While many individuals own houses worth billions of VND, they often find themselves lacking neighbors for years. Moreover, accessing essential amenities can be challenging as many projects within the urban area remain incomplete.
In the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, it is not unusual to find rows of adjacent houses in urban areas with only a handful of families residing there. There are even cases where out of ten to fifteen villas, only one family has moved in. Many individuals eagerly await their neighbors, but to no avail.
Ms. L, a resident who purchased a nearly 200m2 villa worth 12 billion VND in the East of Ho Chi Minh City in 2021, shared her experience. For four years, her street has only had her family as residents. A neighboring family has expressed their intention to move in, but it will take about two more years. According to Ms. L, most of the villas are either for rent or sale, left untended with overgrown grass, and the owners are rarely seen. “The houses are built to a rough finish and left unlocked. Over the years, I’ve only encountered real estate brokers bringing clients to view the houses, and I rarely meet the actual owners,” she said.
Ms. L also noted that while the prices of these properties continue to increase annually, the occupancy rate remains low. Some owners choose to rent out their properties as warehouses at relatively low prices, ranging from 4 to 5 million VND per month.
Many assets worth billions of VND are left abandoned by their owners for years. Photo: TB
Observations reveal that some urban areas on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City struggle to attract actual residents. Most of the townhouses and adjacent villas have been sold to investors or speculators, and after a period of bustling buying and selling activity, these properties are left vacant, with prices surging. Even without any occupants, the prices of these properties continue to rise.
According to some real estate brokers, there was a time when groups of investors from the North traveled to Ho Chi Minh City to snap up townhouses and villas in the urban areas on the city’s outskirts. This created an artificial shortage, driving up prices. As a result, actual homebuyers were priced out of the market, leading to many streets in these urban areas remaining sparsely populated for years.
The situation of purchasing a townhouse or villa and waiting indefinitely for neighbors, as experienced by Ms. L, is not uncommon in certain areas and projects. It may take a while for actual demand for these properties to emerge, and this is a consequence of abnormal speculation during periods of abnormal feverishness in the market, detached from the reality of actual residential needs.
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