Manh Tung
Office buildings in downtown HCMC are seen in this file photo. CBRE Vietnam predicts rents of the office building projects in prime locations in HCMC would rise in the second half of this year due to limited supply - PHOTO: BINH NGUYEN
The volume of apartments doubled that of 2013 and quadrupled that of 2012, Duong Thuy Dung, head of research and consulting at CBRE Vietnam, told a media briefing Tuesday on the city’s property market in the fourth quarter.
Districts 2 and 7 were home to a majority of those apartments with nearly 6,000 belonging to 11 projects, while there were no new apartment projects offered for sale in districts 10 and 3 last year.
Of the total number, 6,670 apartments were launched in the fourth quarter of last year alone, up a staggering 117.8% against the previous quarter and 150.2% year-on-year.
The sharp rise resulted from several large-scale property projects such as Vinhomes Central Park in Binh Thanh District with 1,100 units up for sale in the initial time out of 10,000 units developed, Masteri Thao Dien in District 2 with 1,499 units out of more than 3,000 units and Scenic Valley in District 7.
As studied by CBRE Vietnam, most of the apartments at Vinhomes Central Park and Masteri Thao Dien projects have found buyers. The investor of Scenic Valley has sold 251 units of blocks D2 and E1.
Strong sales of luxury apartments raised the consumption rate of the luxury segment to 60%, followed by the medium-cost segment with 35%.
Dung said the average price of upper-class apartments in the fourth quarter of last year declined 5% year-on-year due to fierce competition on the market while that of medium-cost condos improved over the previous quarter.
Marc Townsend, managing director of CBRE Vietnam, said property investors in Vietnam were waiting for the market to recover and would increase purchases when market conditions improved.
Most of the investors now buy houses for lease and this requires them more time to complete necessary procedures related to rent and taxes and find tenants.
As for offices for lease, CBRE Vietnam predicted rents of the projects in prime locations in HCMC would rise in the second half of this year due to limited supply.
The monthly rents of offices of grades A and B averaged out at US$25.34-32.18 per square meter in the fourth quarter of last year, up 1-1.8% quarter-on-quarter. More than 30% of the leasing requests in the period were for offices in the center of the city.
CBRE Vietnam forecast that the landlords of some office projects would adjust up rents by 10-20% in the second half of this year after they complete renovation and due to rising demand of multinationals from Japan, South Korea and Singapore.
More office projects will be up and running in the city in the 2015-2016 period, including Ascott Waterfront Saigon, Saigon Plaza and C.T. Plaza Saigon.
Đăng ký: VietNam News