Right after Tet Nguyen Dan, businesses in industries such as textiles, logistics, and banking are stepping up their production and business activities to catch up with the economic recovery. Meanwhile, the real estate industry is lagging behind.
According to reporters from Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper in Ho Chi Minh City, apart from a few projects that have resumed operations, real estate trading floors are sparsely staffed.
In our exchange with us, the leader of a real estate business revealed that after Tet holiday, only about 60% of brokers returned to work full-time from the 6th lunar day onwards, while 20% took leave until the 16th-17th lunar day. Some people took extended leave to switch to other jobs.
Explaining the long Tet leave for brokers, the leader of this real estate business said that the real estate market is still difficult, with very low liquidity and transactions only coming from customers with actual needs, few of whom are buying for investment purposes. Unlike in previous years, customers nowadays are very demanding, they require clear legal status and low prices for properties… which not every company or broker can meet.
“Before Tet, many clients inquired about houses in areas like Binh Thanh, Go Vap, District 3 with prices of 4-5 billion VND or apartments in District 9 (now Thu Duc City) with prices of 2-3 billion VND, but at the beginning of the year the market was quiet. Furthermore, there aren’t many products like that right now, so brokers are discouraged. I’ve boosted morale for my team by offering additional rewards, but it hasn’t made a difference yet,” said the person.
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Nguyen Tat Thinh, founder of Housezy Joint Stock Company, which specializes in real estate brokerage services, revealed that only about 30-40% of brokers return to work after Tet. The rest take extended leave because there are very few customers with buying needs at the beginning of the year, so they have no income and decide to take additional leave or find other work.
“We don’t have full-time employees, all of them are freelancers, so they are free to manage their own time. Many brokers said they take extended leave until the end of January because there’s a low demand for buying and selling real estate at the beginning of the year. Right after Tet, we had a few clients inquiring about houses priced around 3-4 billion VND in Go Vap, Binh Thanh, Thu Duc, but they were mainly just checking prices. Hopefully in the near future, there will be more customers and supply, so my team will have the motivation to work harder,” Thinh expressed.
A full-time broker at a real estate trading floor in Thu Duc City, Nguyen Duy Nhat, said he returned to work from the 6th lunar day. However, until now, there haven’t been any potential customers, so he feels discouraged.
“I’ve been working in the city for more than a week, I’ve contacted old clients to take them to see houses, but they refused because they were busy with their jobs at the beginning of the year. I contacted other customers, but they all said they didn’t have any needs. Many of my colleagues are still on Tet leave, and it’s expected that they will return to the city to find customers only by the end of February,” Nhat said.
