City apartments sector heats up

The total primary supply of apartments for sale reached a record almost 16,600 units by the end of September, nearly three times the number from a year earlier.

Nearly 7,200 of them came into the market in the third quarter against 3,200 in the second and 2,900 in Q1.

The grade C segment saw the highest number of new projects, with the majority of them located in Tan Phu, Binh Chanh, and Binh Tan Districts.

The third quarter also saw the highest number of apartments sold in the primary market – at approximately 4,400 units, it was equal to total sales in the previous two quarter.

The majority of them, around 80 per cent, were grade C units.

Demand mainly came from the segment priced below US$1,000 per square metre. It recorded sales of nearly 3,300 units.

Rising demand for apartments was fuelled by increasing disposable incomes and growing migration to the city.

Migrants

In five years since 2004, around 1.6 million people have migrated to the south-eastern area of Viet Nam, with a million coming to HCM City alone.

Demand is expected to remain strong in the smaller-sized segment where apartments cost VND800 million-VND1.5 billion ($42,000 – $79,000).

A further 26 projects are expected to launch in the next two quarters and will offer around 10,000 units.

In the next two years 104,000 more apartments are expected to be built and put for sale.

There were approximately 2,950 serviced apartments in all grades from A to C for lease in the city.

The number of units rose by 6 per cent quarter on quarter.

In this, the market share of Districts 1 and 3 was 62 per cent. District 1 ranked first with 1,500 units.

With no new projects completed in Q3, the primary market remained unchanged at eight projects and approximately 800 units.

Almost 490 villas and houses were sold. The average price of villa land ranged from $1,500 to $2,500 per square metre.

Phu My Hung New Urban Area in District 7 accounted for 70 per cent of the villas and houses that came into the secondary market and had an average price of $600,000–$2.8 million. HCM City's population growth average 3.5 per cent a year, double the national rate.

The market is expected to add at least 9,500 villas and townhouses in the next few years. Many projects are in the planning stage or awaiting for licences.

Most are concentrated in outlying districts like 9, Can Gio, Binh Chanh, Binh Tan, and Hoc Mon.

District 9 ranks first in terms of total area and number of projects (11).