According to Lao Dong's recent records on real estate trading websites, a series of advertisements for selling, transferring, and cutting losses on homestays in the suburbs of Hanoi (Ba Vi, Soc Son, Chuong My, Thach That...) have been posted with prices ranging from several billion to tens of billions of VND.
Mr. Pham Ngoc Thanh (48 years old, living in Thanh Xuan, Hanoi) shared that for many months now, his family's nearly 1-hectare homestay in Soc Son has had to operate at a low level.
After a period of no customers, his family decided to sell to get money to invest in other segments as well as pay off debt.
Mr. Thanh said that his family's land has more than 400 square meters of residential land, which he bought for nearly 8 billion VND. At the end of 2022, his family invested nearly 5 billion VND more to build a homestay area with 3 villas and 1 spacious and comfortable community house.
However, running a homestay business is not simple. When operating, his family realized that there were too many problems and costs, especially finding tenants was very difficult.
According to Mr. Thanh, his homestay area is only crowded with guests for about 3 months in the summer, the rest of the year is very sparse, many weekends only 1 or 2 villa rooms are rented out, sometimes there are no guests at all.
"With no income and having to borrow a lot of money to invest, with heavy interest rates, my wife and I had to sell the homestay to recover the capital," said Mr. Thanh, adding that although the selling price has been reduced many times, there have been no buyers yet.
Like Mr. Thanh, Ms. Vu Thi Loan (52 years old, owner of a homestay in Luong Son district, Hoa Binh) admitted that operating a homestay is not simple.
Although Ms. Loan's homestay area is well-invested, the number of tourists is unstable. "Not only me, but many homestay investors are currently looking for ways to operate at a low level, while the majority are mainly looking for ways to sell off" - Ms. Loan said.
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan - a real estate broker in Hanoi - currently, many investors are having to reduce the resale price of homestay areas due to unfavorable business.
For example, a homestay in Ba Vi district has been operating for 4 years. During peak season, the average revenue is about 50 million VND/month, but in winter, the revenue drops to 15 - 20 million VND/month.
Initially, the owner advertised for sale at 12 billion VND, but due to urgent need for money, he reduced the price by 1 billion VND to make it easier to find a buyer.
Even in Yen Bai commune (Ba Vi district), there is a 5,000 m2 plot of land for sale at 38 billion VND. However, after 1 year of selling, the owner still could not find a buyer, so he reduced the price by 10 billion VND, cutting the loss to 28 billion VND.
Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh - Chairman of the Vietnam Real Estate Brokers Association - said that real estate associated with tourism and resorts is a segment with demand, but widespread investment without calculation has caused a "breakdown" and investors fleeing the market.
This situation was predicted three or four years ago when a wave of investors poured money into the suburban areas, causing the market to "heat up".
According to Mr. Dinh, resort investment requires high professionalism, requiring knowledge of cash flow management, investment performance, operations, and customer care services. In fact, many people have the mentality of "just buying a piece of land and building a house for rent and that's it", ignoring the need to carefully research the market.
