Builders in Southeast Asia are investing heavily in luxury residential projects, while some countries are proceeding with the construction of affordable housing.
Respected Asian news platform Nikkei Asia says the real estate sector is booming across much of Asia where commercial property in urban hubs such as Tokyo and Singapore have lured foreign investors.
Businesses are also rushing to cash in on the trend and are boosting their efforts to expand, says the Japan-based Nikkei.
In southeast Asia, high-profile luxury brands are investing heavily in residential projects as the number of wealthy Asians grows, especially in Thailand.
In Vietnam, the government has picked the Hanoi-based conglomerate Vingroup to build 500,000 affordable housing units, half of the million units the government promised by 2030 four years ago.
In 2023 it was expected that 428,000 of the units would be completed by this year, but to date only 66,755 units – 7% of the promised total – have been built since 2021.
The move to revive the government’s $ US36 billion housing plan comes amid soaring house prices. New construction can’t keep up with demand, putting a strain on affordable housing stock.
The buildingdelay has been blamed on long tendering processes, administrative issues, land procurement and the non-release of funding.
Vietnam also sees abundant housing as one way to tackle the country’s fast-dwindling working-age population. The intent was to build the homes not in remote areas, but in cities, for factory workers and those on low incomes.
“This is not a mere issue of accommodation, it is also a policy to boost population,” said Vietnam’s Prime minister Pham Minh Chinh in a Nikkei Asia report.
“We are deterring our aging population by removing the two-child policy. But how will families have a third child if they are living in a home of merely 10, 15, or 20 sq m?”
Vietnam’s working age population has decreased each year since 2014.
The World Bank says the country is on course to be an “aged society” in 10 years.
