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Tag: real estate

  • Number of Chinese buying high-end Saigon apartments skyrockets

    Number of Chinese buying high-end Saigon apartments skyrockets

    Attractive prices and returns have seen the number of Chinese customers buying high-end apartments in HCMC soar this year. Duong Thuy Dung, senior director of real estate market research firm CBRE Vietnam, said at a recent forum that 31 percent of high-end apartment buyers in HCMC in the first nine months were Chinese. This figure increased from only 2 percent in 2016 and 4 percent last year.

    In the last two years, Chinese were sixth among all buyers, but this year, they have surpassed Vietnamese to rank first.

    Only 24 percent of high-end home buyers are Vietnamese, CBRE data shows.

    Stephen Wyatt, country head of property service firm JLL Vietnam, said the number of Chinese buyers has been increasing because Vietnam has an attractive price compared to other markets like Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.

    Chinese people often compare prices in Vietnam with Shanghai when they buy properties, he said, adding that they hope to gain profit from higher property prices in Vietnam in the future.

    A high-end apartment in the city costs around $5,000 per square meter, but the same one in Hong Kong could cost four times, said Nguyen Khanh Duy, director of residential sales at real estate service provider Savills HCMC.

    Nguyen Hoang, director of research and development at real estate firm DKRA, said that the number of Chinese and South Korean buyers in HCMC started to increase last year.

    Chinese from Shanghai and Hong Kong are buying properties as investments (not to stay in). “Most projects that foreigners bought in the last two years are under construction,” he said.

    Other industry insiders said that the high returns that HCMC high-end apartments offer is attracting many foreign buyers.

    The rate of return is 5-6.5 percent in Thao Dien ward and Thu Thiem Peninsula in District 2, while in other Asian countries, this rate is only 3.7-5.2 percent, Duy said.

    CBRE senior director Dung added that it was not just Chinese, but foreign buyers in general who are showing an increasing interest in HCMC real estate.

    Dung said that each foreigner group has a different preference for high-end apartments. Customers from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan prefer large-scale projects near the downtown HCMC.

    South Koreans like to buy apartments in the southern District 7 that hosts a large community of South Koreans, while Western buyers often look for a quieter lifestyle in eastern District 2.

    Dung said HCMC is estimated to receive 40,000 new apartments in the 2018-2020 period, 60-70 percent of these in the high-end segment.

    In the last three years 35,000 luxury apartments have come into the market, CBRE said.

    This is a major increase from 2012-2014 when fewer than 10,000 units were on offer, CBRE said.

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  • HMV owes US$600,000 unpaid rental, face legal case

    HMV owes US$600,000 unpaid rental, face legal case

    Gadget, movie and music retailer HMV may face eviction from several of its Hong Kong store locations in coming weeks as landlords seek to recover unpaid rents and charges. Separate lawsuits have been filed relating to HMV stores in Causeway Bay, Central and Kowloon Bay, collectively seeking more than HK$5 million (US$640,000), according to court documents.

    The four-story HMV flagship store on Paterson Street in Causeway Bay was leased from Ever Light in July 2015 for four years at a monthly rent of $1.59 million for the first two years and $1.72 million for the ensuing two.

    Another store on Queen’s Road Central was leased in September 2016 from Pridemax for a term of six years at an initial monthly rent of $1 million.

    Those two landlords lodged legal action in the High Court of Hong Kong seeking payment of overdue amounts and vacation of the premises.

    About three weeks ago, MTR Corporation issued legal proceedings seeking to recover $273,300 in unpaid rent and charges and demanded the store vacate its space in Telford Plaza shopping mall.

    HMV was acquired by China 3D Digital Entertainment in March 2016 for $408 million, with the vendor, private equity company AID Partners retaining an approximate 18 per cent share.

    In 2015 AID received widespread acclaim for the restructure of the Hong Kong operations of what was once an iconic international brand name in music and movie retailing, but which collapsed in other markets with the advent of digital streaming undermining the popularity of DVDs and CDs.

    The Causeway Bay flagship, which incorporates a cafe and live music performance space, began specialising in lifestyle items including headphones, toys and even scooters, along with recognising the returning popularity of vinyl records.

