Prices of apartments in the secondary market in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) continued dropping by 10% in Q4/2011 compared with the previous quarter, said Colin Luff, director of valuation and consultation department at Knight Frank Vietnam.

The information was provided in the report on property market in HCMC released on Jan 12th.

Normally, the fourth quarter is the most busy time in the year for the apartment market. However, the city recorded the low  buying transaction rate in Q4/2011, Collin Luff said, explaining the main reason was the low market liquidity, investors needed money to pay back loans. This could put pressure on the unsold apartments in the primary market. 

About 2,200 apartments were sold in Q4/2011. Of which, the popular segment accounted for 66%.  Flats with prices ranged from VND10-17 million/m2 were the most buyers’ interest.

The majority of new supply offered in the market in the Q4/2011 were from outlying districts such as Binh Tan, Nha Be, Tan Phu, Binh Chanh and Thu Duc.

Some primary projects had declined the selling price by 20-30% and offered many supports in Q4/2011 but transaction was still low as buyers bored “ wait and see” attitude.

According to Knight Frank Vietnam’s experts, domestic investors such as Phat Dat, Novaland and international ones like Capitaland, Indochina Land are aiming at the intermediate  and popular segments  to meet  real demand from most buyers.

Source TEI/StoxPlus