Real estate not hit hard by Covid-19

The Ministry of Construction (MOC) said though the epidemic has affected the real estate market, causing a decline in supply and the number of transactions, real estate prices in some localities are still on the rise.

The ministry’s Q1 report shows that many real estate firms have retained 50 percent of staff for their fundamental operation, while many projects have been suspended.

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In the first three months of the year, about 80 percent of real estate trading floors had to shut down or halt operation. As there were nearly no transactions, many brokers became redundant.

It is estimated that only 200 trading floors still operate, but at a moderate level. Durng the social distancing days in April, real estate developers and trading floors could not put products up for sale.

To settle the problem, some trading floors, including Vingroup and Cen Group, have launched online trading services. However, the online trading floors just serve as places for real estate developers to post information and introduce their projects.

It is estimated that only 200 trading floors still operate, but at a moderate level. Durng the social distancing days in April, real estate developers and trading floors could not put products up for sale.

However, commenting about the real estate market performance, MOC affirmed that the real estate market has not been affected seriously by the epidemic. The influences have been seen only in some market segments.

Regarding housing development projects, in Q1, 56 projects with 20,536 apartments were licensed. There were 997 projects with 233,313 apartments under construction, while 55 projects with 18,061 apartments were completed.

The supply of houses in Q1 decreased in comparison with the previous quarter and the same period last year. In Hanoi, the number of apartments to take shape in the future, eligible for sale, increased considerably thanks to the high number of products from Vinhomes’ huge projects.

In the long term, MOC predicted the supply would decrease.

As for tourism and resort real estate projects, five projects with 4,512 condotels and 476 resort villas were licensed, while 48 projects with 18,549 condotels and 3,359 resort villas were under construction.

Some real estate firms still continue their production and business activities. However, the progress and workload were greatly affected by the social distancing policy and the measures to prevent the virus spread.

MOC reported that 13,042 transactions were carried out successfully, including 1,167 in Hanoi (38 percent of Q4 2019) and 2,816 in HCM City (55 percent). The number of successful transactions in Q1 2020 was just 14 percent of total number of products available, a 4-year low which is just 40 percent of the same period last year.

Meanwhile, tourism and resort real estate have been in ‘hibernation’ with zero revenue of businesses in the sectors.

Surprisingly, house prices have still been increasing. In Hanoi, apartment prices have increased by 1.02 percent, while in HCM City, the figure is 3.5 percent.

Le Ha