  • Real estate in Saigon the most sought after in Vietnam

    Real estate in Saigon the most sought after in Vietnam

    Saigon leads Vietnam in real estate interest, drawing 300 million internet searches in the last 12 months. According to a report recently issued by Batdongsan.com.vn, one of the biggest property portals in Vietnam, Hanoi is the second most searched city when users look up real estate at 170 million searches.

    The two cities are followed by central Da Nang City, southern Bien Hoa Town, northern Hai Phong City, central Nha Trang Town, and Vung Tau Town and Can Tho City in the south in terms of popularity.

    Overall, the leading position of Saigon real estate is predicted to continue to remain the same because its housing market is still seeing a lot of actions.

    Consumer data collected from Internet queries also showed the level of interest given to real estate in each specific area.

    Saigon attracted the highest level of interest, at 41.8 percent of recorded consumers, the largest in Vietnam, while Hanoi had 29.7 percent. Central Khanh Hoa Province, Da Nang, and southern provinces of Dong Nai and Binh Duong recorded modest numbers, fluctuating between 3 to 4.5 percent. Interest is measured by saved searches, favorites and number of queries.

    The report also reveals that budget and midrange apartments in Saigon and Hanoi, which are priced between VND20-30 million ($860.47 – $1,290) per square meter, with an area of around 60-70 square meters are the type of high-rise apartments that attracts the most attention from Internet users.

    Meanwhile, in regards to content posted on the website of this organisation, foundation land (land serving as the foundation for housing projects to be built on) tops the board in the number of posts published, at 1.2 million posts.

    The land is also the most indulgent hunting with nearly 120 million searches, showing the habit of clinging to land, ownership of real estate in the territory of the Vietnamese, said the report.

    In addition, separate houses attached to land are also highly sought after, at nearly 120 million searchers. This shows the Vietnamese consumers’ preference to own land, or possess properties attached to land, according to the report.

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  • HCMC a top 20 Asia Pacific office rental market

    HCMC a top 20 Asia Pacific office rental market

    With office rents rising constantly for several years, HCMC has moved into the top 20 Asia-Pacific office rent markets. Grade-A office rents in Ho Chi Minh City have reached a five-year peak of $936 per square meter a year, according to property service firm JLL. The HCMC market has come under the spotlight in a premium office rent report for the Asia-Pacific region just released by the US-based global company.

    The report said that HCMC, an emerging market, saw annual gross premium office rents rising to $635 per square meter, a year-on-year increase of nearly seven percent, placing the city in the list of top 20 office rent markets in the Asia-Pacific region.

    It highlighted the case one unnamed building in the inner city, where a record rent level of $936 per square meter a year was registered, a peak unseen for many years.

    JLL assumes that the HCMC office market is heating up with increasing investment inflow from many multinational firms.

    The US firm added that the total supply of office space in HCMC has increased to two million square meters, a five-fold hike compared to Bangkok. The scarcity of premium office space in HCMC has constantly pushed up rents.

    Financial corporations are willing to pay for high-end office space in HCMC, while banking and financial firms were keen on premium office space, topping the list of 72 key tenant categories.

    Meanwhile, JLL said in the Global Premium Office Rent Tracker Q4 2018 that Ho Chi Minh City and Manila, the two more affordable cities in Southeast Asia, are attracting significant corporate interest, along with European cities like Amsterdam, Berlin and Warsaw.

    The firm said that growth in occupation costs is likely to slow down in 2019 as new supply comes through; however, while rental growth is expected to decelerate, there are very few major markets where a downward correction is projected for 2019. In fact, the delivery of new premium buildings will set fresh rental benchmarks in several markets, it predicts.

    Total occupancy costs are calculated by combining the net effective rent with additional costs, including service charges and taxes.

    JLL’s Global Premium Office Rent Tracker 2018 compares occupancy costs for premium office buildings across the world’s leading real estate markets. This fourth edition includes 72 office submarkets across 61 cities.

    The report includes the key elements of occupancy costs – net effective rent, service charges and government tax on rent – all standardized to enable true international comparisons.

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  • World’s first Nerf experience centre coming to Marina Square in 2019

    World’s first Nerf experience centre coming to Marina Square in 2019

    Shopping mall Marina Square has been chosen as the venue for the world’s first Nerf family entertainment centre. The Nerf Experience Singapore will open in the second half of next year, following a licensing agreement between Kingsmen Creatives subsidiary Nax Singapore and the Nerf brand’s parent Hasbro who will co-conceptualise, create, build and operate multiple Nerf experiences across Asia Pacific. Nerf is a collection of toys, mostly foam-firing plastic guns.

