Dong Nai becoming housing hot spot as neighbouring HCM City runs out of land

Many new real estate projects will be implemented in Dong Nai this year. — VNA/VNS Photo

Eleven major real estate projects will be developed in Dong Nai this year, according to the province People’s Committee.

Novaland Group is working on Aqua City in Bien Hoa city’s Long Khanh Commune.

Being built on more than 600 hectares, it will have villas, street houses, shop houses, and public utilities such as a school, shopping centre, children’s playground, marina, and others.

Hung Thinh Corporation has announced plans for the second phase of its Bien Hoa New City in Bien Hoa city. The 118.95ha project will have more than 1,000 units, mainly villas and street houses.

According to the People’s Committee, 310 residential projects will be completed this year on a total of nearly 9,300ha, mainly in Nhon Trach, Long Thanh and Bien Hoa.

More than 10 of them spread over more than 100ha, including the Binh Son new urban area (555 ha), FPT Dong Nai high-tech education urban area project (314 ha), Binh Son resettlement area (284ha) in Long Thanh District, and Long Tan residential area (125 ha) in Nhon Trach District.

Him Lam Land has announced plans for an apartment project with around 6,000 units in Bien Hoa this year.

Dong Nai has large tracts of land available not far from HCM City, where unencumbered land has become difficult for developers to find.

According to the provincial authorities, Dong Nai has huge demand for housing since it has 1.2 million workers from other provinces living and working there.

Besides, with its location adjacent to HCM City, real estate projects have attracted a lot of buyers from HCM City, experts say.

But the problem is prices have increased sharply in recent times, putting real estate out of the reach of people who have real demand for housing, they say.

Ha Van Thien, deputy general director of Tran Anh Group, told Dau tu (Investment Review) newspaper that apartment prices in the province started at VND18 million (US$773.6) per square metre, unaffordable for the majority of local people.

Besides, buyers are mostly investors, meaning many apartment projects remained sparsely occupied, he said.

Long Hung Residential Project in Bien Hoa city, for instance, sold out a long time ago, but only 5 per cent of units are occupied, he said.

The Dong Nai market offered potential but also challenges. Project developers should think about serving people with actual demand for housing, he said.

A project could only be considered “successful” when all its units were sold out and people lived there, he said.

Housing prices in the province had increased by 35 per cent a year, which was not a good thing since they should be steady, he said.

Truong Van Phuong, head of the Long Thanh District Natural Resources and Environment Division, said the local real estate market had been too heavily influenced by speculators, who had pushed up land prices too high.

"The number of people who have real demand for land is not much, so the risk of a real estate bubble is real." — VNS