City lacks realty information

City lacks realty information

By Dinh Dung - The Saigon Times Daily

New condo buildings go up in HCMC’s Nha Be District - Photo: Dinh Dung

HCMC – The shortage of information and data is a drawback for the crisis-hit real estate market in HCMC, according to the city’s Steering Committee for Housing Policy and Real Estate Market.

With sufficient and accurate statistics reflecting the real situation of the housing and land market, State management agencies are able to make proper orientations, forecasts and policies for the development of the market.

However, each State agency has developed its own database. This explains why the relevant authorities’ quarterly reports on the realty market are based mainly on data from CB Richard Ellis Vietnam (CBRE), making it hard to offer a full picture of the market, according to the committee.

Local media is also dependent heavily on reports, analyses and market reviews by CBRE, Savills Vietnam, Colliers International and Knight Frank Vietnam.

This shows the urgency of the establishment of a database center where the local realty market can be forecast and reviewed in a more professional way.

This year the committee has told the HCMC Statistics Office to conduct a survey and collect data on the city’s housing and real estate development annually and every five years.

The city has got 163 condo projects completed so far, providing the market with about 41,400 units, 33.6% of them for low-income people.

Most successful condo transactions done in recent times are in the low-cost segment, showing strong demand for low-priced housing.

An estimated 27,700 apartments will be marketed this year, with 11,600 of them for low-income buyers, 7,500 for the medium-cost segment and 8,200 the luxury segment. The new supplies, coupled with the unsold, will put greater pressure on the dampened realty market in the coming time.