Real estate is heating up with economic expansion driving investment and demand. This is further boosted by the entry by Vietnam as a member of  World Trade Organisation and  the permanent normal trade relations with the US.
As private investments - backed by the new free trade environment - and public infrastructure spending increase, Government officials expect demand in the property market to rise correspondingly.
In the office space market, Marc Townsend, CB Richard Ellis Viet Nam managing director, says:

• demand will keep rising in the near term, while supply remains modest.
• occupancy rates in high-end office space in Ha Noi and HCM City is around 99 to 95 per cent respectively.
• newly complete buildings like North Asia Tower or the Opera Business Centre have high occupancy rates of about 45 to 75 per cent, with vacancies running out quickly.

High-end apartments are going through a similar trend in Ha Noi and HCM City, despite accelerating prices.

Incidentally, a number of real estate firms from the US to China have invested into the domestic market, calling it one of the most attractive in the region.
According to experts, trade in property worth less than VND1 billion (US$62,500) or mid-range real estate, will continue to grow, particularly on the outskirts of large urban areas. After the first few weeks of the new year, firms have already announced several deals for new homes.

However, to accelerate this growth, there is also a urgent need to have more transparency and publicity of the real estate market as it seriously lacks transparency with as many as 60 to 80% of all transactions handled under the table.

The National Assembly’s Law Commission and foreign experts have also recently restart talks on drafting a law on real estate registration.

(VietnamNews18/1/07)

If you found this post useful, keep updated with future posts by subscribing to FMAccounting (for free) through RSS or email.

Related Entries

• Real Estate Developments News In Vietnam
• Oil billionaires From UAE Eyeing Vietnam
• Asia Reits- A Brief History
• TA To List REIT
• Amanah Raya to enter REIT market