NEW APARTMENT BLOCKS

If you need an English speaking environment like the Manor, you will need to pay top $$. If you can live in a nice Vietnamese area, a 2 bedroom can run from, the landlord's offer to sell offer, when we moved out about 6 months ago, USD $35,000 for a small 2 bedroom with 1 bath to USD $100,000 for a very nice apartment.

That is the facts of life.

I am familiar with the Manor and it is a nice "Little America/Australia/UK." We stayed with our daughter(an American Lawyer) who was getting her to license to practice law in Viet Nam. She was paying USD 3,000/month to rent a nice 3 bedroom 2 bath apartment.

That area around The Manor is not where you would be wanting to buy a place. Look elsewhere, get your wife to do a search in areas away from the many expats as the price is ridiculous. You will find many people don't buy here as the market is just not good value, they prefer to rent and get 7% interest on their money in the banks or invest in Blue Chip stocks.

I myself wanted to purchase an apartment in SGP and was told by a real estate friend that the average price for apartments around that area (Binh Thanh) should be around VND 45,000,000 - 50,000,000 per sqm. You were probably subjected to an imaginary markup that is only applied to foreigners, but you can always haggle.

I bought in District 7 in the sunrise City development, I paid 4.2 billion Dong for a high floor 2 bedroom, two bathroom, lounge and kitchen, It's nice and a good return if I decide to rent it when we move on, I can get 1150 USD per month for it, fully furnished.

Nice area not to far from District 1 and you also have a good shopping centre in district 7  called the Crescent and plenty of restaurants locally.

And I should add a good mixture of expats and locals

lovingit wrote:

I paid 4.2 billion Dong for a high floor 2 bedroom, two bathroom, lounge and kitchen, It's nice and a good return if I decide to rent it when we move on, I can get 1150 USD per month for it, fully furnished.

This is similar to other properties I've seen. Let's do the math.
$1150 is 25.6m VND.
Let's say your net annual rental income is 11 months x 25.6m VND to allow for maintenance, vacancy, property association fee, insurance, etc.
Simple return estimate is  (100%) x (11 x 25.6m) / 4200m = 6.7%
Equivalent to 7% checking account interest per @colinoscapee which is almost risk free.

Maybe there is RE asset appreciation? I don't know.
However, you are exposed to property value depreciation, rental price fluctuation, vacancy, repair and upgrade costs, ever changing government rules about foreign ownership, local and foreign taxes.
I dunno. Rents seem too low for income property investment to me.

Thanks Guys for your responses...
Could we address the point as to whether these inflated prices in Saigon may lead to another 2009/10 price collapse...

Well the market has only rebounded over the last few years, so it may be awhile before we see a drop. There are many,many new apartments being built here, so the older apartments should drop in price, when that happens who knows. You could always contact someone in the industry to get some feedback as to what is happening.

michaellieptourists wrote:

Thanks Guys for your responses...
Could we address the point as to whether these inflated prices in Saigon may lead to another 2009/10 price collapse...

It is possible. But, be warned. If the construction financing is not fully paid, one could be liable for paying a share of the construction financing even if you paid the full price of the apartment in cash. Realestate is a tricky business most places, in Viet Nam even more so.

To the best of my couple of year dated knowledge, "escrow" is still little known, if known at all.

If you pay the full price in cash anywhere you are running a big risk.

There is always a risk when buying property in a foreign country, a few expats in Dubai I know have invested in developments there only to have lost their investment when the bubble burst a copy of years ago. I never really saw buying my property as an investment other then when move to Europe next year it will generate some income after costs which gobot rightly point out with rental if we choose that path the other option is my Wife's nieces will move in! (Oh dear maybe a mistake)....

colinoscapee wrote:

If you pay the full price in cash anywhere you are running a big risk.

Yes. Absolutely true. You are totally right. But, that is not how most Realestate is bought or sold in Viet Nam.

Escrow charges, paying loan points, title insurance(Red/pink book sort of handles), building inspections, contracts, Realtor commissions etc. can run up to 10% of the purchase price and are well worth it. But, that is not how normal people do things here. Have bought a house and a farm and am in the process of selling the farm.

A normal people Realestate deal here is you shake hands on the deal. Then when one side has the papers all together and the other side has a bag of enough cash, you get together and trade papers for cash.

Note, Dad was an architect, step-father was a construction supervisor and I was a heating and A/C  contractor and Realestate speculator in America. I agree. You are right. But, it just isn't done that way here for the overwhelming number of Realestate transactions.

Hi there,

I could not help replying to your post,  i am from Brisbane and live in Saigon, do not get sucked in with inner city apartments, yes you are right, this is a rip off price, this is nearly the same as the brisbane real estate market,   My suggestion is to buy in nearby suburbs around the city hub, and buy a house, it is easier for re-sale and no overhead ridiculous costs of body corp fees etc......etc

Anyway this is my opinion, good luck with your sea, land / change.

