Today's English "Real estate market is expected to recover when virus is under control"

Real estate market is expected to recover when virus is under control.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a slowdown in the property market but many experts believe this is only temporary and are pinning their hopes on a rebound once the virus is under control.

Sử Ngọc Khương, senior manager at real estate consultancy firm Savills Việt Nam, said the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the second quarter of this year significantly affected socio-economic development. The real estate market saw declines in purchasing power and investors were more cautious.

Statistics from Việt Nam’s largest property portal batdongsan.com.vn showed that after reaching a peak in March, the level of interest in the real estate market showed signs of decreasing.

Real estate searches on the portal in April dropped by nearly 18 percent against March with searches for the land down by nearly 21 percent and apartments by 17 percent. Interest continued to decline in May with searches for residential land decreasing by 19 percent.

Notably, prices of apartments saw an increase of about 3 percent against the same period last year.

Deputy Director of the Việt Nam Association of Realtors Nguyễn Văn Đính said the shortage of supply was a major reason for the increase in the apartment prices in the first half of this year.

According to Matthew Powell, director of Savills Hà Nội, the COVID-19 pandemic would continue to impact the real estate market, causing uneven development between different localities, different market segments and different projects.

It was important that the virus be put under control together with the vaccination program, he said, adding that when the virus was successfully contained, the investment would flow into the economy.

He, however, urged individual investors to study the information of property projects, planning, and infrastructure development carefully before making decisions.

Mai Đức Toàn from the Construction and Material Trading Group said not only the real estate market but other sectors were holding their breath for the updates on the pandemic.

“The market is still difficult to predict. Local land fever might occur. If the pandemic is successfully put under control, the market would bounce back in the second half of this year,” Toàn said.