Launching promotion campaigns, slashing sale prices, extending the payment deadline, fixing the sale prices in Vietnam dong instead of the dollar are the measures being taken by real estate developers, who are trying to warm up the frozen market.
Slashing prices to boost sale
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The higher dollar has made the real estate market, which has been gloomy for a long time, even less attractive. The real estate trading floors in Cau Giay, Thanh Xuan and Tu Liem Districts said they did not see any successful transactions in the last month. While a lot of apartments have been put on sale, there are very few buyers. Especially, medium and high grade apartments do not attract any interest.
With the average sale price at $3000 per square metre, the apartments at Indochina Plaza project in Cau Giay district does not catch any buyer’s attention.
With the sale prices of $2000-2500 per square metre, the developer of Royal City project in Thanh Xuan District could only sell the apartments which face the east and southeast, while the apartments facing the west and northwest remain unsalable.
Therefore, the developer of Indochina Plaza is considering slashing the sale prices further after already offering a discount of four percent.
The developer of Mulberry Lane project in Ha Dong is planning to launch a promotion programme offering clients a five percent price discount.
Not only apartments, but landed property and semi-detached houses have also seen slight decreases in prices. The developer of Parkcity project in Ha Dong, for example, has decided to offer a two percent discount three weeks after it began putting the products on sale.
In the north, the land price at AIC project in Me Linh District has been lowered by tens of dollars per square metre from $680 (13 million dong per square metre) to $610-620 (12 million dong).
Dollar price up, sale prices fixed in Vietnam dong
Tying to attract buyers with more favourable payment conditions , some real estate developers have decided to extend the payment deadline.
In principle, buyers make a payment in several installments instead of paying the entire sum at once.
A woman said that she has been offering an apartment for sale at Keangnam project, which is now under construction, for the last two months. However, she still cannot find a suitable buyer. In fact, the woman has not yet paid for the apartment. She related that she only had to pay a deposit of $5000, and the developer has not asked her for further installments in the past months..
As scheduled, when the 6-10th storeys of Indochina Plaza are built, apartment buyers will have to pay 40-45 percent of the total values. However, they now can negotiate the payment plan with the developers.
Especially, in order to attract clients, many developers have decided to fix the sale prices in Vietnam dong instead of dollar. Previously, the prices were always set in dollar. Therefore, when the dollar price increased, buyers had to pay big sums of additional money.
Le Sinh Tuan, a buyer, related that in August and September, he was asked by the developers of Duong Noi and ParkCity to negotiate the sale contracts again, under which the sale prices are fixed at the moment of contract signing.
An executive of a project on Le Trong Tan Road said that it is a wise move by real estate developers to fix prices in Vietnam dong. In fact, developers do not make losses because of the dollar increases, because like businessmen, they can foresee in the risks in exchange rate fluctuations.
