The real estate market in Ho Chi Minh City and its surrounding areas saw no new projects offered for sale in the first two months of 2024, according to property consultancy firm DKRA Group.
DKRA reported that there were six projects for sale during the period but all of them were in their expansion phases, supplying 440 units, down 34% year-on-year, with 247 units (56%) sold. The units offered and sold were 384 and 228 in January, and 56 and 19 in February, respectively.
New supply and sale decreased as developers focused on before and during the Lunar New Year, mainly in Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau provinces. Of which, HCMC had 303 units, accounting for 69% of total supply, followed by Binh Duong (20%), and Ba Ria-Vung Tau (11%).
DKRA said that the Grade B apartment segment made up 76% of new supply and 93% of new sales in Jan-Feb, mainly in the western part of HCMC.
Regarding primary selling prices, in HCMC, the highest price hit VND82 million ($3,328) per square meter, while the lowest was VND52.5 million ($2,130) per sqm. The respective figures were VND48.7 million and VND35.5 million in Binh Duong, and VND52.8 million and VND48.3 million in Ba Ria-Vung Tau.
"Policies like discounts for quick payment, payment extensions and gifts continue to be applied by most investors to stimulate market demand. The primary selling price has not fluctuated much, with an increase of 3-6% recorded in some projects in HCMC with full legal status and rapid construction progress and handover times," DKRA said.
Vo Hong Thang, director of consulting & project development at DKRA Group, said that the real estate market is continuing to see a scarcity in new supply because short-term legal issues have not been completely resolved. Liquidity is a big problem that needs to be fixed by developers amid investor fear and lack of confidence.
"The top priority for developers this year remains cash flow," he noted.
Similarly, property listing website Batdongsan.com.vn said that market indexes had decreased due to the long Lunar New Year holiday. Specifically, the total number of listings for real estate in HCMC in February dropped by 30% compared to January. Of which, the number of listings for private houses in the city fell 38%, land plots by 33%, and apartments by 29%.
In terms of demand, townhouses saw the deepest decrease of 33% in the number of searches in HCMC in February. Searches for land plots were down 20%, villas 20%, and private houses 19%. Apartments were least affected last month, with demand only slightly decreasing by about 6% compared to the previous month.
Meanwhile, according to a report on the socio-economic situation in February and the first two months of 2024 released by the HCMC Statistics Office, the local real estate market had shown signs of a recovery. Businesses have joined hands to implement payment policies and incentives for customers. Therefore, real estate business revenue in the two-month period was estimated at VND42.3 trillion ($1.72 billion), up 20.1% year-on-year and accounting for nearly 60% of the consumer service group’s revenue.