Many new real estate projects will be implemented in Đồng Nai this year. — VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY — Eleven major real estate projects will be developed in Đồng Nai this year, according to the province People’s Committee.

Novaland Group is working on Aqua City in Biên Hòa city’s Long Khánh Commune.

Being built on more than 600 hectares, it will have villas, street houses, shop houses, and public utilities such as a school, shopping centre, children’s playground, marina, and others.

Hưng Thịnh Corporation has announced plans for the second phase of its Biên Hòa New City in Biên Hòa city. The 118.95ha project will have more than 1,000 units, mainly villas and street houses.

According to the People’s Committee, 310 residential projects will be completed this year on a total of nearly 9,300ha, mainly in Nhơn Trạch, Long Thành and Biên Hòa.

More than 10 of them spread over more than 100ha, including the Bình Sơn new urban area (555 ha), FPT Đồng Nai high-tech education urban area project (314 ha), Bình Sơn resettlement area (284ha) in Long Thành District, and Long Tân residential area (125 ha) in Nhơn Trạch District.

Him Lam Land has announced plans for an apartment project with around 6,000 units in Biên Hòa this year.

Đồng Nai has large tracts of land available not far from HCM City, where unencumbered land has become difficult for developers to find.

According to the provincial authorities, Đồng Nai has huge demand for housing since it has 1.2 million workers from other provinces living and working there.

Besides, with its location adjacent to HCM City, real estate projects have attracted a lot of buyers from HCM City, experts say.

But the problem is prices have increased sharply in recent times, putting real estate out of the reach of people who have real demand for housing, they say.

Hà Văn Thiện, deputy general director of Trần Anh Group, told Đầu tư (Investment Review) newspaper that apartment prices in the province started at VNĐ18 million (US$773.6) per square metre, unaffordable for the majority of local people.

Besides, buyers are mostly investors, meaning many apartment projects remained sparsely occupied, he said.

Long Hưng Residential Project in Biên Hòa city, for instance, sold out a long time ago, but only 5 per cent of units are occupied, he said.

The Đồng Nai market offered potential but also challenges. Project developers should think about serving people with actual demand for housing, he said. 

A project could only be considered “successful” when all its units were sold out and people lived there, he said.

Housing prices in the province had increased by 35 per cent a year, which was not a good thing since they should be steady, he said.

Trương Văn Phương, head of the Long Thành District Natural Resources and Environment Division, said the local real estate market had been too heavily influenced by speculators, who had pushed up land prices too high.

"The number of people who have real demand for land is not much, so the risk of a real estate bubble is real." — VNS