Out and about: Customers at a cafe along the Saigon River in District 2 in Ho Chi Minh City. — Bloomberg
HO CHI MINH CITY: The Ho Chi Minh City commercial property market has returned to its growth trajectory from before the Covid-19 pandemic thanks to the retail and services sector as well as increasing number of foreign visitors to the city, say experts.
A report from the city’s department of industry and trade affirmed that one year after the Covid-19 pandemic, local industries are back on track. Many sectors have reached positive growth.
The department reported that the city’s total retail sales and services in the first nine months of 2022 reached 466 trillion dong (RM839bil), up 21% over the same period a year ago.
During this period, international visitors hit 1.87 million, 16.4 times higher than the same period last year. About 70% of those visitors came from Asia.
Thanks to these positive signals, the property market has recovered.
Real-estate services firm Cushman and Wakefield said that the occupancy rate of the whole market reached 93% and the total accumulated supply of shopping malls, department stores and commercial units reached one million sq m. The average rental price is US$48 (RM229) per one sq m each month, up 5.6% over the same period last year.The building speed for new retail supply is still quite low. From 2017 to 2019, Ho Chi Minh City saw an average of 80,000 sq m being supplied to the market every year; but in the past three years, there has been no new supply recorded.
However, future retail projects are on the rise, with 140,000 sq m of floor space currently under construction.
In its latest quarterly report, CBRE said that Ho Chi Minh City recorded improved vacancy rates in both the central business district (CBD) and non-CBD areas compared to the previous quarter.
According to CBRE, the occupancy rate in the third quarter in the central area reached nearly 93.8%, up one percentage point quarter-on-quarter. — Viet Nam News/ANN
