Huynh Phuoc Nghia, Deputy Head of International Business - Marketing Department of Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics, pointed out three investment choices that promise the most positive developments in the real estate market in the second half of the year.
Industrial real estate
According to Nghia, industry will be the most attractive sector in the second half of 2019 in the context of increasingly complicated US-China trade tensions. This competition adds a catalyst to help Vietnam catch the eye of many foreign manufacturers. They may shift the supply chain from China to Southeast Asian countries including Vietnam.
In addition, Vietnam's efforts to expand the free trade area, the latest of which is the Europe-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), signed at the end of June 2019, are also expected to boost attractiveness of the local industrial market and raise demand for industrial real estate.
The sharp increase in rental demand because of the escalating US-China trade war has pushed up rents for industrial land, premises, and factories in the local market by 10-15 percent, depending on each region. In the remaining months of the year, supply of industrial real estate is expected to increase and there will be more mergers and acquisitions or more new tenants and investors.
Resort real estate
According to preliminary statistics, in Jan-August period, the supply of resort real estate is quite diverse across the country. Along with the increasing supply, about 65% of participants in the real estate market this year are choosing coastal properties to invest in.
The major difference from the previous period is that individual investors and businesses are getting used to moving farther, while the openness as well as size of the market are getting bigger.
Nghia believes the wave of investment in coastal real estate will increase further in the next few quarters. The strong development of resort real estate investment thanks to impressive tourism growth and better inter-regional infrastructure.
Multipurpose real estate: ownership - accumulation - exploitation
Nghia said, in the first 8 months the year, the real estate market was flat, both sales volume and supply in major cities dropped. Investor sentiment therefore started to enter a more hesitation and defensive status than the 2016-2018 period.
Therefore, in the last months of the year, it is likely that real estate types including houses, offices, commerce and services can meet the demand of both owning and accumulating to increase value simultaneously will attract investment. This trend is considered a defensive step for the unpredictable scenario of the market in the next 12 months.
