The real estate market is showing different price
performances. While the medium and high grade segments have not shown
signs of recovery, land priced at VND10mil/sq m seems to be increasing.


Hoang Anh Gia Lai group, a real estate developer, has
announced a 40% reduction on its apartments at Hoang Anh River View and
Phu Hoang Anh projects. Meanwhile, Dat Xanh Company has launched a
programme on slashing apartment prices for the Sunview project. The
price of apartments, which was announced previously at $1,300/sq m, has
been slashed to $764/sq m, down by 42%. Moreover, Dat Xanh has also
announced 4% bank interest rate support for the buyers of apartments.


The market of transferred apartments (buyers can move
in right after paying money) is also cool now. For example, Hoang Anh
Gia Lai 2 apartments are going for VND15-17mil/sq m.


Meanwhile, the prices of project land in some areas
have been rising. The land price in district 9 has risen by
VND500,000-1mil/sq m, or even VND2mil, as the sellers target people who
have to leave their homes for site clearance within the Thu Thiem new
urban area project.


When asked if the real estate market is really heating
up or not, no one dares say anything for certain. They say that the
phenomena in the market recently show that the market is recovering.
However, if considering the conditions of the national economy, they
are not sure if this will continue.


It seems that the market now has favouorable
conditions for recovery. However, investors and those who have idle
capital are not joining the market just yet.


Analysts say that investors will remain cautious about
investment decisions because they have learned lessons from what
happened in July 2008.


After a long time of freezing, the real estate market
suddenly warmed up in July 2008. The land price in South Saigon urban
area at that time rose significantly, by VND1-2mil, in just one week.
This made investors think that the market would recover quickly and
they began making investments. However, they were wrong: The land price
is dropping again, just one month later.


Though no one can say for sure if the market is really
heating up or not, they all say that there will not be any big changes
with the market. People have every reason to believe this: Real estate
companies are trying to lower sale prices of their products to boost
sales. If the companies keen on the field believed that the market
would warm up soon, they would not be offering products at low prices.