VietNamNet Bridge – A lot of expats in Vietnam have affirmed they will spend
millions of dollars to buy houses here, denying the opinion that even if the
government opens the real estate market to foreigners as proposed, this would
not attract foreigners, who believe that the real estate price in Vietnam is
overly high.
Owning houses better than renting
Analysts have noted that the foreigners’ demand for possessing houses in Vietnam
has been increasing rapidly.
Philip, a Canadian citizen, who now works as an English teacher for a foreign
language center in Hanoi, said he has been living in Vietnam for three years,
but he still has not been allowed to buy a house in Vietnam.
Philip now still lives in a 100 square meter apartment in the West Lake area
which he leases from a Vietnamese landlord. The rent alone costs him $2,000 a
month, or VND40 million.
“The real estate price in Vietnam has become very reasonable. A high end
apartment is priced at US$100,000-200,000, or VND2-4 billion,” he said.
“It would be better for me to buy an apartment in Vietnam than living in a rent
one,” he added.
Alexander, an US expat in Vietnam, said a lot of his friends complained that
they cannot find stable accommodations, though they have been here in Vietnam
for 5-6 years. Most of them are the engineers working for the projects which
require senior experts.
Alexander himself finds it uncomfortable to live in rent houses in Vietnam. The
rents are very high, about VND50-60 million a month for high end apartments, and
VND20 million for lower quality ones. The Vietnamese landlords can regularly
raise the rents or ask the tenants to leave as soon as they find better clients.
The man said his friends are quite willing to spend millions of dollars to buy
apartments in Vietnam, but they still cannot.
Foreign money on the doorstep to the real estate market
A report by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment showed that
427 foreigners had bought houses in Vietnam under the pilot program on allowing
foreigners to possess houses by February 1, 2013, including 342 cases in HCM
City. The figure proves to be too small if noting that there are 80,000 expats
in Vietnam.
Lawyer Bui Quang Hung from the Bui Quang Hung Associates Law Office, has
confirmed that a lot of foreign subjects wants to buy houses in Vietnam. They
include the expats who plan to work for long term in Vietnam under the contracts
with domestic companies and international groups.
He also said that foreigners want to buy houses not only for their
accommodations but for leasing for money as well.
Nguyen Van Minh, Director of the Phat Dat Real Estate Trading Floor, said some
his foreign clients are seeking to buy high end apartments, priced at VND8-10
billion.
“They said they would pay in cash as soon as they receive the apartments.
However, I told them I could not help, because they were not the ones allowed to
possess houses in Vietnam,” Minh said.
The Ministry of Construction, lawyers and real estate firms have been of the
same mind about the necessity of setting up a new policy on allowing foreigners
to buy houses. Lawyer Hung said that the “open policy” would help attract a
strong foreign cash flow to the real estate market, which would serve as a big
capital source for Vietnam.
VTC