Property sellers make 30% price cuts, but buyers hold out for more

Hoang, a real estate broker with 15 years’ experience, said the current market slump has given rise to intense bargaining by buyers.

In April he took a buyer to a seller with a large parcel of land near Binh Dien market. The owner asked for VND47 million ($2,002) per square meter, down 25% from the start of 2022, and had documents in proper order.

But after inspecting the land several times the buyer asked for a price of VND23 million. The shocked owner called off the deal.

Hoang said it was merely the normal strategy of starting low and then slowly raising the price to get the best possible deal, but now the starting prices are outrageously low and sellers refuse to continue negotiations.

Quoc in HCMC’s Binh Chanh Province is offering a 4,800 sq.m piece of land at VND27 billion, a 30% cut from last year.

But he said many people are asking for a price of VND20 billion, a 48% discount from the original offer price last year.

Trung, owner of a plot of land in Bao Loc in Lam Dong Province, needs money urgently and is offering it at VND11 billion, 30% less than the market price at the start of 2022.

But one buyer asked to buy it at VND7 billion, a 60% discount. The negotiations are still ongoing.

The situation is similar in Bien Hoa and Dong Nai provinces.

Ha, whose villa construction has been delayed, needs money because the project’s developer stopped subsidizing her bank loan interest, and is asking for VND12 billion, 30% less than what she has paid, but buyers want a 50% discount.

“Buyers claimed that some people cut the price by 50% for a one-shot payment and so offered to pay VND6 billion for my villa. That was too low, and so I had to find other solutions.”

Luong Dinh Thuy Van, CEO of investment consulting firm Mogin Holdings, said this year organizations and individuals with cash in hand are looking to buy in the secondary market, but only from people seeking to cut their losses and often ask for discounts of 50% or more.

“The usual refrain from buyers is that they are in no hurry to buy.”

With the back-and-forth bargaining, liquidity in the secondary market is low, he added.

Huynh Phuoc Nghia, senior consultant at Global Integration Business Consultants company, explained that despite the fall in prices buyers are apprehensive about investing now fearing they would in turn suffer losses, and so bargain hard.

There is still a big gap between the prices buyers and sellers expect, and so those with money are still waiting on the sidelines, he said.