According to experts, from 2019 to early 2022, the real estate market in many places is active. At that time, many people put money into the land after only a very short time "surfing" was able to earn hundreds of millions of dong, even those with large capital could quickly profit billions of dong. In that wave, many side-by-side, inexperienced investors also participated in the investment, making the real estate market even more hot. However, by mid-2022, the market suddenly plummeted and fell into a deep depression. Liquidity continued to decline, so many sellers who wanted to collect money had to accept deep discounts.
In fact, although many real estate investors have been forced to sell and cut their investment losses from 10-30% or even more in order to collect money and reduce interest pressure on bank loans, not everyone can transfer their investment. Recently, many land plots of investors have been sold to cut losses but continue to be forced by buyers to reduce prices by 40-50%. Pressed on the price, some investors bit their teeth to get out, but there are many investors who are determined to "turn the car around", trying to hold on to that day or day in the hope that the real estate market will recover soon.
Mr. Tran Van Hien (Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City) spent nearly 1 billion VND to buy a plot of land in Chon Thanh town (Binh Phuoc province) from the beginning of 2019. Recently, due to the need for business capital, Mr. Hien asked a broker to find customers to transfer. There were also a few customers who viewed and paid for Mr. Hien's 100m2 plot of land, but for less than 700 million VND. Depressed, Mr. Hien had to manage capital from family and friends, and at the same time shelved the plan to sell land, waiting for a better price to continue.
Similarly, Ms. Oanh is also trying to keep the land plot in Hoa Phu commune, Cu Chi district (HCMC). Ms. Oanh said: “I bought this land lot from 2021, recently, I wanted to change hands because I needed money, but the broker quoted a much lower price than when I bought it. Therefore, I decided to continue to hold the land and wait for the market to recover instead of accepting price pressure."
Mr. Le Hoang Chau - Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) said that the southern housing market is recording new developments. Besides investors trying to sell goods, reduce prices deeply or sell at all costs, many investors in suburban land, if not being weighed down by the financial balance or not too "underwhelmed", choose to hold on to the land and wait for the market to recover instead of compromising. There are also many people because they can't get rid of the goods forever, so they accept to continue to keep the land.
Data from Batdongsan.com.vn show that, in the first 5 months of 2023, land plots for sale in many southern localities have moved to decrease by 20-30% in secondary transactions and at least 5-10% in primary sources. The strongest declines are concentrated in the group of investors who use financial leverage, especially when buying land in the peak period or following the virtual fever in new markets, which have not yet developed adequate service infrastructure.
Mr. Tran Khanh Quang - Real estate expert said that the land plot is a customary type of "buying and saving" and has a relatively low value. Garden land with cheap land of about 2 billion VND in areas with a radius of 200km from Ho Chi Minh City is still the choice of investors. However, this is also a speculative segment, difficult to exploit and use immediately, so when cash flow is difficult, land plots will stop trading. At least in this period, investors will still keep the psychology of exploration, not paying down to buy land when the information on interest rates and credit has not improved clearly.
And Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh - Chairman of the Vietnam Real Estate Brokers Association said: "The year 2023 is a year with many challenges, it may take from 2024 onwards, the real estate market in general and the land plot segment in particular can recover. But it will be difficult to explode land fever or hot price increases like in previous years.
Despite facing many difficulties, the real estate market still faces great opportunities as the legal framework continues to be improved and many infrastructure projects continue to be implemented. At the same time, it is expected that interest rates will cool down after the State Bank actively lowers deposit rates to a stable level, when interest rates show signs of cooling down, it will contribute to boosting market liquidity and reducing pressure on investors."
