Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Ireka to build on i-Zen brand in Vietnam

IREKA Corp Bhd plans to aggressively grow the i-Zen brand for its overseas property development, especially in Vietnam, says executive director Lai Voon Hon.

“The Vietnamese market offers vast opportunities for the i-Zen brand, as the country has a young and educated population, strong foreign direct investment and a proactive government that promotes changes and liberalisation,” he told StarBiz.

He added that that the group was targeting the upper middle income segment in Vietnam.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Property buyers wait for prices to fall further

The HCM City real- estate market could not recover this year as buyers were waiting for prices to fall further and were unable to get loans to buy property, according to some experts.

Le Hoang Chau, chairman of the HCM City Real Estate Association, said prices had fallen by an average of 40-60 per cent, although losses of up to 70 per cent were not uncommon from the peaks at the beginning of this year.

He said the market remained frozen, with hardly any deals taking place. Even potential buyers said they were hoping for prices to fall further, he added.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Real estate firms look to government for support

Dinh The Hien, an Eximbank board member, said property is the most common collateral for bank loans, adding it accounts for 80 percent of outstanding loans.

“Without the government’s assistance to boost the market, banks will have to sell off or occupy properties of borrowers who fail to repay debts.

“[This] will send supply surging, depressing property prices further.”

But Kien Long Bank’s deputy general director Pham Khac Khoan said it takes banks three years to complete the procedures required to dispose of a property.

“Properties that are in demand should be sold first,” he said, to prevent prices from plunging.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Figuring out the bottom of the real estate market

It is very dificult to figure out the bottom of the real estate market
Tran Viet Dung, the Director of the HCM City Branch of Togi Real Estate Corporation, thinks that the real estate market will have to decrease even further to reach the bottom.



Dung, who is an expert in real estate assessment, said that with the current sale prices, real estate investors can still earn a high profit. Dung affirmed that real estate prices have far exceeded the price levels at the time when investors began selling their products.



Therefore, he believes that though real estate prices have decreased by 40-60%, it would need to drop by a half of the current price to reach the bottom.



Le Van Nam, an investor in the Tan Binh district of Ho Chi Minh City, thinks that the real estate bottom is the price level before the price fever at the end of 2007 and early 2008. However, Tran Viet Dung, another investor, did not agree with this opinion, saying that similar fever attacks were also seen in previous years, such as 2005-2007.

Vietnam Real Estate News

Chao Vietnam Properties