Infrastructure boosts Can Tho real estate

VNRE - The real estate market in Can Tho City is flourishing with price increases of between 10 and 15 per cent over last year, according to a report by Savills Viet Nam Ltd.

Savills, a 100 per cent foreign-owned company and the largest real estate consulting firm in Viet Nam, said the average price of land in Can Tho was about US$311 per square metre, up 10 per cent compared with last April.

Unfinished houses were priced at $515 per square meter, 15 per cent higher. Significantly, many recently launched housing projects sold out their products very soon, the report said.

Independent market observers have concurred with the report. They said that after being sluggish for a long time, the Can Tho real estate market had recovered strongly with an increasing number of successful transactions.

The Can Tho Housing Development and Trading Company, for instance, sold 300 house foundations within three days of offering them. This had never happened before, they said.

Construction and Investment Joint Stock Company No 8 also sold 500 houses recently under its Hung Phu project for the Petrol Vietnam Finance Company.

The number of people looking for opportunities to buy houses in the Hong Loan Property Company's My Hung Urban Area and the My An Residential Project has also increased significantly early this year.

A representative of the Mekong Real Estate Company (Mekongland) said the number of real estate transactions as well as prices in Can Tho City early this year were about 15 per cent higher than figures recorded in late 2010.

Properties in the Hung Phu urban area were the most sought after, he said.

Analysts attribute the Can Tho real estate market's recovery to the recent development of infrastructure in the city and surrounding areas that vastly improves access to and connectivity with the city.

A series of infrastructure development projects have already been completed, or are being implemented, including the Can Tho Bridge, the Tra Noc International Airport, the Dinh An Port and the Can Tho City-Chau Doc-Phnom Penh Express Way.

Many property investors from Ha Noi, HCM City and neighbouring provinces are looking for opportunities in Can Tho, giving the local market a boost.

Truong An Duong, head of Savills Viet Nam's Market Research department, said Can Tho had many favourable conditions to develop its housing industry.

It had a large land fund that was also more easily amenable to planning new residential areas, Duong said.

He noted the city had nine projects that were selling unfinished houses and 10 others selling 11,000 land lots and 4,500 finished houses.

These numbers were still too small compared with the 1.2 million strong population of the Mekong Delta city, the Savills Vietnam report said.

The Nguoi Lao Dong(Labourer) newspaper has said city administration will replan the city to ensure it would have more than 40,000 hectares for housing development by 2030.

The paper also reported that an additional 25 housing projects covering a combined area of 1,000 hectares will be introduced to the market this year.

Can Tho City is inviting foreign and domestic enterprises to invest in projects like the construction of industrial parks, office buildings, apartment buildings and tourism properties, said Tran Thanh Man, chairman of the Can Tho People's Committee.

Source: VNA