Land inquiries, transactions down 20 pct

They fell sharply in the city’s Hoc Mon, Binh Chanh, Can Gio, and Nha Be districts, but less steeply in Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Long An, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau provinces, according to real estate firm Colliers Vietnam.

Long An has a lot of vacant lands.

Colliers CEO David Jackson said the decline is due to the fact that investors’ money flows, especially short-term, have been disrupted amid the pandemic.

Under pressure to repay loans, some have been forced to resell lands at cost or even below, severely affecting liquidity, he said.

The segment is driven by infrastructure development, but now the government has had to plow resources into combating the pandemic, resulting in some major projects coming to a halt or slowing down.

Besides, the fact that many property brokers have taken advantage of information about planned development of airports, expressways and ports in some localities to inflate prices has made investors cautious.

If vaccination is done quickly and the pandemic is controlled, work on many infrastructure projects would resume, resulting in continued money flows into land deals, Jackson said, but added it would be difficult for the segment to recover in the short term.