Saigon apartment sales dip to lowest in 18 months

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% from last quarter and down 13% year-on-year. 

Grace C apartments took up 54% 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% 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% from the previous quarter, and was down 16% 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%. The supply of high-end luxury apartments fell 9.6%, and that of midrange apartments by 37.5%.

But the biggest decrease in supply was in the low-priced apartment segment, which was down 68%.

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% 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.