According to information from the Phu Tho Provincial Electronic Information Portal, after the merger of the three provinces of Hoa Binh, Vinh Phuc and Phu Tho into the new Phu Tho province, it is expected that about 4,405 cadres, civil servants and public employees from Vinh Phuc and Hoa Binh will register to stay in Phu Tho.
The transfer of personnel and change of workplaces after the merger also led to a wave of relocation. The demand for selling and renting houses in the center of the old Hoa Binh city (now Hoa Binh ward, Phu Tho province) has begun to increase sharply.
According to the reporter of Lao Dong Newspaper, in mid-July, on small-scale promotion sites and real estate groups, news about selling apartments and townhouses in the center of the old Hoa Binh City (now Phu Tho Province) appeared densely.
In particular, the apartment segment - which is considered a stable investment and residential channel - is witnessing a sudden increase in the wave of sales and rental, especially in apartment buildings such as Sao Vang and Da Hop. However, in contrast to the level of sale, the number of successful transactions is very modest.
Mr. Hong Thai - a real estate broker in Phu Tho - said that currently the selling price of apartments in the center of the old Hoa Binh city (now Phu Tho province) ranges from 550 million to more than 1.2 billion VND/unit, depending on location and area. Meanwhile, rental prices tend to decrease slightly to attract customers, commonly from 3 to 4.5 million VND/month. However, the number of tenants is not much.
Ms. Nguyen Thu Hang - owner of an apartment in Sao Vang apartment building - said: "My family has changed jobs so we want to resell the apartment. I have posted the news for nearly a month now, lowering the price twice, currently there is only 950 million VND left for a 2-bedroom apartment, but there are still very few people asking to buy".
Similarly, Mr. Tran Kien - the owner of a house on Tran Hung Dao street - shared: "My family plans to sell the house to move to Hanoi to live. But since the merger of the new province, there have been fewer buyers, many of whom have paid lower than before".
Another cash flow is directed towards the new administrative center - Viet Tri ward. According to Mr. Kien, many people in the old Hoa Binh city are quite "hunting" for real estate in Viet Tri. They sell investment land in many places to accumulate money to collect land in Viet Tri with the purpose of serving the work after the merger of provinces, and at the same time being an opportunity for speculation.
Explaining the unusual wave of house sales, Mr. Tran Duc Huy - a real estate specialist at Dat Viet Real Estate Company - commented that the psychology of people after the merger was strongly affected by the change in administrative boundaries, especially the new administrative center of Phu Tho province (after the merger) being located in Viet Tri.
This means that the old Hoa Binh City has now become a peripheral locality, dozens of kilometers away from the new center. With many people owning real estate here, especially households that have valued their assets according to the "provincial center" standard, that shift has caused expectations of real estate value to waver.
However, the old Hoa Binh City, although no longer the center of the new province, still possesses many advantages in terms of landscape, tourism, services and logistics. The massive sale is likely to be a short-term reaction to boundary changes, and does not accurately reflect the real potential and value of real estate here.
