Da Nang: Coastal real estate market bustling

VietNamNet Bridge – After a long period of quiet, the Da Nang real estate market has become bustling again, with the land in coastal areas in particular being hunted by investors.

The central city of Da Nang is now a place where many real estate developers are choosing to develop tourism real estate projects.

Beach Resort is one such project, covering an area of 260 hectares near Ngu Hanh SonMountain. The expansive project includes one golf course, a villa area called Ocean Villas, a high end apartment area called Cham Condominium, and a five-star hotel, JW Marriott. VinaCapital, the developer, has nearly finished the construction of Ocean Villas, and the Cham and Dunes golf course have already been put into operation.

Hyatt Regency Danang Resort & Spa, developed by Indochina Land is also a well-known real estate project in Da Nang. It comprises three towers A, B and C with 174 apartments and 27 villas. It also has a 199 room hotel, meeting hall and entertainment areas. The construction of the project, capitalized at $130 million, started in September 2009.

Michael Piro, an executive of Indochina Land, said that the apartments at Hyatt Regency Danang Residences will have the average sale price of $200,000 for each. To date, 75 percent of the apartments of villas of Hyatt Regency Danang Residences have been sold.

Analysts said that the buyers are mainly from Hanoi and HCM City, who account for 80 percent of the total clients.

The land market in Da Nang has boomed recently with many more completed transactions and rising prices. The land plots on advantageous positions in coastal residential quarters, like Pham Van Dong and My Khe areas, have seen the sale prices skyrocketing. Analysts say that the prices of land in the areas have increased by two fold in comparison with 2009, when the real estate market became frozen, with land now selling at 10-14 million dong per square metre. Land for building villas has higher price of 17 million dong per square metre. Prior to 2009, a 100 square metre land plot here had the sale prices of 400-500 million dong. With the land price escalating, people now have to spend one billion dong at least to posses such a piece of land.

The land plots where investors are allowed to set up high rise buildings, such as the ones on Pham Van Dong Road and the coastal road of Son Tra – Dien Ngoc, have very high sale price of 20 million dong per square metre. A buyer told Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon that the land price in the areas is high because real estate investors can do business by developing hotels.

Though the sale prices are high, it is very difficult to buy beautiful land plots nowadays, because the land plots in the most advantageous locations have already been sold.

According to Savills and CBRE, real estate service providers, in general, the Da Nang real estate market is not as bustling as Hanoi and HCM City. However, Da Nang proves to be the city which has attracted the highest number of tourism real estate projects. In Ngu Hanh Son District, for example, 80 percent of the land which is being exploited, have been reserved for resort and tourism projects.

Analysts believe that with the development of many large-scale real estate projects here, some 700 villas in the coastal areas will be offered on sale in the next several years, with more upscale apartments available.

A question has been raised about who will be the buyers of the apartments and villas. The analysts said that in many cases, real estate developers say that buildings have been sold out, but in fact, the apartments and villas have just been leased and not sold.