Real estate firms back on track

Nguyen Duc Thinh, director of HT Holdings Real Estate Trading JSC, believes that the property market is showing upbeat signs, mirrored by the fact that developers are launching new products and real estate transaction centres are beginning to recruit brokers.

Foreign investors are accumulating land with legitimate papers.

“These factors together indicate that the market is becoming increasingly open, and investors are gaining more trust. In the upcoming time, for marketing staff alone our company intends to employ about 100 personnel, then observe the market movement and possibly open new branches,” said Thinh.

Pham Danh Khoi, director of Dat Xanh Services Institute of Economic, Financial and Real Estate Research, said that in the first quarter of this year, the rate of real estate firms halting operations was much lower than one year ago.

“Currently, Dat Xanh Services system envisages recruiting about 2,000 marketing staff nationwide in the lead-up to the anticipated rebound cycle of the real estate market. Human resource in this field is one of the fields forecast to rebound strongly, including both brokers and professionals,” said Khoi.

Amid positive signs in the market in the first four months, several developers are mulling sales plans.

Nam Long Group, a developer of affordable housing in the south, said that during 2024-2026 the company would focus on developing more than 10,000 housing units, with 65 per cent of them being affordable Ehome and Ehome apartments with value at VND1 billion ($41,600) per unit; condominiums at $187,500 per unit; and villa and shop house units with a value below $625,000 per unit.

From next year, Nam Long will gradually raise the long-term land sources earmarked for medium range products through mergers and acquisitions.

Simultaneously, the company will dedicate budget to expand available land and develop new urban fund in the long term, setting plans to reach sales revenue reaching $398 million, and $277 million in net revenue in 2024, double 2023’s levels.

Dat Xanh Group, a major developer in southern region, is mulling over completing compensation and fulfilling five big projects embracing several hundred hectares in preparation for the 2025-2030 development cycle.

In addition, Dat Xanh will further buy projects to expand land for development.

Another southern developer An Gia Group has announced it is seeking M&A opportunities to expand its available land, with priority given to projects with an approved investment policy, which are affordable and ready for quick implementation.

According to Vietnam Association of Realtors, many real estate businesses have almost finalised restructuring to become ‘healthier’.

Most of the firms, particularly brokers, exhibit optimism and set forth higher development targets compared to 2023 results.

In the first four months of this year, more than 1,300 real estate firms had resumed operation, up 22.3 per cent on-year, according to the General Statistics Office.

The new Real Estate Business Law, passed by the National Assembly in November and effective from 2025, could narrow the scope of regulation and tighten conditions for transferring real estate projects.

Around the world, investment in real estate is competitive, and investors compete for capital from a variety of non-bank financial sources, including private funds, sovereign wealth funds, and international financial institutions such as the International Finance Corporation (IFC), real estate investment trusts, and hedge funds.

A range of amendments to laws on housing, real estate, and land is expected to make the market more stable.