HCMC high-end shophouses attract few tenants

A VnExpress survey early this month showed many of the high end shophouses along Nguyen Co Thach Road remained vacant. On the lower tier, shophouses worth VND27-35 billion with monthly rents of VND30-58 million along Dong Van Cong Road, and those with monthly rents of VND18-20 million in the Cat Lai area were in the same situation.

The owners of many shophouses along Pham Van Dong Road are offering lower rents to lure new tenants.

Meanwhile, although shophouses are attracting few tenants at present, their selling prices remain high and are even increasing, realtors said.

Chinh, a realtor, explained that buyers considered shophouses a long-term investment channel and regarded leasing them as a secondary option. Selling prices of most of shophouses have now doubled compared to 3-4 years ago, he said.

He did not provide specific figures.

Nguyen Huong, CEO of Dai Phuc Land Company, told VnExpress that shophouses often have few tenants in the short term because the entire real estate development projects are yet to be completed, and they have insufficient infrastructure and facilities now.

The Covid-19 outbreaks over the past two years have heavily affected the real estate market, she added.

Now, most shophouses have rents of just 1.5-2 percent of their cost price. Their owners expect selling prices to surge in the long run, she said, noting that the surge could go as high as 25-30 percent per year.