    Plans are underway to translate the Nerf brand values into a vast play experience occupying an 18,000sqft space on the ground level of Marina Square. Nerf Experience Singapore will feature multiple activity zones that promote active play and teamwork.

    CEO of Marina Square Lim Hock San said “Marina Square is positioned as a family mall in the city. The injection of the Nerf experiences fits our overall positioning and strategy to provide more activity-based experiences for the whole family. We believe the concept will be a great draw for both locals and tourists, creating much life and energy in the Marina Centre precinct.”

    Group CEO of Kingsmen Andrew Cheng said Nerf Experience Singapore is designed to be a year-round family destination and Marina Square is an excellent launchpad for the attraction.

    “Our goal is to create a brand of unique participative experiences that guests of any age can enjoy and will want to return to. With families constantly on the lookout for things to do together, we are confident that our offering of adrenaline-filled fun, coupled with enriching experiences will be a hit.”

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  • Alan Liis the new president of CBRE China

    Alan Liis the new president of CBRE China

    CBRE, the worldwide commercial real estate services and investment firm, recently announced the appointment of Alan Li as President, CBRE China, effective immediately. Alan will be responsible for CBRE’s advisory services across business lines in China, including Advisory and Transaction Services, Capital Markets, Asset Services, and Valuation and Advisory Services.

    Based in Shanghai, Alan will report to Ben Duncan, President of North Asia.

    To the newly created role, Alan brings approximately 18 years of professional experience in the China commercial real estate industry.

    He joined CBRE in 2015 and since this time has served as Managing Director of Capital Markets for Greater China.

    “The future of our brand in China will increasingly rely on our ability to further localize our business and solution offering to clients.” said Duncan.

    Alan is a member of Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and a registered real estate broker. He is also a member of All-China Youth Federation and the standing committee of Shanghai Youth Federation, and Vice President of Shanghai Foreign-Invested Enterprises Youth Talent Association. He holds an MBA from Fudan University.

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  • Lotte opens premium outlet in Giheung

    Lotte opens premium outlet in Giheung

    South Korean retail giant Lotte opened this week a new premium outlet in Giheung, Gyeonggi Province – the second-largest among its branches nationwide and the latest addition to large-scale malls launched by retailers here in hopes of raising offline sales. Lotte is pinning hopes on the latest outlet’s location, citing three highways and five major roads passing through Giheung.

    It aims to attract some 25 million shoppers in and around the region including Yongin, Suwon, Dongtan and Bundang in Gyeonggi Province.

    Chung Hoo-sik, an official in charge of the Giheung outlet, said that the shopping mall is geared toward consumers in their 30s and 40s who have children and live in southern Gyeonggi Province.

    “We found that 30- and 40-something customers from those areas have strong spending power. To attract them, we put entertainment facilities like an outdoor playground and entertainment zones for their kids (inside the outlet),” said Chung at a press conference on the launch.

    Built on 150,000 square meters of land, Lotte’s premium outlet in Giheung features 300 brands and is equipped with 3,000 parking lots. It is Lotte’s sixth premium outlet.

    The outlet has an indoor surf shop, Flow House, spanning 490 square meters. Lotte said it also houses Asia’s biggest Nike store in a 1,983-square-meter space.

    With an increasing number of people visiting multiplexes or shopping malls, retail giants like Shinsegae and Lotte have been opening large-scale malls in the outskirts of Seoul.

    Lotte opened a premium outlet in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, in October last year, two months after Starfield Goyang was launched. Lotte opened its premium outlet in Paju in 2011, nine months after Shinsegae opened its store.

    “We see it as an industry trend to open a mega mall or a premium outlet because there are consumer needs for convenient shopping and enhanced lifestyle,” said Lee Jung-hye, who designed the outlet, adding that Korea’s premium outlet market is valued at 20 trillion won (US$17 billion won).

