Deputy Chair of the Vietnam Real Estate Association Nguyen Van Dinh said the property market in Q1 is showing positive signs thanks to the government’s measures to remove legal bottlenecks and help enterprises ease difficulties.

A task force in charge of checking difficulties of enterprises and localities has been set up. The Prime Minister has sent Telegram 1164 urging relevant agencies to implement Decision 1435 which says that real estate firms need to survey the market and provide products suited to market demand. 

Also, the government has assigned the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to launch a VND120 trillion preferential credit package which targets the development of social housing and housing for factory workers.

Dinh noted that the credit package is a valuable restorative for the market, but the government needs to issue a resolution on the package, specifying the criteria and the subjects eligible for accessing the loans.

The restructuring of production and business to adapt to economic conditions and enterprises’ resources will help ensure the health of enterprises. The actions by the government and the efforts by enterprises to improve will help the market warm up by Q3.

Can Van Luc, a member of the National Advisory Council for Financial and Monetary Policies, said there are two groups of policies, short and long term, that will help the property market recover and develop sustainably.

Short-term solutions include policies that aim to solve the toughest problems in the market, including legal bottlenecks and capital. 

Luc said if legal bottlenecks are removed, hundreds of projects will be able to proceed and cash will flow into the market. More importantly, this will help restore market confidence.

Regarding capital mobilization, Luc believes that the burning issue is corporate bond payments. Roughly VND120 trillion worth of real estate bonds will mature in 2023 and VND110 trillion in 2024. Buying back the bonds will put pressure on investors.

Luc said the capital from M&A deals is also very important for the real estate market. Many enterprises have suggested that banks provide loans to fund M&A transactions.

“I think commercial banks should be allowed to do this, which is feasible, and the demand really exists. Enterprises would have 70 percent of capital, while the remaining 30 percent could be funded by banks,” Luc said.

The HCM City Real Estate Association has sent a document to the Prime Minister, asking SBV to allow banks to lend to enterprises to restructure the bond debts to get matured.

Hong Khanh