Nguyen Van Dinh, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Real Estate Association and Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Realtors shared with The Hanoi Times about efforts to improve the transparency of the real estate market in Vietnam through the application of information technology.

Sunshine City project in Hanoi. Photo: Sunshine City

Vietnam is still considered a bright spot in the investment picture in Asia and around the world. Could the country grasp this opportunity and continue to improve transparency in the real estate market?

I believe Vietnam can catch the opportunity. If the country strongly promotes the digital transformation process, market services, the involvement of social resources in the management works, and close linkages between regulatory agencies, professional associations, and enterprises.

This is also one of the goals of the Vietnam Association of Realtors not only through launching the information system but also through including them in the action program of the association for the incoming years.

I think although the pandemic is still prevalent, the most difficult period of the market has passed, the prospect of the real estate market will be more optimistic when economic activities recover.

In the long term, there are many factors helping the market grow, including speedy population growth in urban areas, fast urbanization, infrastructure development, income growth, and economic integration, which will be the driving forces for the real estate market to recover and develop more transparently.

Nguyen Van Dinh,  Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Real Estate Association and Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Realtors. Photo: HNT

Experiencing difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic, real estate is forecast to have a positive outlook in the next 20 years due to aggressive urbanization and the high growth rate of the economy. How do you comment on this?

Vietnam’s economic growth is still a prominent bright spot among Asian countries despite being negatively affected by the pandemic in 2021. With a growth forecast of 6-7% in the next decade, the Southeast Asian country is one of the fastest-growing small and medium-sized economies in Asia with advantages in population size, a large youthful population and a fast urbanization rate.

These are relatively sustainable competitive advantages that help Vietnam's real estate to maintain a certain growth rate even in the context of border closure for nearly two years due to Covid-19.

Economic growth, according to the experience of developed countries, will lead to a boom in the housing and service markets. It is exactly what the Vietnamese market has witnessed in the past two decades.

From an investor’s perspective, the demand and opportunities in Vietnam are very potential in the fields of housing, offices, retail and logistics real estate,  hotels, and tourism. This attraction can inevitably lead to a construction boom and a good market will be able to self-regulate supply and demand.

With a developed real estate market, transparency is a must and stable growth that will ensure market players make a profit. However, in an emerging market like Vietnam, the lack of transparency and standards in transactions, especially with domestic partners is one of the big risks for national and foreign investors.

Therefore, criteria to evaluate transparency should include an assessment of the reliability of real estate brokerage services in the market, in addition to standards of valuation and market transaction information.

How do you evaluate the application of technology to make the Vietnamese real estate market transparent?

I think that the application of 4.0 technology among players in the real estate market is not really effective. In the context of multi-dimensional information, the association has made great efforts in market research in the past years.

We have released quarterly publications and five reports on the performance of Vietnam's real estate market to provide accurate, comprehensive, and objective information to the market. However, still, we have not fully exploited and applied 4.0 technology to research and provide property information.

The launch of the Real Estate Information System on https://vars.com.vn/ is considered the first step in the digital transformation strategy, contributing to improving the quality and sustainable development of Vietnam’s real estate industry in the coming time.

Thank you for your time.