Navigating through the 'eye of the real estate storm': Asian Holding CEO

Asian Holding Real Estate JSC and its CEO Nguyen Van Hau have successfully weathered “the stormy” real estate crisis over the past year thanks to their determination, adaptability and planning.

Amid "the eye of the storm"

In the early days of October, Asian Holding CEO Nguyen Van Hau was busy with his staff setting up the company’s new headquarters on Tran Nao street, Thu Duc city, Ho Chi Minh City, after being based for nearly 10 years on Trung Son street, Binh Chanh district.

Eager with the office move on the Vietnam Entrepreneur's Day (October 13), Hau stated that the plan is part of the company's strategy to "surf the storm" after a prolonged dull period in real estate market.

"In October 2022, when the market entered a period of unprecedented difficulties, many real estate businesses decided to stop operations to wait for a recovery. However, I chose a different approach: facing those difficulties and coming up with a suitable direction to get through this period," Hau said.

The plan was discussed by Hau and his colleagues. He recalled that at that time, the firm had just gone through a difficult period after the Covid-19 pandemic. Six months later, the real estate market plunged, cash flow was blocked, and customers "turned their backs" on the market. Meetings were held day and night to find solutions to get through this time.

"After many meetings, I decided to change personnel, recruiting people who are good at trading and investing in new projects in the niche market. Department heads also accepted wage reductions," he said.

To find opportunities in the niche market, the company invested in new projects in Binh Phuoc and Dong Nai provinces. To make the plan successful, many market and project survey trips were made.

"Those were endless days for me and my co-workers. We had to be away from our families, mainly driving a car through the provinces," Hau recounted.

In addition to finding and developing new projects in the provincial markets, Asian Holding also joined hands with businesses in the same industry to sell its products.

To be able to keep the company afloat, Hau shared that while the market continued to experience hurdles, he still held on to an amount of cash after three years of profit taking. With appropriate sales policies and targeting customers with real needs, projects in Dong Nai province still sold well, empowering him and his company to initially overcome difficulties.

When setting the goal of "surfing the storm", he was always confident because he had good employees who were loyal to the company, even in the most difficult times.

Light gradually appears

After a year weathering the storm, Hau said that a light has appeared for his business even though he knows that the market still has countless difficulties ahead.

The Asian Holding CEO acknowledged that realty businesses are going through a very difficult period, even more difficult than during the Covid-19 pandemic, because of reduced revenue and increased costs. Their current difficulties do not lie entirely in the high level of financial leverage, but in the low capital absorption capacity.

The most important thing now is to improve the sentiment among customers. Secondly, individual business households and enterprises, large or small, must make a profit to have cash flow to invest in and increase production.

"Plunging market demand and purchasing power have led to reduced revenue and narrowed profit margins, resulting in a low need for working capital and investment capital. Meanwhile, interest rates are also not attractive with a mountain of related procedures," Hau explained.

To continue to overcome the crisis, the next plan that Hau has set for his company is launching three projects in Dong Nai and Binh Phuoc provinces in the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first months of 2024.

These projects will offer 800 products, including commercial housing, social housing and land plots. Next year, the company plans to continue affirming its brand and develop large real estate projects of 10-30 hectares or more.

"In 2024, Asian Holding has set a revenue growth target of 120% and a profit expansion of 150% year-on-year, based on expectations for the recovery of the property market. It will have a staff of 200 and open more branches, depending on the market situation," he revealed.

Also according to the 38-year-old businessman, the company's strategy is sustainable growth, therefore its projects and products always have full legality with ownership certificates (also called red books), creating trust and peace of mind among customers.

"Finally, in the most difficult times, my company and I always had employees standing side by side. This makes me confident that next year, the company will succeed with its goals," Hau added.