HCMC condominium stock shrinks via 2,000 in Q3

With new projects having higher-than-expected prices, buyers opted for inventory from older projects in the primary market that mostly offer similar quality but at lower prices and a shorter wait for handover, property consultancy CBRE Vietnam said in a recent report.

Developers were also offering discounts, lower lending interest rates and flexible payment schedules to attract buyers, it said.

The resumption of several projects after being delayed by legal issues was another positive development in the HCMC property market during the quarter, CBRE said.

This is a sign that legal hurdles plaguing real estate projects are being resolved, it noted.

Nonetheless, the supply of new apartments dropped to a record low, with only 127 new units put on sale in the third quarter, and even they were mostly at previously launched projects in outlying districts.

Vo Huy Tuan Kiet, head of the residential project marketing department at CBRE Vietnam, said housing supply is falling short of demand in HCMC, resulting in persistent high prices that make even interested investors hesitate.

Developers would likely wait until at least the last quarter of the year or early 2025 to sell new products, he said.

CBRE expects 3,000 new apartments to be launched in the city in the last three months of this year, taking the new supply for the year to 5,000.

But the figure might nearly double to 10,000 next year as most large-scale projects have postponed their launches to 2025.

Pham Ngoc Thien Thanh, associate director of research and consulting services at CBRE Vietnam, said new apartments are unlikely to become cheaper.

Developers have to invest a considerable amount of time and resources to resume their projects, and so plan to hike their prices, she said.