Vietnam - Struggling to sell penthouses

HCMC/HANOI – Luxury penthouses covering hundreds of square meters each located on the top of high-rise buildings are aimed at wealthy customers, but investors are struggling to sell this kind of apartments in the current tough times.

The duplex apartments of the Gold House (An Tien) project under development in HCMC’s Nha Be District are put up for sale at VND10 million per square meter, or some VND4 billion a unit. Wooden floors and interior decoration items worth VND100 million will be handed over to buyers together with complete houses.

HAGL Land, owner of the project, has sold it to secondary investors, including Saigon Mekong Company. In November last year, secondary investors decided to sell 500 units at some VND14.5 million a square meter, down VND4 million from the previous price.

Meanwhile, in District 12, Dat Land Real Estate Company is seeking permission to split the penthouses of Thai An condo projects into smaller flats. Nguyen Van Duc, deputy director of the company, said this method would make such apartments more affordable for customers.

Similarly, in Hanoi, many secondary investors are offering penthouses at lower prices than the prices they bought at a few years ago.

Previously, one must count on personal relationship to own a penthouse, but now those in need can easily access this kind of apartments, which are on sale at various prices.

For example, the penthouses of the E1 Ciputra project in Tay Ho District, covering 230 square meters each, are put up for sale at VND10 billion per unit, while the owner of the Hapulico project Thanh Xuan District is offering penthouses at around VND31 million a square meter.

The penthouses of the project CT6 Xa La in Ha Dong District are on sale at VND14.5 million per square meter, equivalent to the price of a normal apartment in other projects.

Dao Ngoc Thanh, general director of Viet Hung Investment and Development JSC (Vihajico), said penthouse sale is impacted by the general difficulties of the market. In addition, Vietnamese people still prefer houses attached to land.

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