Real estate owners are hunting for customers to buy their apartments as they tackle the dilemma of an acute shortage of funds.
An artist’s impression of Happy Plaza apartment building in Binh Chanh District, Ho Chi Minh City (File)
The real estate market is also coping with high lending interest rates while the stock market continues to go down.
Project developers are panic selling apartments still under construction or selling entire real estate projects to manage their funds.
PetroVietnam Power Land Joint Stock Company has just begun to sell apartments from the Petrovietnam Landmark condominium project in District 2 in Ho Chi Minh City, at VND19.9 million per square meter.
Construction of the condo project has just completed laying its foundation level.
The owner of R apartment building in a prime location in District 7 has run out of funds and is paying the project contractor by selling apartments at VND20 million per square meter whereas the neighborhood condo prices are actually VND40 million per square meter.
Since there is no market for apartments now, Saigon Land JS Company is investing in buildings to raise salangane, a species of sea bird whose nest can be used as food. A kilogram of nests currently sells for over VND30million.
Around 19 houses of 1,000 square meters each will be built on a total area of 3.6 hectares in Can Gio District, HCMC. The project investor has said he will provide the skilled man power for the up keep and harvesting of the salangane nests as well as buyback all the nests.
Happy Plaza condominium project owner has launched a program to attract buyers by sharing the loan interest with them. Under the program, the owner will pay the loan interest for buyers until they take full possession of the apartment.
Kim Oanh Real Estate Construction and Services JS Company has given savings books worth VND3-50 million to those who buy its land in My Phuoc in the southern province of Binh Duong.
Meanwhile, the developer of Aroma condo project in Binh Duong has offered over 100 taels of gold to those who buy apartments in Aroma Building.
Reselling projects
Besides lowering the selling price, many apartment developers have been looking for buyers to resell their projects.
For instance, Dat Xanh Real Estate Service and Investment JSC bought a condominium project from Ha Thuan Hung Company Ltd. to build a 14-floor apartment building on an area of 3,700 square meters in Go Vap District, HCMC.
Hoa Binh Construction and Real Estate Company has now resold its land rights to Dong Duong Company. Dong Duong Co. has paid Hoa Binh Co. US$11.9 million for use of 2,700 square meters of land in South Saigon, District 7.
Early in 2011, Vina Land under Vina Capital Group, a leading asset management, investment banking and real estate consulting firm in Vietnam, completely transferred its shares in the International Housing project in District 9 of HCMC at a total price of US$10.9 million.
Earlier, Vina Land sold 85 percent of its shares in the Mandarin Garden complex project in Cau Giay District in Hanoi.
Vina Development Inc. has sold all its shares in the Blooming Park condo project in District 2 of HCMC to Prudential Vietnam.
Troy Griffiths, from the Research and Valuation Department of Savills Vietnam, said many local realty investors have land but they have problems accessing capital. Therefore, a trend toward cooperation with foreign investors will continue, not just this year but also in the years to come.
Meanwhile, Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of the HCMC Real Estate Association, said real estate enterprises are facing a most difficult year, since they have had to pay higher lending interest rates while being unable to sell their apartments.
Realty companies have launched many promotional programs and lowered their selling costs to less than cost price, to survive.
