The real estate market in the central region is starting to show signs of a rebound in the post-social distancing period, mostly in the land plot segment while the condominium and villa segments are proving less vibrant.

A slew of land plot projects are coming onto the market in the past two weeks in Danang city’s real estate market. Besides some merchandised plot projects and projects selling high-end apartments and villas began to sell in the secondary market, but are finding few buyers.

Across the city, for the past two weeks, many buyers who had brought apartments at the Son Tra Ocean View, F-Home, Solei Anh Duong, Hoa Binh Green, and Monarchy projects were launched on the market on diverse social networking sites or specialised land and housing trade channels.

According to Le Tuan Hung, a freelance real estate broker in Danang, from early this month, several customers have authorised him to sell a dozen apartment units at nearly the same price at what they had bought them. Even at some condo projects near the coast like Solei Anh Duong and Hoa Binh Green, customers even accepted some loss just to be able to sell.

Besides apartments, other product types such as villas and commercial shophouses have seen the same.

At the same time, shophouse projects like Bau Tram Lakeside, Marina Complex, FPT City, or million-dollar villas at Vinpearl Premium Danang and One River Villas were put on sale by owners for a variety of reasons, but have reported almost no transactions.

Le Tuan Hung, the director of a real estate distributor based in Danang city that engages in selling villa units at One River Villas in Ngu Hanh Son district, said that due to the lacklustre market and the high price tag of each villa (prices are around $1 million per unit), the project has received little attention from the market. His company has been the F2 distributorfor the project since last year.

After the traditional Lunar New Year holiday in late January, Hung has decided to shift to acting as the distributor for a low-cost land plot project in Quang Nam province’s Duy Xuyen district.

In Hue city, high-end condo projects De 1St Quantum, Phu My An Tower is under construction and although brokers have started receiving deposits, transactions remain quite stagnant.

The situation is no better at completed projects such as The Manor Crown.

According to Nguyen Nhan, the owner of an apartment at The Manor Crown, he bought the nearly 60 square metre apartment for more than VND1.5 billion ($65,220).

Now due to the growing pressure from interest payment and his plans to invest in other land plot projects, he offered to sell the apartment at the price he bought it and still could not find a buyer.

Hung from the Danang real estate distributor has attributed this rush to sell to the impacts of the COVID-19, particularly on tourism and services, making the exploitation and management of offices, shophouses, and villas ineffective. This was exacerbated by increasing pressure from interest payments.

Also due to the implications of COVID-19, several high-end condo and villa projects were rolled out into the market before Tet such as Solei Anh Duong, Aria Non Nuoc (Danang), Shantira Hoi An (Quang Nam province), and Dolce Penisola (Quang Binh province), all of which are seeing slow business.

One "single" bright point in the apartment segment is FPT Plaza in Danang city.

The project, which is part of FPT City Danang in Ngu Hanh Son district, is under construction. According to the brokers, the apartment units are affordable, going from VND900 million ($39,130) to more than VND1.5 billion ($65,220) with payments made on schedule. The apartments range from 45 to 82sq.m.

Nguyen Van Dinh, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Association of Real Estate Brokers, said that only segments that fit customers' taste such as land plot and housing units with reasonable price tags will be able to resume pace. It will be hard for pricey projects to post a quick rebound.

By Tan Thuy