Despite the recent resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic, many real estate developers trust they could sustain challenging times and forge ahead with growth plans.
While another virus wave will be a blow, real estate has had time to come up with contingency plans, Photo: shutterstock
According to many real estate experts, the coronavirus outbreak has cast drastic impacts across the economy, and the real estate market is not an exception. They added that the second wave of the pandemic after a temporary lull, was, to a degree, expected so it is not as much of a worry as the first wave was.
Thus, some predicted that implications on the real estate sector will be short-lived and have no bearing on long-term development prospects in the country.
Given the tremendous actual demand and strained supply sources, once the pandemic is contained, the market will once again be awash with prospective buyers.
Nguyen Huong, CEO of Dai Phuc Land, opined that the outbreak this time is not as critical as people are more psychologically prepared. In addition, people are more conscious of preventive measures after the first wave – and given the active pandemic control of the central and local governments in the previous months, many believe COVID-19 could be contained soon.
“At this point in time, our firm put top priority on the application of the best safety measures to ensure the health of our employees while maintaining progress at our projects and carefully preparing for effective deployment of post-pandemic development plans,” said Huong, adding that as the actual demand for housing is tremendous while supply remains limited, the current difficulties are fleeting at best and even offer opportunities to investors with long vision and good financial positions.
Sharing this mindset, Nguyen Quoc Bao, deputy general director of Danh Khoi Group, assumed that although 2020 is a tumultuous year for the real estate market, growth prospects are not all that gloomy on account of the huge actual demand. He was confident the market would rebound soon after the pandemic is reined in. He advised businesses to maintain operations and ensure resources are available to seize development opportunities after the pandemic subsides.
“Since the outset of 2020, despite numerous hardships in the market, Danh Khoi Group has bought projects with upbeat growth potential for investment at a later time,” Bao said.
Along with this, in the past few months, Danh Khoi bought up the entire stake of Sun Frontier Investment Co., Ltd. to become the developer of a Sun Frontier project and acquired Aria Danang Hotel & Resort with the scale of 7.5 hectares from Hanoi Non Nuoc Investment Tourist JSC.
It also bought three land plots in well-placed areas with more than 11,000 square metres of area belonging to Con Tan Lap residential quarter in Nha Trang city in the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa.
Bao added that as the projects the company bought are in good locations popular among customers, he is confident their products featuring solid investment plans would sell well despite unfavourable market conditions.
Business executives were not taken by surprise by the COVID-19 outbreak this time. Many of them have even prepared long-term development plans based on experiences from previous pandemic incidents.
Tran Le Thanh Hien, Danh Viet Group CEO, assumed that the current time is good for businesses to take a pause and reassess their operations, their possible shortcomings in the past, from there restructure operations.
For Danh Viet, immediate measures include conducting an integrated study to find sales models that suit the current circumstances. For instance, instead of traditional sales methods like face-to-face contacts with customers or holding meetings, the company has shifted to online sales to ensure safety for both customers and employees.
Ngo Duc Son, deputy general director of DRH Holdings, however, warned that more difficulties await, therefore, businesses should strive to hedge resources so that they can seize opportunities in the successive new normal.
The recent resurgence of COVID-19 in the central city of Danang that has spread to other areas in Vietnam – with cases detected already in Quang Nam, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Ha Nam, and other localities across the country – has been a cold shower for the local real estate market, which had just regained some growth after the previous wave.
While the market was not as bustling in the past few months, it posted a stable number of transactions, particularly in segments where the products met actual demand, such as land plots and low-end to medium-end residential units.
Source: VIR.