Many huge residential and urban projects have attracted investment in Districts 9, 2, 12 and Can Gi District in recent years. However, most of the areas, located in spots where so-called land fever has occurred, are unfinished, especially in District 9.
In 2005, District 9 had hundreds of projects attracting many investors, most of whom were land speculators. Many of the projects, however, remain unfinished or those that have been completed have few occupants.
Hundreds of land plots are uninhabited in HCMC.
At the time, Dong Tang Long Urban Area project was among the most promising projects for speculators. After nearly 15 years of development, the project has only 10 villas, while hundreds of land plots are uninhabited.
“You should never wait to invest in real estate, but instead you should buy the property and wait to sell it later at a much higher price,” Nguyen Van Thang, a broker for the project told Vietnam News.
The same siatuation was seen at the Bac Rach Chiec project in Phước Long A Ward in District 9, developed by Real Estate 10 Company with more than VND600 billion for site clearance and internal road infrastructure.
Due to a lack of connecting roads and facilities such as supermarkets, schools and hospitals, the area has become a parking area for container trucks.
Other areas like Binh Trung Dong and Thanh My Loi, which used to be a busy market for land speculation, are now just an immense field with only few residents.
Meanwhile, the Saigon SunBay sea encroachment project, developed by the Can Gio Tourism Urban JSC, in Can Gio District stopped developing after the site clearance work completed.
Under the original plan, the project would include hotels, resorts, shopping malls with entertainment services, and luxury apartment and villas serving 31,000 residents and visitors. It was expected to be finished by mid-2016 and take five years to build a system for sea encroachment and other technical infrastructure.
It was important to develop connecting roads to project areas and invest in facilities to serve residents, said Nguyen Van Duc, deputy director of Dat Lanh Real Estate Company
Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of the HCMC Real Estate Association, said buyers of land plots are mostly speculators. He added: “Buyers with real demand should wait for prices to stabilise and ensure the project’s legitimacy before making a payment.”
In 2018, real estate prices across HCMC soard sharply. The city’s Eastern part was a land fever hotspot, with land prices in districts 2, 9, Thu Duc, Nha Be, Binh Chanh and Can Gio all surging by 50-100 percent compared to the end of the previous year.
