VietNamNet Bridge – The owners of well known brands have been flocking to the central area of HCM City, thus making the war for retail premises in the area scorching hot.

HCM City

A rule has been set up by the financial powerful investors: those, who can control the retail premises in the central area, would be able to hold the domination in the market. That explains why the retail premises rents keep rising, despite the economic downturn and weak purchasing power.

The appearance of more and more foreign brands in F&B (food and beauty care), the sector, where the success heavily depends on the retail premises, has pushed the premises rents up into the sky.

Non Son (Son’s hats), Pho 24, Trung Nguyen and Givral have been occupying the most advantageous positions in the central area.

Real estate developers believe that the enterprises have not only using the retail premises for their own business, but also have been making profits by re-leasing the premises.

A war for advantageous positions has been activated, despite the current real estate market freezing.

After searching information on real estate websites, the reporters of Doanh Nhan Saigon found a piece of ad saying that TKN, a service and technique company was seeking a tenant for the retail premise on Dong Khoi road in district 1, HCM City.

After making some calls, the reporters were told to come to the company’s office, from which a company’s officer would lead them to the premises.

However, when the reporters came, they were told that the land plot was rented to another client two days ago and suggested a premises on Le Loi Street.

The premise is now the place for Givral bakery shop. Though the premises rent contract would only get expired in three more years, the owner of the shop still decided to re-lease the premises at 5050 dollars a month (a street front house 4x10m)

Since the reporters said the area was too small for them, the company showed a larger premises on Nguyen Hue Street, which was once a shop of Pho 24 chain. The required rent was 3700 dollars a month.

A broker of TKN Company said that the retail premises on Dong Khoi road was still available one month ago. However, things have become quite different since December. All the advantageous premises on the big roads in the central area of HCM City have been fully occupied just after a short time.

The broker said in fact, retailers still have the opportunities to rent the advantageous premises, if the current tenants accept to re-lease the premises.

Many of the tenants, from the very beginning, intended to rent the premises just to re-lease to make profit. However, they always set very high rents, at no less than 7000 dollars a month.

The business premises have been classified into some groups. The area from Le Thanh Ton to Ngo Duc Ke streets in district 1 is the area for golfers, while the area from Le Thanh Ton to Ly Tu Trong and Nguyen Thi Minh Khai streets can be called the area for tennis players.

There are still unoccupied premises on Ly Tu Trong Street, which quote the rents at between 2000 and 3000 dollars a month (4x12m).

Meanwhile, the “brand roads” of Dong Khoi, Nguyen Hue, Le Loi have been fully occupied by the well-known brands in F&B and electronics such as Sony, LV or Hermes.

Both the street front sites of the Times Square complex have been occupied by the world’s leading fashion brands Gucci and Gabbana.

DNSG