Danang offers opportunities to 'hunt' properties with deep discounts: expert

For those with idle capital, Danang is offering opportunities to "hunt" products with deep discounts in beautiful locations, says Vo Hong Thang, R&D deputy director of property consultancy DKRA Vietnam.

What is your assessment of Danang's current real estate market?

The realty market in Danang follows the downtrend of the whole country. Supply and demand are at very low levels, reflected in the limited number of offerings in the third quarter of 2022 and the overall absorption rate in each segment ranging from 50% to 60%.

Specifically, the land plot segment had 13 projects for sale, supplying the market nearly 1,000 units, down 17% compared to the second quarter. The apartment segment recorded three projects, offering 91 units, only one third of the previous quarter’s figure.

Meanwhile, there were seven townhouse/villa projects for sale, with about 374 units, down nearly 37% quarter-on-quarter.

Property prices in Danang have decreased in almost all segments. Have they hit the bottom, in your opinion?

It is difficult to say whether the market is at the bottom or not, especially when the current general picture is still full of difficulties and uncertainties due to the strengthening of credit control and soaring interest rates.

In my opinion, the market still poses certain risks, so buyers need to select projects carefully, prioritize medium- and long-term investment strategies and avoid the sentiment of “surfing” in the short term.

What advice would you give to real estate investors and businesses given the current difficulties?

For investors, with the current high lending interest rates (12-14% per year), which may continue to increase in the coming time, and the declining market liquidity, real estate investment will be ineffective when using financial leverages. Therefore, in the current period, investors with weak financial health should stand outside to observe the market.

However, for those with idle capital, this is an opportunity to "hunt" products with deep discounts in beautiful locations that were previously difficult to access due to high prices. In fact, the market has seen “hunts” by investors with strong financial potential for properties with prime locations near the city center.

In addition, investors should closely monitor market developments, screen products, learn about the project’s legal status, and the investor's capacity. They also need to consider using financial leverages at an appropriate ratio.

For businesses, it is necessary to optimize operation costs and streamline the organizational apparatus. In particular, real estate developers which have issued bonds and are running out of money need to proactively make payment plans for maturing bonds.

Property firms should diversify capital mobilization channels like foreign investment funds and bond issuance; while improving product quality in terms of utility, design, handover quality, and operation management.

In addition, they also need to apply technology to management and sales to cut input costs. In particular, they should focus on developing strategic projects with a completed legal process, and avoid scattered investment and deployment of many projects at the same time as before.

What do you think about the Danang real estate market in the near future?

In my opinion, in the short term until the end of 2023, the market will hardly see positive changes because of the above-mentioned difficulties. However, in the long term, I still believe in the sustainable growth potential of Danang city as well as its real estate market.

This is reinforced by bright prospects like the goal of building Danang into one of the major socio-economic centers of the country and Southeast Asia by 2030. In particular, Danang is an attractive tourist destination, so in the long term, recovery of the tourism industry will lead to the recovery of the real estate market, which holds a lot of potential.

As the economic locomotive of the central region, Danang has received much infrastructure investment. It also takes the lead in the country in FDI attraction. The city’s gross regional domestic product in the first nine months of 2022 expanded 16.76%, nearly double the country’s growth.

Therefore, despite the current difficulties and inadequacies, the real estate market in Danang still has room for recovery and development in the next three to five years.