90% of office workers are 'investors'

Never before have investors in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City "blossomed" like they do now. Just buy stocks, deposit money to buy an apartment or contribute capital to buy/sell to become an investor.

In Vietnam, there are no official statistics, but up to 90% of office workers are “investors”. This is the information Mr. Le Thanh Trung, Deputy General Director of HDBank gave at a conference on finance and real estate recently held in Ho Chi Minh City.

Illustration photo. Source: Internet

According to Mr. Trung, investors in the two big cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have never "blossomed" like they do now. Of course, he also made it clear that they only need to buy stocks, deposit money to buy apartments or contribute capital to buy/sell for investment to be called "investors".

However: "They are called investors, but their main form is to contribute money to buy real estate, and deposit savings in banks. Investors only need to know that the real interest rate is positive, meaning the interest rate is greater than inflation each year," said Mr. Trung.

This person also informed that the trend of savings deposits continues to increase, especially from the population. Previously, many people tended to speculate in stocks and real estate, but now they are switching to long-term investment channels. This not only reflects the increase in the living standards of the population, but also shows that people are more cautious about other investment channels.

According to Mr. Nguyen Sy Cong, General Director of Coteccons, both real estate investors and home and land buyers are now much more realistic.

Mr. Cong said that 5-10 years ago, real estate investors came to construction contractors with a rather romantic mindset when they wanted to invest in lifetime real estate projects.

“Now they are much more realistic. When they meet us, they ask whether the project can be sold after it is completed, what is the maximum price that can be sold, can 18-20 million/m2 be sold? They discuss with us that from the construction height coefficient they are licensed, how to optimize the usable area," said Mr. Cong.

This person explained that the issues that investors pose to contractors like that mean that investors are now less egoistic, focusing more on the actual needs of customers, focusing on design, functionality, and convenient services surrounding the apartment.

That is why investors and contractors today compete with each other in design solutions, functions and amenities of an apartment.

In addition, the mid-range, affordable and consumer-friendly market segment has always accounted for a high proportion over the past years. This trend is especially evident in the two major cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Mr. Cong said that many large investors are planning to develop large urban areas with hundreds of thousands of apartments, with average prices that can be suitable for many people, from new graduates, office workers or people migrating from the countryside to the city.

"The trend of renting 2-bedroom apartments is considered better than 1 or 3-bedroom apartments," said Mr. Cong.

According to Zing