“I feel discouraged now.”

There are many ways to enter the real estate market, why did you choose the affordable housing segment?

No one in business wants to sell their products cheaply. But I only want to build low-cost houses. Because I think, if you want to be successful, you have to make products that are used by many people, people who have real housing needs. In our country, the majority of people are poor, where do we get many rich people? So I build houses to serve the middle-income and poor people, selling them at affordable prices is a very good thing to do, right? However, there are many types of low-cost houses. Only those who actually live in them can see the quality of the houses I build (of course, compared to other apartments of similar prices).

Everyone knows that building a house for sale at a low price will attract many buyers. But not everyone can reduce the price. I have some friends who are also in real estate, they said that if Mr. Than sold the house at 9.5 million VND/m2, he would definitely lose money. So, what is his secret?

To have low-cost housing, the implementation and management staff are the decisive factors; the apparatus must be compact and not cumbersome; saving both materials and labor costs.

In addition, the construction process needs to be shortened by applying modern technology. Previously, it took 3 years to build an 18-storey building, but now it only takes 9 months, like the building you are sitting in here.

Another factor to be able to build low-cost houses is to try to mobilize all sources of capital, except bank loans, to reduce costs, because bank interest costs account for nearly 20% of the product cost.

The last thing is to calculate the selling price moderately, do not take too much profit. Doing business requires sharing, because when selling a cheap product but good quality, the liquidity is very high. In fact, nearly 4,000 apartments with the price of 9.5 million VND/m2 of Thanh Ha urban area were sold out in just 3 months.

Currently, most investors participating in the real estate market choose the mid-range and high-end segments, very few investors choose the low-cost segment. In your opinion, from the investor's perspective, is it more profitable for investors to build low-cost or high-cost houses?

This depends on many things, including the investor himself. If the investor is a public company, it needs to do a project with high value to have a channel to mobilize capital from banks and the stock market. That is important to them, but liquidity is "another story".

In fact, there are high-priced apartment projects that have been completed for more than 10 years but there are still many unsold apartments. If sales are slow and capital is stagnant, not only will the investor suffer losses, but related partners will also suffer the same fate.

Choosing a low-cost housing option like mine not only meets real needs, home buyers have a house to live in, but I also have capital to invest in other projects.

Receiving us, Mr. Than's door was wide open, not closed. Mr. Than believes that selling "affordable" houses to the poor should not be formal, but should be very close, if the home buyer needs him to answer questions related to the apartment or project, he will directly answer them in detail. "The most important thing for home buyers is trust, if I don't trust myself, who will trust me?" This is the reason why his room is never closed and he also does not refuse anyone who wants to meet him or want to answer questions about his apartment or project.

When you entered the real estate industry and chose the low-cost housing segment, did you conduct a social needs survey?

Yes. I have been doing research since 1999, when we were building the CT9 area in Linh Dam. The demand for low-cost housing in society in general and in Hanoi in particular is huge.

As a real estate professional, what are your recommendations on policies to make housing prices cheaper and more suitable for people's income?

I am asking Hanoi city to build social housing at 6 million VND/m2. If approved, I commit to build 10,000 apartments and sell them at 6 million VND/m2, but the proposal has been submitted for a year and has not yet been approved.

I think the important thing is whether the policy maker wants to do it or not, but it is very difficult for businesses to make recommendations and proposals. I myself can only try to do as much as I can.

I think low-cost housing is suitable for most people. For example, Thanh Ha urban area, as I mentioned above, sold out 4,000 apartments after only 3 months. Many families with average incomes sold their houses on the street to come here to buy 2 apartments, one for their spouses and children, one for their parents, and still have enough money to buy a car to go to the center to work. The roads are now convenient, living a little far away is no problem.

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