Many prime locations are gradually being leased back.

(Dan Tri) - Many prime locations that have been vacant for a long time have been re-leased, showing that the economy and consumption have shown more positive signs.

After a wave of many businesses withdrawing from prime locations, closing and massively re-leasing since 2022, good signals are gradually returning as many new tenants rent business locations in the center.

Many prime locations are being leased.

Recently, the land plot at 2-4-6 Hai Ba Trung, Saigon Ward, after 10 years of being vacant, was leased by the Ran Bien seafood restaurant chain. The land plot at 2-4-6 Hai Ba Trung has a prime location with 4 street frontages including Hai Ba Trung, Thi Sach, Me Linh Square and Dong Du. Although the total area of ​​the plot is up to 6,000m2, in the past 10 years this land plot has seemed to be vacant.

In October 2022, the Ho Chi Minh City Civil Judgment Enforcement Department coordinated with relevant units to officially hand over the land plot at 2-4-6 Hai Ba Trung to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee for management.

Earlier this year, District 1 People's Committee proposed to temporarily use land plots No. 2-4-6 Hai Ba Trung and No. 8-12 Le Duan as parking lots, green areas, etc. while waiting for the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to approve a land use plan in accordance with the planning.

The premises at 11-13 Han Thuyen with a rental price of 700 million VND/month has been re-leased (Photo: Tu An).

Or the location 11-13 Han Thuyen - which used to be the business location of the only high-end Starbucks store in Ho Chi Minh City - was also rented by the domestic coffee brand Adoré after 8 months of vacancy.

It is known that this premises has a floor area of ​​210m2 including 3 floors, with a frontage of more than 8m.

According to real estate sources, thanks to its prime location, the premises at 11-13 Han Thuyen were rented to Starbucks at a price of 21,000 USD/month (equivalent to more than 520 million VND/month) in 2017. By 2024, many people speculated that the owner of this "golden land" increased the rental price to 757 million VND/month, forcing Starbucks to leave sadly.

As for Starbucks, the company quickly rented new premises and opened two Starbucks Reserve stores. In April 2025, Starbucks Reserve returned to the Bitexco building - considered one of the most prominent symbols of Ho Chi Minh City.

In particular, the location that this brand rents is on the ground floor facade - which used to be where Adidas operated before withdrawing from December 23, 2024. This area is about 256 square meters, surrounded by a lake. The average rental price at Bitexco for this area is from 150 USD/square meter/month.

Starbucks Reserve quickly found new premises (Photo: Tu An).

A few months later, Starbucks Reserve opened a second store at Diamond Plaza right in front of Le Duan.

In District 2, beautiful premises are also being sought after. In particular, Everpia, the parent company of the high-end bedding brand Everon, has just officially opened the first Everon Flagship Space at 17 Song Hanh, Ho Chi Minh City.

When asked how long it took to rent a central location, the Everpia representative said that there were many options and the company did not take much time to finalize the location. However, he also emphasized that when looking for a business location, the company had to balance many factors and choose the location that best suited the company's strategy. With the first Everon Flagship Space, the bedding brand wants to increase the physical experience for customers. Everon said that this year it will open a second Flagship Space in Hanoi .

At the end of August, Savills Vietnam also opened the Residential Sales Office in Sala urban area, An Khanh ward. Sharing about the process of finding a location for this office, Mr. Nguyen Khanh Duy, Director of Residential Sales and Director of Savills Private Office, said it was not easy.

“We set out many quite strict criteria, including strategic locations that need to be conveniently connected to areas in the city and have a long-term vision of at least 5 years, parking infrastructure, working environment with priority given to areas near rivers, lots of trees, parks to create a comfortable working space, while also bringing a better experience to customers…”, he said.

Consumer and business habits have changed

According to Mr. Nguyen Hoang, Deputy Director of Eagle Academy, after the Covid-19 pandemic, the rental market in Ho Chi Minh City witnessed a clear change when many townhouses and shophouses were left vacant for a long time, creating an abundant supply and more "affordable" prices than before. However, finding a suitable business location is still not simple, because it also depends on the strategy, scale and characteristics of each type of business.

He said that while the requirements for premises standards for F&B chains are very strict, townhouses in the central area can only meet small-scale models. The fact that many townhouses in District 1, District 3 or new shophouses in modern urban areas such as Sala are still vacant shows that there is a large supply, but not all business models are suitable, while the rent is still high.

Many downtown spaces have been vacant since Covid-19 (Photo: DT).

Mr. Nguyen Hoang also said that the space for individual townhouses in the old central districts is no longer as hot as before. There are many reasons for this trend, including the fact that the rent in the central area is too expensive, the rental cost is very large and even eats up the profits of individuals/business organizations. Therefore, many stores open but close after a while.

It is very important that consumer shopping behavior in townhouses has decreased due to the strong development of online shopping and e-commerce. At the same time, young people, Gen Z, also prefer shopping and entertainment complexes in the center.

Not to mention, HCMC now has many new areas with larger areas, more spacious and better landscape (for example, Sala area).

In general, as consumer behavior trends change, the rental market will continue to change. In particular, townhouses in central areas (especially small-sized houses) will gradually lose ground to mixed-use shopping and entertainment centers (such as AEON Mall, Mega Mall, Vivo City, etc.).

It is predicted that in about 10-15 years, when the metro/urban railway system is completed, private vehicles will decrease, leading to a decrease in consumption, shopping and business needs in individual townhouses. As a result, rental prices will likely have to decrease to attract tenants.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/nhieu-mat-bang-vi-tri-vang-dang-dan-duoc-thue-lai-20250915101354253.htm