VietNamNet Bridge – Foreign real estate service firms once “bossed the show” in the golden age of the real estate market. However, in the economic crisis, things have got quite different.

CBRE Vietnam’s CEO Marc Townsend and his staff might be very happy when the firm’s office moved to the BIDV Tower in the central area of Hanoi. The whole sixth floor of the A-class building was then leased by the real estate service firm, which was the place where CBRE set up a trading floor, introduced real estate projects to clients, organized workshops.

However, half of the floor has been left idle, as CBRE Vietnam decided to cut down the leased area in an effort to cut down the expenses.

CBRE has been known in Vietnam as one of the biggest real estate consultancy firms with a lot of consultancy and marketing contracts signed with the big clients such as the investors of Sky City Towers, Hanoi Time Towers or Pico Mall.

However, the CEO said the number of clients has decreased sharply, explaining that the CBRE’s business has been affected by the decrease in the foreign investment flow.

CBRE has obtained the contracts on acting as the consultant and distributor for Saigon One, a shopping complex in HCM City, or Ciputra Mall in Hanoi. However, as the projects’ implementation has delayed due to the lack of capital.

The same situation has been faced by other foreign real estate consultancy firms. In the past, Vietnamese investors tent to sell apartments through foreign consultancy firms which were believed to have more experiences than domestic ones. Nowadays, as fewer real estate projects have been put under the implementation, foreign firms don’t have many jobs to do.

Chris Brown, CEO of Cushman & Wakefield, also said some services provided by the firm, especially the brokerage and sale, have been seriously affected by the market fall. The divisions were expanded in real estate market boom period in 2007-2008, but have got narrowed in the crisis.

However, CBRE or Cushman & Wakefield prove to be luckier than many others. Knight Frank and Coldwell Banker nearly don’t carry out business activities any more.

The name “Coldwell Banker” has nearly disappeared from the market, as the franchisee of the brand – the Minh Viet Investment JSC – has run out of capital to implement the two housing projects Tricon Towers in Hanoi and Bayview Tower in Ha Long City.

In fact, Coldwell Banker only did the two projects in Vietnam. Therefore, when the two projects stay “immovable” over the last two years, people don’t hear more about it.

Analysts have noted that foreign firms now have to compete fiercely with domestic ones to obtain the right to distribute apartments. Some domestic firms such as Dat Xanh, Cen Group, or G5 in Hanoi have grown rapidly by focusing on selling low cost and medium price houses – the market segment that foreign firms did not care in the past.

However, though having to scale down some services, foreign consultancy firms still can “live well” thanks to their service diversification policy.

Cushman & Wakefield has developed other types of services, including the office leasing brokerage in HCM City, the retailing throughout the country, and the investment consultancy. Meanwhile, Savills has the incomes from the real estate management and investment consultancy services.

K. Chi