Top projects reap returns despite slowdown

Real estate projects located in premium locations offer the developers a business advantage

“We believe that this is the right time to be in the market for luxury property on account of its resilience to price fluctuations, and the less attractive nature of asset classes such as falling bank deposit rates, stocks and gold prices,” Richard Leech, executive director of CBRE, told participants at the launch of Hoang Thanh Tower’s mocked-up apartments last week.

Developed by Tran Hung Dao Joint Stock Corporation, Hanoi’s Hoang Thanh Tower is located in Ba Trieu street, next to Vincom Towers. As there are no other projects in the surrounding areas for sale at present, the developers are confident to fix prices at more than $4,000 per square metre, making it one of the most expensive properties currently on sale in the country.

Domestic developer Tan Hoang Minh last week also started construction on the D’ Le Pont D’or overlooking Hoang Cau lake in Hanoi’s Dong Da district. The company is developing two other luxury properties, the D’ Sans Raffles in Hang Bai street, Hoan Kiem district and D’ Palais de Louis in Nguyen Van Huyen street, Cau Giay district.

According to Leech, quality projects in prime location remain attractive to buyers.

“Hoang Thanh Tower ticks all the boxes in terms of being the right time to buy. Apart from being nearly ready for handover, Hoang Thanh Tower comes to the market at a time when there are very little or virtually no comparable apartments for sale in Hanoi,” he said.

Sharing this point, Do Quang Lam, deputy general director of Tan Hoang Minh Group said that a prime location was the number one selling point and was offered a business advantage for Tan Hoang Minh Group’s real estate projects.

Over the years, Tan Hoang Minh has pursued real estate projects in premium locations.

According to the country’s leading real estate group Bitexco chairman Vu Quang Hoi, the prime criteria that any real estate investor or buyer paid attention to was the location.

The nicer and the more unique location the project has, the greater attractiveness it has and the higher price. Therefore highly priced projects would prove popular, Hoi said.

Leech said that the prices of high-end apartments in the city’s central districts had remained resilient despite the downturn in the market. If the market continued to improve overall, then it would next to impossible to buy such high-end apartments at their current prices.

“Coupled with the obvious lack of new supply in this sector for the foreseeable future and their location, it leads one to believe that this is a unique opportunity to be buying low as the market starts to pick up, with very limited supply in a capital city location surrounded by quality conveniences,” he said.