Spend more money because of the two words "high-end"
According to the August 2023 market report recently announced by DKRA Group, the apartment type has 8 new projects launched, providing 253 apartments in the new supply list. Notably, the lowest apartment price is at 58 million VND/m2 and the highest is up to more than 300 million VND/m2, both in the high-end segment.
Some other surveys also show that in Ho Chi Minh City alone, the average apartment price is at 67 million VND/m2, down 4.6% compared to the previous quarter. However, this is still a high-end price with the price of a 2-bedroom apartment reaching over 4 billion VND.
From the “buzzing” market period until now, high-end apartments are still dominating the market. The trend of buyers choosing high-end apartments for investment is still quite high due to their beautiful location, diverse amenities, and complete surrounding infrastructure…
However, not all projects that are being sold at high prices and advertised as luxury apartments are actually true to their names. Many real estate brokers say that many investors, when building brand identity for their projects, deliberately attach the words high-end, super luxury, luxury, etc. to their advertising materials. This is a stepping stone for investors to be able to offer a selling price that is not consistent with the actual quality of the project.
Many apartment projects in Ho Chi Minh City are being promoted with the word high-end or similar titles.
For that reason, many customers who buy apartments for investment or to live in are attracted only by advertisements associated with the word high-end. When receiving the apartment, some people wake up to the fact that some of the high-end amenities are not real. Even the initial selling price of the project is significantly higher than the surrounding projects.
According to Mr. Le Phuong - owner of an apartment in Phu Huu ward (Thu Duc city), "After consulting many projects in the area, my wife and I also aimed at a project advertised as a luxury apartment in this area. Although the price is only average, the broker advertised it with all kinds of high-end amenities that my wife and I really liked. Finally, we closed a 100m2 apartment for 3.6 billion VND, equivalent to 36 million VND/m2".
However, after signing the sales contract, Mr. Phuong was introduced by his friends to some projects in the surrounding area with significantly lower prices, only from 29 - 32 million VND/m2. Meanwhile, the utilities in some projects are even better than the apartment he just bought. Not to mention, some of the accompanying utilities of the apartment building listed in the advertising documents are actually just invested for show, not enough for residents to use.
In the same situation, Ms. Mai Anh Dao also encountered many problems with her luxury apartment in Tan Phu district. Although the investor implemented the utilities as advertised, the price of the apartment in this project is also much higher than some apartments in the area.
“Although some basic amenities are added that are rarely used, the price of apartments here is 5-6 million VND/m2 higher than some neighboring areas. But the thing worth mentioning is that the quality of the project has had many problems since I received the house, such as leaks, sloppy electrical construction, and defective wall panels and wooden floors. I don’t understand why they advertise it as a luxury apartment but the apartment has so many defects,” said Ms. Dao.
Premium titles are largely marketing gimmicks.
According to the Ministry of Construction's report, as of November 30, 2022, there were only 7 classified apartment buildings nationwide in a number of provinces, including Thai Nguyen (3 apartment buildings), Ha Tinh (3 apartment buildings), An Giang (1 apartment building), the rest were not classified and recognized according to the provisions of the 2014 Housing Law.
Currently, the situation of investors self-proclaimed luxury apartments occurs very often, causing confusion for home buyers. A series of phrases such as luxury apartments, luxury apartments, apartments with foreign names expressing luxury are also continuously used for apartment products.
Talking about luxury apartments, Professor Dang Hung Vo, former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, said that many countries in the world do not have the concept of luxury apartments because living in an apartment means having to follow general regulations and being influenced by surrounding households.
Therefore, many investors are just painting and labeling themselves as high-end just to attract consumers and take advantage of pushing up prices. There are apartments labeled as high-end but only have large space, fresh air, good light, good location. This is essentially just an advertising trick.
Home buyers should consider carefully, avoid being blinded by the two words "high-end" or they will suffer losses when paying.
Sharing the same view, Mr. Le Hoang Chau - Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) also commented that this is just a trick to attract customers and promote the investor's products. Many apartment projects even label themselves as high-end projects, luxury apartments while they have not been recognized by the Department of Construction or an independent assessment unit. While in reality, there are only a few real estate projects that meet high-end standards or model urban area standards.
HoREA also pointed out a shortcoming: the classification of apartments will be transparent in the case of completed projects because then there will be actual apartments, making it difficult for home buyers to be deceived. However, for future apartments advertised as high-end apartments, luxury apartments, home buyers can easily buy the wrong product as advertised.
Therefore, it is necessary to amend in the direction that after the apartment building has been completed and accepted, the high-end apartment building category will be recognized to ensure transparency, fair competition and protect the legitimate interests of home buyers. As for housing formed in the future, it is only allowed to advertise and market to mobilize capital under the name of a high-end apartment project in cases where there is a document recognizing that it meets this criterion issued by the Department of Construction.
According to Circular 31/2016/TT-BXD effective from February 15, 2017 of the Ministry of Construction regulating the classification and recognition of apartment buildings, class A apartments, also known as luxury apartments, must fully meet 18/20 criteria related to architectural planning, technical equipment systems, social infrastructure services and quality of management and operation.
Including some special criteria such as: Apartment corridors are at least 1.8m2 wide; Average area calculated on the number of bedrooms is at least 35m2, construction density is not more than 45% of total area; All apartments are equipped with high-speed cable TV and internet; There is a shopping center or supermarket within a radius of 1km; There are 2 of the following amenities such as gym, tennis court, children's playground, swimming pool... included in the overall planning or reserved in the project; Equipped with camera system in the lobby, corridor, stairs, parking lot, access control by fingerprint, magnetic card, electronic code...
Source
Comment (0)