Real estate is poised for a year-end surge.

Buyers' concerns about year-end price increases, coupled with developers' massive release of new properties, have made the market significantly more active in recent weeks.

For over a month now, Toan, a real estate agent, has noticed that business is much better than in the second quarter. From mid-September until now, he has sold three luxury apartments and one villa.

"These buyers are all people I've been advising for the past few months, but they were still hesitant. Recently, the market has seen many new projects, and many customers are worried that house prices will increase at the end of the year, so they've decided to make a purchase," he said. According to Toan, his colleagues are just as busy with the year-end sales race.

Mr. Chinh, another real estate agent, has also been significantly busier over the past month as the number of interested buyers has increased across all segments, from apartments and villas to townhouses."The last quarter of the year is usually the time when the biggest wave of activity occurs because many customers worry about house prices being pushed up, so they buy early. This year, the supply is predicted to be quite large, so some developers have taken a proactive step, launching attractive products onto the market earlier than expected," Mr. Chinh commented.

Therefore, from mid-September, to capitalize on the market trend, many large and small developers across all segments continuously launched new projects onto the market. The abundance of products on the sales platforms gave customers more choices, making transactions easier to complete. "I'm currently selling five projects, instead of just two like at the end of August," Mr. Chinh said.

Both developers and distributors are racing against time during what typically sees the best liquidity of the year. Photo: Tomas Slavicek

Mr. Vu Cuong Quyet, Director of Dat Xanh Northern Vietnam real estate agency, commented that the market has begun to enter its peak period since the beginning of October, with an increase in both the number of interested customers and the supply.However, while 2015 saw a surge in liquidity due to a significant increase in speculative activity, this year the apartment market has maintained a more stable transaction growth rate, with most buyers having genuine housing needs.

The sales manager also stated that a price comparison of projects in the same area and segment in Hanoi showed that prices this year are 6-8% higher than last year. He believes this could be the reason why many customers are concerned that prices will continue to rise until the end of the year.

He also stated that liquidity typically differs by 30-40% between the lowest and highest points of the year. Therefore, right from the beginning of the fourth quarter, after projects are launched onto the market, many customers immediately make down payments to easily choose the best units.

According to a market report recently published by research and consulting firm CBRE, a total of 5,279 apartments were sold in the third quarter, one and a half times more than the previous quarter. Of these, the number of units sold in the high-end segment continued its upward trend since the beginning of 2016.

According to the same unit, in the first three quarters of 2016, the number of apartments sold reached approximately 14,200 units.

"Positive market sentiment remains, with sales catching up relatively quickly with the number of new units launched. Looking ahead, the market is predicted to continue its positive trend in the final quarter of 2016. Both sales and new launches are likely to continue their growth momentum. Many projects will continue to be launched in the final quarter of the year, scattered across developing areas of the city," the CBRE report stated.

According to Ms. Do Thu Hang, Deputy Director of the Research Department at Savills Hanoi, prices in the last quarter of the year and in 2017 will continue to show positive developments in the apartment, villa, and townhome segments.

She also assessed that, with the apartment segment, while there were previously concerns about inventory issues, the market is now shifting towards investing in rental apartments, so this situation will not occur.

"With foreign investment in Vietnam continuing to thrive, foreign experts have a high demand for housing, leading to a rapid occupancy rate for newly built high-rise buildings, leaving few vacant units," Ms. Hang observed. This is also why buyers are more confident in making transactions.

According to VNE