Investors pay the price as Vietnam condotels unravel

A friend of mine was working for the company that sells these condotels, I told her there would be grief for investors of these units. Just another dodgy developer.

Guaranteed return of 12 and 15 percent?  If it sounds too good to be true...

As I have said many times, trusting people like this is about as advisable as sticking your John Thomas into a rabid dog's mouth.
However, greed commonly beats common sense so people get ripped off the schemers do a runner, or  just lose their shirts when the schemes go wrong.

Never invest ( in Asia) what you can't afford to lose. My money stays in my account in my country. Rent is cheap.

Greed, when investing I was told if your not happy with 10% then you are greedy. As already said.....
If it sounds too good to be true then it is.
Whistler

This one keeps popping as an ad on my Facebook.  I refuse to link it for their benefit but some snippets are attached.  Who possibly considers $7,200 per square meter for an APARTMENT a good deal?

The MARQ's sale price is only $ 7.200 / Sqm, which is extremely competitive compared to projects like Alpha City - Centennial Ba Son - Grand Maha...

And for the investor:

POTENTIAL INVESTMENT FOR SKY-HIGH LEASING PRICE:
The Marq, when completed, promises to become a new "magnet" luxury residence on Nguyen Dinh Chieu - Mac Dinh Chi road, which is expected to attract a large number of foreigners to rent.
The rental price of this area is also predicted to be sky-high of the city.
Therefore, owners of the Marq also means owning the "golden-egg laying chicken " property.

I want me some of that golden-egg-laying...chicken??? action...It must be better than the goose that lays the same eggs.

SteinNebraska wrote:

This one keeps popping as an ad on my Facebook.  I refuse to link it for their benefit but some snippets are attached.  Who possibly considers $7,200 per square meter for an APARTMENT a good deal?

Delafon?

😉

Tell this to the poor sods who bought the Novaland Madison project. The building sits empty while the the case greases through the criminal court system. Ouch..

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles … and-seized

I'm not at all surprised about all this.

All you have to do is drive through Saigon and look at the banners, some of them years old, that line the land borders.
They are banners for glossy projects. Projects mostly directly on the water. With "Riverside" or similar there is often advertising.
But when you are on the spot you have to look for the water to find a stinking channel of the river.
If you look behind the banners at the land or project, the reality is usually sobering. Either green meadows, building ruins or partially realized projects that are far away from what the glossy advertising promises.

And what can go wrong after the handover (unfinished infrastructure, lack of maintenance, etc.) we don't even talk about.

If I invested in Vietnam at all, I would buy a unit in the lower price segment (maximum 1 billion) in a project that has been working for years.
You can't get very rich with it, but the chances that you make big losses are also smaller.

AkaMaverick wrote:

If I invested in Vietnam at all, I would buy a unit in the lower price segment (maximum 1 billion) in a project that has been working for years.
You can't get very rich with it, but the chances that you make big losses are also smaller.

Is this even possible anymore?  I suppose it depends on location.  I've been looking for an apartment in D2 around An Phu because we like it here.  My wife wants a house here and I want to retire in Da Lat so we agreed to buy something here first, then Da Lat.  Best I'm finding in my area is around 2.8B for a two bedroom. 

I always said I'd never buy an apartment but since we just want something to land on when we visit HCMC with the main house in Da Lat I'm now considering an apartment.  Plus, seeing as we want to buy in the next year before we go to the US for four years an apartment might be more secure to leave vacant for an extended period of time.  I am not sure how often I will still be traveling here in the next four years just for work but it would be nice to have a "home" instead of hotels to use if coming back any significant amount of time.

SteinNebraska wrote:

Is this even possible anymore?

Not in D2 or similar.

But outside of the center, e.g. in Binh Chanh.
For example in the Terra Rosa towers in KDC Intresco 13E.
But this is far to the airport and D1, D2, etc. and the neighbours are not very quiet because most are Vietnamese.
But the air is better and it's not so crowded.
To each his own.

Along the Nguyen Van Linh and the Vo Van Kiet
street after the QL50 in direction to the QL1A are also some not new towers.

Canman62 wrote:

Never invest ( in Asia) what you can't afford to lose. My money stays in my account in my country. Rent is cheap.

Agreed with this, If you invest something rather then your homelands, then there will be so many disadvantages on that. (with my experience)

This just in: related news about the real estate market...

https://ampe.vnexpress.net/news/busines … 20870.html

Link above shows sales slowed due to declining supply not declining demand, though.  I suspect the demand is still there somewhat, but maybe not the high end stuff that was being offered in recent years and is recently taking a hit on new sales.  Guess when we put my wife's house up at less than 3 Billion we will see if there is still a demand.