Meanwhile, commercial banks have tightened lending to fund real estate projects.

Nguyen Van Dinh, deputy chair of the Vietnam Real Estate Brokers’ Association, said the supply is short in Hanoi and HCM City. There are only medium- and high-end products, while there are very few low-cost products.

No estate firm is interested in low-cost apartments and there are almost no new projects in Hanoi and HCM City. Only a few projects which received licenses in the past are still developed in some areas of Ha Dong, Dong Anh and Gia Lam, while there is no new project.

He said in order to help people approach housing products, the state needs to accelerate the development of low-cost housing products in urban projects.

He believes that land will still be the major projects to catch the biggest interest from investors in 2020.

The real estate market was stagnant in 2019 and it will continue to be soft in 2020, when many businesses and contractors are expected to go bankrupt because of the lack of projects.

Meanwhile, Handico 5’s managers think that affordable houses located in the areas with connected infrastructure will still be attractive and lead the real estate market in 2020.

According to CEO of Savills Vietnam Neil McGregor, the market supply will heavily depend on the policies and approval by state management agencies on the implementation of new projects. This will also be the factor stimulating the real estate ecosystem which comprises architectural design and construction.

However, it is difficult to predict when the policies on market supply will be loosened by the government.

In general, real estate developers are still ready to launch new projects soon after they get licenses. Therefore, the supply is expected to see improvement in the next two years.

A real estate developer in Hanoi said he still cannot fulfill all necessary procedures for one of his projects for the last three years to launch products on the market.

Novaland, one of the biggest Vietnamese real estate firms, has sent an urgent appeal for help to the Minister of Construction.

Bui Thanh Nhon, chair of Novaland, said it needs support from the State, or it will face bad debt of VND50 trillion and thousands of jobs will be lost.

Nhon asked for permission to continue developing Water Bay project to help the corporation have revenue sources and reassure 200 foreign investors that disbursement for the project will continue.

Water Bay, covering an area of 32,224 hectares, located in district 2, HCM City, has been suspended for two years because of legal problems.

Thanh Mai 

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