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  • Central i-City to open on Jan 12

    Central i-City to open on Jan 12

    Central i-City is scheduled to open on January 12 as the largest shopping mall in Selangor’s state capital of Shah Alam, Malaysia. A joint venture between Thai retail property developer CPN Ventures and Malaysian developer I-City Properties, the 940,000sqft mall was constructed on an investment of RM850 million (US$204 million) and features 350 lettable stores, three levels of basement parking and six retail levels. Some 73 per cent of available retail space has already been leased, with the remaining stores expected to be taken up by early next year.

    CPN Ventures assistant VP of marketing Siegfried Shaun Dela Pena Tan said: “The mall is expected to transform retail experience for Malaysians. [It caters] to a more affluent target segment attracting shoppers who will spend more, appreciate better and be driven by quality. We expect that the mall will serve more than 900,000 residents in Klang and a further 700,000 in Shah Alam.”

    Central i-City Shopping Centre is CPN’s flagship project in Malaysia and first international project.

    I-Berhad executive chairman Tan Sri Lim Kim Hong said: “We are bullish about the retail market.

    People are unfazed by the economy. They are still shopping and dining out. The mall has a good tenant mix and 25 per cent of the total number of retail shops comprises food and beverage outlets.”

  • Hong Kong retail rent rises (too) fast

    Hong Kong retail rent rises (too) fast

    Prime Hong Kong street-shop rents rose 4 per cent in the first three quarters of this year, ahead of the up-to 3 per cent rise prediction by Savills a year ago. In a third-quarter real estate briefing released yesterday, Savills said shopping-centre retail rents, which Savills expected would fall as much as 5 per cent, have actually risen 2 per cent year to date.

    Savills expects prime Hong Kong street-shop rents and shopping centre rents will rise by about 2 per cent next year.

    “In the retail market, despite the headwinds of a weaker RMB, more competition from regional cities and elevated new supply in the New Territories, rents will rise modestly,” the company predicted.

    “New infrastructure in the form of the High Speed Rail Link and the Macau Bridge will improve accessibility for mainlanders, while domestic consumption expenditure is expected to remain reasonably robust. Online retail continues to make limited gains in the Hong Kong market.”

    Savills said prime street shops proved the only real estate category in Hong Kong to post a decline in sale value on a per square foot basis, falling 3 per cent – a stark contrast to the 10-12 per cent rise in flatted factories and warehouses, and 8 per cent rise in luxury apartments.

    The company predicts prices for prime high street shops are likely to fall by up to 5 per cent next year.

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  • Investors dominate sales of Vietnam’s high-end homes

    Investors dominate sales of Vietnam’s high-end homes

    Investors buy a high percentage of high-end residence purchases in Vietnam, while occupiers take most of the low-end ones. A recent report by real estate market research firm Savills Vietnam, Vietnam Residential Spotlight, says over 70 percent of grade A (high-end) residence buyers in Hanoi are investors. The ratio in Ho Chi Minh City is just as high at 65 percent, says the report, which used data for the 2013-2017 period.

    For the grade B (middle-end) segment in Hanoi, investors accounted for 40 percent of sales, occupiers, 55 percent, and the remaining 5 percent, speculators. The corresponding ratio in HCMC is 45 percent, 50 percent and 5 percent.

    The data indicates that high-end and middle-end residences have become main interests of investors in recent years. They evince almost no interest in grade C (low-end) residences where occupiers make up 85-90 percent of transactions.

    There has been a continuous downwards momentum in residential apartment supply between January and October this year, the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) said in a recent report.

    During this period, total housing supply in the Ho Chi Minh City market fell 39.2 percent. The biggest decrease in supply was in the low-priced apartment segment, which was down 68 percent, while that of high-end apartments fell 9.6 percent and mid-range went down 37.5 percent.

    The association warned that the structure of real estate supply showed a serious disequilibrium in the market, with low priced apartments taking up only 19.3 percent of total supply while luxury apartments took up a third.

    This showed a mismatch between demand and supply, posing a risk to sustainable development and social welfare, it said.

    However, Savills forecasts that low-end residences will dominate HCMC’s supply in 2020 at 61 percent, while in Hanoi, the middle-end segment will lead the market, taking over half of the supply. At this time, Hanoi will have a higher high-end supply at 15 percent, compared to HCMC at 8 percent.

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  • Lazada Malaysia to sell houses soon

    Lazada Malaysia to sell houses soon

    Southeast Asian e-commerce platform Lazada will begin selling houses in time for its planned 12.12 shopping festival. The move, in partnership with Malaysian property developer Mah Sing Group, constitutes part of Lazada’s plans to grow the variety of items on its platform.

