With high grade apartments unsalable investors’ money remains buried (Vietnam)

With high grade apartments unsalable investors’ money remains buried

Last updated: Tuesday, October 6, 2009 |
VnnNews – Though prices of luxury apartments have been decreasing sharply, the demand for expensive products remains low.

Speculators complain capital has been ‘buried’ in apartments as they still have not been able to sell them for the last several months.

Phan Ha, an investor in district 1 of HCM City, said that he has two unsold high grade apartments worth nearly 6 billion dong ($20,761) at Blooming Park building. When it was launched, Ha had purchased the two apartments at 30 million dong per square metre as an investment.

However, to date, Ha still cannot sell the apartments, and the apartments’ prices have not seen any increases.

However, the address and location would appear to still be fashionable. Blooming Park is located next to Thu Thiem new urban area and the Metro Supermarket. Besides, the land area is not far from the East-West Boulevard, Thu Thiem tunnel, the belt road of Phu My Bridge and Tan Cang Industrial Zone.

Ha still cannot find buyers even when he is offering to sell the apartments at the original prices. However the prices at 2.8 billion dong ($164,700) and 3.1 billion dong ($182,352), still remain unattractive to buyers.

Other projects have also left products unsalable. Director of Tran Nao Branch of Vinaland Nguyen Xuan Loc said that high grade apartments are not proving popular these days. Few appear interested in the apartments at The Vista, Riverside or Sunrise projects.

Explaining the lack of lack of attraction, Ngo Duong Hoang Thao, Chairman of Dai Dong Duong Consultancy Company, said the supply of high grade apartments has exceeded demand.

Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong, Director of Tin Nghia real estate trading floor, said there has been little interest in high grade apartments on her trading floor, however, land plots are selling very well.

According to Thao, the main buyers of high grade apartments are secondary investors, who hope that they can sell the apartments later for profit.

However, secondary investors are quiet after suffering losses on other deals and the economic downturn has made people poorer, thus unable to afford expensive houses.

Meanwhile, low cost apartments are selling well. Le Thanh Company has sold its 134 apartments in Binh Tan district easily. The company’s Director Le Huu Nghia said that the apartments have been selling well due to their reasonable price of 6.5 million dong ($382) per square metre which is much lower than $1,300-2,000 per square metre of high grade apartments.

Phuoc Ha

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