Des in Saigon

hd375c wrote:

Hi there,

I could not help replying to your post,  i am from Brisbane and live in Saigon, do not get sucked in with inner city apartments, yes you are right, this is a rip off price, this is nearly the same as the brisbane real estate market,   My suggestion is to buy in nearby suburbs around the city hub, and buy a house, it is easier for re-sale and no overhead ridiculous costs of body corp fees etc......etc

Anyway this is my opinion, good luck with your sea, land / change.

Des in Saigon

I mostly agree with you. But, "Rip-off" seems a bit unfair. The land cost in what you call "the inter city" is astronomical and traditionally a number of the builders who put up these buildings wind up bankrupt. Nowadays, you've got foreign money chasing what could well be a pretty good property crash and some major losses for foreign investors.

Where you and I live, is an entirely different and much more rational Realestate market. But, the problem where we live is that it is still largely a cash market and "escrow" and other protections against fraud aren't in general use.

My 2 Xu 1Xu=1/100th of a dong

My piece of advice. Better stick to expat area n housing. It is nice in some local area but then can you accept kids urinate in the lift.  The fish sauce smell ? even then it is a friendly area.  Hygiene is not there. It is unbearable,  I got to get out of this place fast.  On top of that, owner is a local n making thing difficult and deducting here and there when you want to leave.  Be careful though...

esoong4822 wrote:

My piece of advice. Better stick to expat area n housing. It is nice in some local area but then can you accept kids urinate in the lift.  The fish sauce smell ? even then it is a friendly area.  Hygiene is not there. It is unbearable,  I got to get out of this place fast.  On top of that, owner is a local n making thing difficult and deducting here and there when you want to leave.  Be careful though...

For many people, your advice is good. But, some of us have been in and out of Viet Nam since the 1960's, have been married to a Vietnamese wife for over 43 years, speak passable Vietnamese, spent a couple years down wind from a CHEAP ngouc mam factory, have lived with young children and made an effort to study Vietnamese history and culture, and did not retire to Viet Nam to live in a "Little America, Australia, UK etc."

hi there,
it's extreamly discerning for you to ask about the flat to stay for a long term in Saigon, you should consider itself legal, I also have a two- bedrooms  near the centre it costs 100.000 USD  I bought it with 1 year ago, its side is 83 sqm and very beautiful and convenient, this year ending i am  leaving here. If you like i will transfer it for you

Hi.

You can buy a cheap apt in Vinhome Central Park 3 too

Cost you 170.000 usd. Inc vat  with 80 sq2. Two bathroom. Two bedrooms   

Have many cheap one depend which size you want
I just bought it. Very nice 
If you like give me email address I will send to you apt pics and Park video I took last Time at Vinhome

1) close to d1. - city center. Only 5 mins by car
2) not traffic  jam
3) bus station pass by
4) metro too
6) closer to d2- call new city in Ho Chi Minh.
7) many nice restaurants n bar building at the basament ( under the Vinhome park -44 ha)

8) Vinhome is so beautiful area in my eyes.
Thi.

You definitely right if your chosen lifestyle suits you....

yeah! I totally agree  with you... sometime I wonder why so many expat bought  too much expensive flat like Vinhome or Novaland because they have only 50 years ownership... only convenient thing is that they can live in English speaking environtment... but now most of local people who was born after 1980( about 60% population) can speak and understand English very well why don't expat stay among with them? they have many strength for foreigner to learn and know alot of thing about local culture. so it's wasteful to buy a  7 billion apartment instead, buying a good- new apartment around 100.000 USD is a good idea

anthonyngo wrote:

yeah! I totally agree  with you... sometime I wonder why so many expat bought  too much expensive flat like Vinhome or Novaland because they have only 50 years ownership... only convenient thing is that they can live in English speaking environtment... but now most of local people who was born after 1980( about 60% population) can speak and understand English very well why don't expat stay among with them? they have many strength for foreigner to learn and know alot of thing about local culture. so it's wasteful to buy a  7 billion apartment instead, buying a good- new apartment around 100.000 USD is a good idea

To be honest it's not about being in an English speaking environment,it's about the quality of the building and the history of the builder. For example, never buy from any builder connected to the government like Petro Land, what an absolutely disgraceful company. I have seen enough construction work here to know that most builders are junk. The better companies are ones such as Nova Land and Vin Homes, at least the place will be completed 100% unlike government companies.

surely, paying for goverment properties is risk, they have political relation, their capital is not very safe. however there are other real- estate Developer like, An Gia, Hung Thinh, golden Land ... their quality 's also good, but the maximum price for 221 sqm Apt is only  200.000 USD, the others in Binh Thanh, dist 7, 9, Tan Binh has got reasonable price( 50, 70, 100 thousand usd)  which is beautiful also...in my opinion, the sample is nice, fully furnished. I bough 4 apts from Hung Thinh and believe that was a good deal... I sale a one in Tan Phu, it brung me a good benefit ... I'd rather buy 5  Hung Thinh or An Gia apt than 1 of  novaland or vinhome ... it's too much !

If you look at the amount of foreigners who have bought here you will find its very very low, somewhere around 300. Most people don't like the VN property market due to all its regulations and difficult paperwork. Agree that you can find some reasonable apartments, but many expats don't know about those companies as they don't advertise on expat sites.