The supply of new medium-priced housing projects, especially in central areas of Ho Chi Minh City, is more and more rare whereas there are projects with good locations and expensive apartments instead. To relieve this bottleneck, recently a series of affordable apartment projects in suburban areas or neighboring provinces of Ho Chi Minh City such as Binh Duong, and Long An have been implemented.
For instance, Phu Dong Group has just announced the Phu Dong Sky One apartment project comprising 780 apartments on an area of 42-75 square meters in Binh Duong Province’s Di An City. Each apartment is sold average at VND 32 million per square meter excluding VAT.
Over the past five years, Phu Dong Group has continuously had apartment projects in Binh Duong Province.
In addition, in this second quarter, Danh Khoi Group will offer the second phase of the Astral City project in Thuan An City supplying the market with more than 5,000 apartments. It costs more than VND40 million (US$1,581) per square meter.
In addition to the above projects, a series of other projects in Binh Duong Province are also planned to sell in the coming time. Phat Dat Real Estate Development Joint Stock Company will supply 5,000 apartments in 2024. In Di An City, Pi Group will launch the Picity Sky Park project comprising nearly 1,800 apartments.
Elsewhere in Binh Duong New City, CapitaLand has started construction on the Orchard project - a component project of Sycamore Urban Area - a luxury apartment complex, combining commerce and services with 3,500 apartments. In mid-April, Kim Oanh Group was also approved by the People's Committee of Binh Duong Province to carry out the One World project which is located in Thuan An City on nearly 50 hectares with a total investment capital of more than US$1 billion.
Meanwhile, Long An Province in the Mekong Delta used to be mainly land projects, but now many investors are going to carry out apartment projects in the province. According to investor Cat Tuong Group, the company will soon deploy the Cat Tuong Phu An apartment project with 1,700 apartments each with an area of 38-80 square meters. In anticipation of the demand and potential of the market in the western region of Ho Chi Minh City, SeaHoldings Real Estate Joint Stock Company is preparing to launch to the market a project with about 2,000 affordable apartments. Accordingly, the project includes 5 blocks built on a land area of more than 2.1 hectares with a variety of apartments with an area of 36-70 square meters.
Talking about the company's plan for many property projects in Binh Duong Province, General Director Ngo Quang Phuc of Phu Dong Group shared that previously, many people accepted to live in cramped houses near the center of Ho Chi Minh City, rather than in remote suburbs, but now they are willing to go farther to find a spacious place to live with fresh air. However, Director Phuc stressed that only projects in places with complete well-invested infrastructure and guaranteed services and utilities are attractive to customers.
Director Pham Anh Khoi of the Dat Xanh Research Institute for Economic-Financial-Real Estate Services acknowledged that recently Binh Duong Province has attracted large domestic and foreign investors engaging in real estate projects because of its large land fund and investors are allowed to build high-rise buildings while they are not limited by population quotas. Notably, on the main roads bordering Ho Chi Minh City, Pham Van Dong and the National Highway 13, the land fund is still large enough for construction of real estate projects while the land fund in Ho Chi Minh City is becoming less and less.
Furthermore, construction costs in Binh Duong Province are not as expensive as HCMC with around VND38 million-VND45 million per square meter for medium-priced housing projects, while in this same segment in Ho Chi Minh City, it is up to 2.5 times higher. Last but not least, finding affordable apartments in Ho Chi Minh City is increasingly difficult, traffic between Binh Duong and Ho Chi Minh City is quite convenient, so workers working in neighboring areas can easily buy houses in Binh Duong.
Some real estate experts believe that to resolve the gap between supply and demand and meet people's housing needs, expanding the affordable housing segment is essential. Because people often start buying small and affordable apartments and then consider larger apartments. First-time home buyers don’t prefer to purchase houses in good locations.
