Gloomy real estate market: Early and long Tet holiday for many brokers

The earliest Tet holiday in many years

Every year-end, near Lunar New Year, many real estate companies organize a series of sales programs to stimulate the market to attract investors to use their idle cash flow at the end of the year to buy and sell real estate.

However, in contrast to previous years, this year's real estate market showed gloom from the beginning of 2023 until the end of the year, causing many businesses to fall into difficulty.

In addition, brokerage companies and sales staff are facing unemployment. This has led to a “record” Tet holiday in the real estate industry.

Talking to Nguoi Dua Tin , Mr. Phan Minh Nghia (living in Binh Thanh, a real estate agent) said: “My company has given people a day off since December 5th of the lunar calendar (ie December) so that everyone can return to their hometowns early. In previous years, at the end of the year, everyone worked at full capacity to sell goods and find customers to bring their spare money to buy houses at the end of the year. However, this year, it has been difficult to find buyers for real estate since the beginning of the year. We have maintained this until now but it has not improved much, so we have to let our real estate agents take an early day off.”

This year, real estate brokers are assessed to have a "record" early and long Tet holiday.

Ms. Le Thi Hoa (an employee of Danh Khoi Group) also said that this year the group did not have many sources of goods to sell, and had to cut staff, including many brokers. Therefore, during the Lunar New Year, sales staff were given early leave and did not start working again until the end of January.

According to Ms. Hoa, returning home early is inevitable when the company cannot sell products without commission. If she continues to stay in the city until the end of the year when prices increase, and air and train fares increase, then she will not have money to return home.

A representative of Thang Loi Group also said that from December 10, they started to lay off brokers, leaving only a few staff in administrative departments to continue working.

“This year, brokers have the earliest Tet holiday compared to previous years due to many factors, including no customers and unsold products, so they let employees go home early to avoid high costs during Tet,” said a representative of Thang Loi Group.

Some real estate businesses have stopped brokerage activities and given employees early Tet holidays.

Mr. Ha Van Thien, Deputy General Director of Tran Anh Group, said that the company has now allowed the business sector to take a Tet holiday from mid-December 2023. Other sectors in the company will start taking a holiday from mid-January 2024 and the remaining key departments will also take a Tet holiday earlier than every year.

“This year the economic situation is difficult, real estate products are difficult to offer to the market, the number of customers is also much lower and there is almost no demand. The company let the brokers leave early to restructure and reduce operating costs,” said Mr. Thien.

Continue selling

While some businesses let their employees take an early Tet holiday, many others "take the last chance" by organizing sales and introducing products to find sources of money to increase income for employees.

Mr. Le Dinh Lang, Director of Song Long Real Estate Investment, Construction and Development Company Limited, said: “This year, the real estate market has faced many difficulties. Since the beginning of the year, liquidity has been low. If you want to sell, you have to work hard to find customers and organize many programs to introduce projects and products to stimulate buyers. Especially, at the end of the year, you have to run advertisements to find investors to hunt for land near Tet.”

“Every year, when December comes, there are many customers looking to buy real estate, but this year there are very few and almost no money is spent. Initially, my company planned to let the brokers take Tet holiday earlier than planned. But then, everyone decided to take a later holiday to sell products and earn more income to go home for Tet,” Mr. Lang shared.

Some companies still let brokers work to find customers and earn income.

Or another representative, Asia Real Estate Joint Stock Company, said that in early December, this unit and 4 companies in the system organized a program to introduce the project and offer it to customers. This is the last event in the 2023 lunar year to attract investors, sell products to increase income for brokers so that everyone can return home to celebrate Tet with their families.

Mr. Le Van Hung, Director of Nam Phat Real Estate Construction Joint Stock Company said: “Currently, my company has not yet had a Tet holiday because we are also focusing on selling projects. However, liquidity is very slow this time. Previously, 3 brokers sold 1 product, but now it takes 7 to have enough customers to introduce. Although the market is difficult and there are few customers, we still have to actively promote sales at the end of the year to find a source of income.”

“Tet is approaching, many sales staff and brokers have also faced difficulties in the past year, income from selling products is not much, so this year we also have Tet holiday like every year, after the 20th of December. During these days, we are still looking for investors, selling products to increase income before everyone returns home to reunite with their families,” said Mr. Hung.

A company organizes a product introduction event near Tet before sending employees home for Tet holiday.

According to Nguoi Dua Tin 's research, most companies let brokers return to work later than in previous years. It can be said that this year is the time when brokers get the earliest Tet holiday, which lasts almost the entire month of January.

“Currently, the market is not vibrant, the product basket is rare, especially at the beginning of the year, the psychology of buying real estate is also limited. Therefore, it will be at the end of the first quarter of 2024 that we can consider it operating smoothly again. Therefore, real estate agents will continue to have a long break,” Mr. Hung shared.

Before a long Tet holiday, many real estate brokers and business owners are hopeful that in 2024, the market will have liquidity to stimulate demand for developing industries.

Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/thi-truong-bat-dong-san-am-damky-nghi-tet-som-va-dai-cua-nhieumoigioi-a647002.html