Many businesses in Vinh City have deep price reductions but are still sluggish.

Currently, non-essential items such as fashion, cosmetics... have very few customers. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Although social distancing has ended, the Covid-19 epidemic situation has been controlled, Vinh city has entered a "new normal" state, business and trading activities have been restored. However, due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, business has fallen into a slump and stagnation.

Unable to survive, many business owners are forced to give up their premises on main roads and retreat to small roads, side roads or alleys to cut costs. Unable to hold on, many have had to put up signs of liquidation of goods, give up their premises and temporarily stop doing business to “cut losses”.

Many fashion shops that could not hold out had to liquidate their goods, return their premises on main roads, and change their business locations to reduce costs. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Mr. Pham Phu, the owner of a perfume and cosmetics store on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street, who has just moved to Kim Dong Street, said: "The rental price for the space on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street was 13 million VND/month, but now it's only 7 million VND. Although it's not convenient for business and not as bustling as the old place, at the moment, cutting costs in half is a lot less pressure. Coming here, the store is just a display place, and mainly sells online."

Old customers pay for their premises while new customers do not dare to invest in business during this difficult time, so the premises on the streets of Vinh city are deserted. Many landlords said that even though they reduce the price, there are still no tenants, because very few people dare to risk opening a business during this period.

Many fashion shops on Nguyen Van Cu Street are offering promotions, discounts and transferring premises. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Mr. Nguyen Duc Anh, owner of ashops for renton Nguyen Van Cu street said: “After the old tenant returned the store, I hung up a for rent sign, posted it on pages, groups, and even asked real estate agencies to post the ad, paid transaction fees, and paid for advertising, but after 3 months, no one has signed on to rent it. In 15 years of renting out space, I have never had to post a notice to find a tenant like this. Before, as soon as one person started to move out, another person would immediately come in and put down a deposit.”

If in the past, shops for rent on Nguyen Van Cu, Tran Phu, Dinh Cong Trang, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai streets... were considered ideal locations, convenient for business, "hunted" by shop owners to rent, rarely vacant, then after consecutive epidemics, the rental price of premises on these streets has decreased by 30 - 50% on average but there are still no tenants.

All over the streets, there are dense signs of "space for rent". There are places that have been posted for rent for nearly a year but still have no tenants. Photo: Thanh Phuc

In other areas such as Le Viet Thuat, Nguyen Phong Sac, Tue Tinh, An Duong Vuong streets, there are many kiosks displaying signs "space for rent" at preferential prices.

In addition, many owners also offer many support policies such as: Only having to pay rent once a month instead of paying the full 3-6 months as before; rental price reduced by 30% compared to before; support for painting, redecorating the premises as requested...

Surfing through some social networking sites, information sites aboutreal estateIn Vinh city, it is not difficult to find information on leasing business premises, factories, or transferring stores posted by many business owners.

There are many vacant business premises, and rental prices also tend to decrease slightly because the general mentality of many business owners is cautious, waiting for the epidemic to end before investing, causing business rental premises to fall into a slump.

According to analysis by experts working in the real estate sector, after a year of economic decline due to the impact of the epidemic, the sluggish situation is the common reality of most businesses. The decrease in purchasing power makes small businesses not dare to risk renting premises to open stores because the cost is too high. In addition, the Covid-19 epidemic has changed customers' consumption habits and most of them have switched from buying directly at the store to buying online.

Therefore, the demand for renting street-front business premises is decreasing and is no longer of interest as before. Therefore, the business premises market will take a long time to recover and return to its real value, without the price fever as before.