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Many real estate trading floors in Hanoi have closed due to the moribund property market.
Property trading floors on Le Van Luong Street have been left deserted
According to VnEconomy, property transactions from apartments to land have remained at a standstill. The number of customers who have real demand for property has sharply decreased compared to early this year. This has spelled major concerns for real estate trading floors – the legally recognised bodies responsible for all property transactions, with official sales at a standstill.
Massive closure of real estate trading centres
Land prices in Hanoi have been on the fall, particularly in the area of Nam An Khanh, Van Canh and Trung Van with a decline by 20-25%. Therefore, lots of real estate trading floors in these areas have halted operations.
Up to half of around 70 real estate trading offices along Le Van Luong Street, once renowned as the centre for property brokerage services, have halted operations.
Nguyen Tien Dung, Director of Van Phuc Real Estate Agency said, some months ago more than 10 property offices were located around his offices, but now, only four have remained in business thanks to their financial capacity and business contacts.
To maintain operations, the real estate trading centres need to source apartments priced at less than VND1.5 billion (USD72,815) or land plots of below VND2 billion (USD97,087) to meet customer demand.
A representative from the Phu Thinh Property Trading Centre said that previously each customer paid fees of between VND500,000 (USD24.2) and VND1 million (USD48.54) to see houses or land plots, but these fees had dried up.
Most of the centres also exempted brokerage fees of 2% for each successful property transaction, with the fees now dependent on direct negotiations between the centres and buyers.
Saving costs
Investors cut costs of their advertising and promotional campaigns, choosing cheaper local companies over more expensive foreign partners.
Many investors have decided to dispense with third parties altogether to promote their projects, including major players such as Viglacera, the Dai Duong and Nam Cuong group and Archi Land Vietnam.