    Lazada Malaysia CEO Christophe Lejeune said it plans to increase the number of Malaysian sellers from the platform’s current 50,000 to hundreds more, as well as provide support for 8 million Southeast Asian SMEs by 2030.

    Lazada operates in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and the Philippines, beyond the Malaysian market.

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  • Vietnam needs more hotels as tourism blooms

    Vietnam needs more hotels as tourism blooms

    The “golden age of tourism” in Vietnam presents robust hotel development opportunities in Vietnam’s biggest cities. Troy Griffiths, deputy managing director of real estate consultant Savills, said Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi are “under-hoteled per population, per travel and per airlift capacity”.

    “Hotel is a particularly dynamic sector at the moment as Vietnam is experiencing a golden age of tourism, with international tourism rising 20-30 percent year-on-year and more Vietnamese travelling than any time before,” Griffiths said.

    “There’s a demand for five-star hotels which will be really a strong asset class for the future,” he added.

    As of November, 14.12 million foreigners visited the country, up 21.3 per cent year-on-year and exceeding last year’s 12.9 million, according to the General Statistics Office.

    South Koreans dominated the surge at 46.5 percent, followed by Hong Kong (32.8 percent), Finland (29.6 percent), mainland China (26.9 percent), Taiwan (15.6 percent), and Denmark (15.4 percent).

    In the same period, domestic travelers rose 20.91 percent.

    “Hanoi and HCMC had been pretty quiet in the past as they went through a bit of a bad phase, when international visitors would pass and go straight to Da Nang, Phu Quoc and Nha Trang.

    “Now we see they are actually coming to Hanoi and HCMC because they are both very charming cities for international tourists,” Griffiths said.

    “And their stay is lengthening. That means more five-star demand.”

    Vo Quoc Phuong Trang, head of hotel investment consultancy at real estate service firm Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), also said that Hanoi and HCMC, with their steady economic and tourism growth, would continue to draw foreign investors in the high-end hotel segment, which Trang said has low risk but offers steady revenue.

    A report released in July this year by global consulting firm Grant Thornton stated that increasing numbers of well-to-do Vietnamese citizens are choosing to stay in five-star hotels and spend lavishly when they travel within the country.

    Vietnamese citizens accounted for 19.2 percent of 4-star and 5-star hotels guests in 2017, according to the report. Although this is a slight decrease from last year’s figure of 20.8 percent, the number of domestic guests staying at upscale hotels had increased for three consecutive years from 2014 to 2016.

    The country has seen a strong influx of international hotel brands and hotel management companies in the last few years. From 30 hotels with international brand names in 2010, the number had increased to 79 at the end of last year, according to Savills.

    There has been a particularly big jump this year with recent announcements by Mandarin Oriental and Movenpick in HCMC and Best Western Premier in the central province of Quang Binh, it said.

    The emergence of Vietnamese hotel operators is also a highlight in the local hospitality landscape.

    “Vietnamese hotel developers are also getting mature. They are acquiring international knowledge and becoming a really strong force in their own right as we have already seen across the resort cities with Vingroup, FLC, BIM and Sun Group,” Griffiths noted.

    Savills’ third-quarter report shows that the 5-star segment in Hanoi continued its strong performance in Q3 though the high travel season for foreign tourists lasts from the beginning of Q4 to April.

    Occupancy rate of five-star hotels in the capital city was highest, at about 80 percent, followed by four-star hotels (65 percent) and three-star hotels (59 percent).

    Average revenue of five-star hotels was $100/room/night, double that of four-star and three times that of three-star properties, the report said.

    Data said, ten out of 19 high-end hotels in the best locations in HCMC have foreign owners. These include Sheraton, Caravelle, InterContinental, Asiana Saigon, and Sofitel.

    In Hanoi, nine of 16 high-end hotels have foreign firms as major owners such as Melia, Sheraton, Sofitel Metropole, Nikko, and Pan Pacific being the major names.

  • Saigon apartment sales dip to lowest in 18 months

    Saigon apartment sales dip to lowest in 18 months

    The third quarter of 2018 saw apartment liquidity in Saigon fall to the lowest level in six consecutive quarters. According to property services provider Savills Vietnam, only 10,000 apartments were traded in Saigon in the third quarter of this year. The apartment sales were down 30 percent from last quarter and down 13 percent year-on-year.

