800 real estate trading floors in Vietnam shut down due to COVID-19 pandemic

800 of the country's 1,000 real estate trading floors have closed temporarily due to a sharp plunge in customer demand and signs of an impending economic downturn.

Le Hoang Chau, chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) confirmed that 800 of the 1,000 trading floors are facing great challenges from the turbulent market. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused great disruptions to business and living, creating spillover effects for the property market.

Nguyen Van Dinh, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Association of Realtors, said that the figure has risen from 300 closed floors in February, while the remaining 200 floors have adopted an online approach to reach more customers.

“Even so, they still backed into a corner because of shrinking appetite among buyers,” said Dinh.

A great majority of real estate trading floors across Vietnam shut down for the duration of the pandemic

Amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, a number of projects were reported to delay construction and launch, resulting in fewer-than-previously-expected units being launched. About 1,200-2,000 units are expected to enter the market in 2020. However, this is subject to great uncertainty, depending on how long the outbreak will last.

Total sales of ready-built landed property in Ho Chi Minh City are lower than the quarterly average for the past five years at 366 units in the first quarter of this year, according to Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL).

The number of apartments for sale in Ho Chi Minh City in the first quarter totalled only 1,980 units, less than half than in the fourth quarter of 2019. This sales volume is equivalent to only 54 per cent of the total stock available for sale on the market, the lowest level in the past two years.

In Hanoi, the take-up totalled at 4,017 units in the first quarter, down almost 42.2 per cent on-quarter. This was mainly in tandem with the supply slump, although COVID-19 also slowed down sales velocity to a certain extent.

JLLalso noted there was a number of buyers, especially from overseas, who already made the bookings but were unable to carry on with the deposit or sales and purchase agreement due to travel restrictions.