Hanoi (VNA) - Industrial real estate will be a highlight this year and next,despite the sector as a whole struggling with the impact of COVID-19, accordingto Nguyen Quoc Anh, Deputy Director General of Batdongsan.com.vn, the leading propertywebsite in Vietnam.
Industrialproperties around the country have become more attractive to foreign investorsthanks to the new EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), shifts in globalmanufacturing bases, and its effective control of the coronavirus, Anh said atthe release of a market report for the third quarter on October 6 in Hanoi.
Batdongsan.com.vn’sQ3 market report shows that industrial real estate enjoyed impressive growthduring the period, while COVID-19 continued to cast a long shadow over othersub-sectors.
Data fromthe Ministry of Planning and Investment reveals that 336 industrial parks (IPs)were established in the first half of this year, 261 of which have been putinto operation, on an area of 29,100 ha.
Searchesfor IPs were on the rise from June to September, according to the report.Compared to the same period last year, searches for Vietnam-SingaporeIndustrial Park (VSIP) Bac Ninh rose 22 percent, Tan Binh IP 20 percent, HiepPhuoc IP 23 percent, and Tan Tao IP 37 percent.
Prices ofland lots near IPs in Bac Ninh’s Tu Son and Yen Phong districts rose 1 percentquarter-on-quarter, while those in Binh Duong’s Di An and Thuan An districts alsogrew considerably.
The COVID-19 resurgence in late July and early August landed apunch on the chin of the real estate market. This was followed by theseventh month of the lunar calendar, known as the “Ghost Month” and duringwhich people around the country avoid making big decisions like home purchases.
However,a survey conducted by the site indicates that real estate remains the leading investmentchannel. Even when the gold price hit a record high, 57 percent of the site’susers still leaned towards real estate as their choice of investment. And some58 percent of respondents said they would still purchase properties during theGhost Month, Anh said.
Condos remainthe most popular choice, accounting for 29 percent of searches on the site,followed by land lots (23 percent). Some 64 percent of respondents said theywould rather buy a condo than a house down a small laneway.
The site forecastthat real estate prices would pick up by about 1.4 percent in Hanoi and fall bysome 2 percent in HCM City in the final quarter of the year./.