    Grace C apartments took up 54 percent of total sales.

    Savills forecasts that by 2020, more than 124,000 apartments will be offered in the market, with Districts 2 and 9 in the eastern part of the city accounting for 55 percent of total supply.

    Meanwhile, another recent report compiled by property services provider CBRE Vietnam has reported even lower sales than Savills, at only 6,568 apartments sold in Q3. According to CBRE, sales fell 7 percent from the previous quarter, and was down 16 percent over the same period in 2017.

    Large disparities between real estate reports have existed between these two companies and are attributed to differences in statistical methodology.

    Recently, the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) released a report on the housing market saying that as of October 31, 2018, there has been a continuous downwards momentum in apartment supply from the beginning of the year.

    During this period, total housing supply in the Saigon market fell 39.2 percent. The supply of high-end luxury apartments fell 9.6 percent, and that of midrange apartments by 37.5 percent. But the biggest decrease in supply was in the low-priced apartment segment, which was down 68 percent.

    The association warned that the structure of real estate supply showed a serious disequilibrium in the market, with low priced apartments taking up only 19.3 percent of total supply while luxury apartments take up a third.

    This showed a mismatch between demand and supply, posing a risk to sustainable development and social welfare, it said.

  • Link REIT Buys Beijing Mall for RMB 2.56B

    Link REIT Buys Beijing Mall for RMB 2.56B

    Link REIT has reached a conditional agreement to acquire a RMB2.560 billion (US$368.8 million) shopping centre in Beijing. The property, Beijing Jingtong Roosevelt Plaza, is a seven-storey mall housing 268 retail tenants, with 576 car parks on two additional underground levels. Link said in a stock exchange filing that the property is located in Tongzhou, the eastern gateway to China’s capital, a rapidly developing district about 20km from central Beijing. It is in an established residential area with 30 per cent of the district’s population living within a 3km radius.

    The property has good connectivity, located on Beiyuan South Road, the district’s main artery, is a high-quality community mall with an occupancy rate of 96.2 per cent and a dynamic mix of retailers including food and beverage, fashion/accessories, kids/education and lifestyle, health and beauty, along with a cinema.

    Leases for about 20 per cent of the four year old centre’s tenancies (by space) expire in 2020, providing Link with an opportunity to enhance rental reversion and performance of the property by upgrading the trade mix.

    Link expects the net property income of the mall will increase, in turn bosting the capital value of the property, benefiting unitholders.

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  • HCMC to not build high-rise apartment until 2020

    HCMC to not build high-rise apartment until 2020

    The Ho Chi Minh City administration has decided that no high-rise apartment projects in the dowtown will be approved until 2020. Instead, priority will be given to repair and renovation of old apartment buildings. According to the housing development plan for 2016-2020 with orientation until 2025, that was approved by the HCMC People’s Committee on November 19, the city will not approve construction of new high-rise apartments in inner city areas (District 1 and 3) until 2020.

    Projects already approved and under construction will continue as usual.

    The city will also prioritize projects repairing or renovating 50 percent of 474 old apartment complexes constructed before 1975.

    It will continue to relocate households living along canals; construct new or renovate old, degraded condominiums; upgrade existing residential areas; continue developing new urban centres, and prioritize the development of social housing.

    The city will also focus on completing unfinished projects in some uptown districts and refrain from approving new housing projects if there are no plans to build adequate technical and social infrastructure in the area.

    The focus on completing existing projects will also apply to outlying districts. Housing in rural communes will be prioritized and high-rise apartments will be focused along major transport corridors or where technical infrastructure can support new housing.

    In particular, Ho Chi Minh City will invest in and prioritise the development of social housing projects to meet the needs of eligible residents, and for those who are resettled by urban beatification projects.

    The plan aims to free up more land for social housing projects in the 2021-2025 period.

    It envisages raising total living space in the city by 40 million square meters and per capita housing area to 19.8 square meters by 2020.

    To implement the housing development plan, the city estimates a budget of over VND310 trillion ($13.27 billion), of which investment capital for commercial real estate will amount to VND82 trillion ($3.51 billion), residential housing VND210 trillion ($8.99 billion), and rest for social housing.

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