Vietnamese homebuyers among the most optimistic in ASEAN - survey

By VnExpress   February 24, 2017 | 01:36 am PT
Vietnamese homebuyers among the most optimistic in ASEAN - survey
An aerial view of residential houses in Hanoi. Photo by Reuters
Demand from foreign buyers is expected to help drive market growth.  

Confidence in Vietnam’s residential property market in the fourth quarter of last year hit its highest level since 2013, the Vietnam News Agency cited a Financial Times Confidential Research survey as saying.

The business newspaper's research service found that potential home buyers in Vietnam were more confident in their plans to buy property than most other neighboring countries in Southeast Asia.

The survey found that 8.5 percent of Vietnamese people said they planned to buy an apartment this year, compared to only 2.6 percent of Indonesian respondents.

Around 70 percent of Vietnamese respondents expected residential property prices to increase in the first half of this year, compared to only 53 percent of those surveyed in Indonesia.

The country’s residential property market recovery has been largely driven by improved access to bank credit, low inflation and stable economic growth, along with accelerated urbanization and an expanding middle-class population with higher incomes, the survey indicated.

In addition, the survey attributed the market’s surge to the government’s decision to allow foreigners to purchase property.

In 2015, Vietnam relaxed restrictions on foreign ownership of property to lure foreign investment needed to boost market liquidity saddled with an oversupply since the real estate bubble burst in 2011.

The amended law, effective from mid-2015, allows foreign investment funds, foreigners with valid visas, international firms operating in Vietnam and overseas Vietnamese to buy residential property.

There are promising times ahead for the local real estate market as demand from foreign buyers will drive market growth, local media cited the Vietnam Real Estate Association (VNREA) as saying in a report last November.

The number of foreigners living in the country has reached 320,000, the property association estimated.

Investors with business interests in Vietnam from Singapore, South Korea, China and Japan were the most likely to buy property, the VNREA added.

Foreign investment in real estate accounted for 6.9 percent of the $24.4 billion in newly registered FDI to flow into Vietnam in 2016, the Ministry of Planning and Investment said in a report.

FDI inflows into real estate reached $345.5 million in the first two months of this year, equal to 10.1 percent of new investments during that period, according to official data.

The Vietnamese market is expected to remain on an upswing, particularly relative to other markets in Southeast Asia, said the independent research service from the Financial Times.

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