Faced with opposition from residents
Recently, after the Miniso brand returned the premises, the Thao Dien Pearl project (Thu Duc City) converted 3,000m2 of commercial floor space for retail lease to office lease.
Some small-scale projects under 10,000m2 in suburban areas also have to convert their functions from modern retail space to office or co-working space such as the Pearl Plaza project and the Republic Plaza project.
At the apartment blocks developed by Novaland Group, if previously planned to be commercial centers, now all or part of them have been converted to offices for rent.
Present at Sunrise City apartment building on Nguyen Huu Tho street (District 7) invested by Novaland Group, we saw that under the base blocks, most of the commercial premises were vacant. Many signs were hung for leasing or transferring commercial premises, shophouses. In some buildings in the project, the commercial part has been leased by the investor as offices, especially banks opening transaction offices and branches.
The commercial part of Sunrise City apartment building has been vacant for many years, what a waste.
At Moonlight Residences apartment building (Thu Duc City), residents have recently protested against the investor converting the commercial area into offices for rent. This affects the rights of residents and is also considered the reason for the delay in issuing pink books for apartments. Some apartment buildings of Hung Thinh Corporation, the commercial basements have also been partially converted into offices.
This is also the common situation in many other apartment buildings, the commercial podium has also been divided by the investor into offices for rent, in the context of the vacant shopping center.
The investor of an apartment building said that the project has been in operation for nearly 3 years but until now most of the rental space is empty. Currently, the company has only called for a convenience store and a kindergarten to rent. To avoid waste, the investor has divided the commercial area into offices for rent.
Transfer to reduce waste
According to Ms. Giang Huynh, Head of Research and S22M (Savills HCMC), small-scale projects often have difficulty attracting and maintaining tenants. Most of these projects are located in new residential areas far from the city center with business models limited to a number of services such as F&B, convenience stores, hair care, etc. These are tenants who are often unable to pay high rents. Therefore, these models are mostly financially ineffective for investors. Therefore, they tend to convert the functions of these projects to more commercially effective types such as office space for rent.
Many apartment buildings have converted the commercial part of the base block into offices.
Ms. Giang Huynh also believes that the biggest problem of the Vietnamese retail market in the eyes of foreign tenants is the scarcity of quality premises. Vietnam is often compared to neighboring markets that have been developed for many years such as Thailand and Malaysia, where there are many large, spacious premises and a series of quality shopping mall projects. Typically in Ho Chi Minh City, retail premises in central districts are always sought after by large international brands that have just entered the Vietnamese market. These brands often have strict requirements on location to ensure access to many customers, the ability to have an impressive brand presence on the street or in famous shopping malls.
"Townhouse premises have other obstacles including: multi-storey houses reducing design efficiency and area usage, security, parking space, legal procedures for renting... making international brands feel hesitant during the business establishment phase," said Ms. Giang Huynh.
Meanwhile, according to Mr. Nguyen Hong Hai, Chairman of the Board of Directors of VNO Company, specializing in real estate exploitation and management, the office rental market is currently lacking in supply. Although office rental prices are not as high as commercial rentals, it still limits some waste. Meanwhile, in most of the newly put into operation apartments recently, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic and when the real estate market was frozen, the commercial part is very difficult to find tenants because most businesses and people have reduced their business and returned the premises.
"Some banks and investors are assigning our company to convert the commercial part into office space for rent. Legally, it is not allowed because each function will be used for that purpose. However, in the current difficulties and to avoid wasting on commercial real estate, allowing the conversion of functions will help reduce losses for investors and reduce waste because the office space for rent market is in great shortage," Mr. Hai suggested.
Source link
Comment (0)