcoming journey. Regarding legal policies, problems in project licensing continue to put pressure on businesses as well as new supply to the market. In addition, legal clearance in the past has not had much clear progress, especially projects with interspersed land.
According to statistics, currently, in Ho Chi Minh City alone, there are 126 projects affected by legal progress and construction progress related to the issue of interspersed public land. Although this issue has been regulated in Decree 148/2020/ND-CP or currently the 2024 Land Law, it has not been able to be cleared and resolved thoroughly. In addition, the calculation of land use fees still has many problems, which is the cause of 60 - 70% of legal problems of projects in the past time nationwide.
"Regarding capital, many real estate businesses are facing difficulties, especially those with high bond debt. In addition, project legal issues are stalled, making it difficult for businesses to access new loans from banks. This is still a very difficult problem for investors today," said Dr. Phuong.
