HANOI, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Covering thousands of hectares of land in Vietnam's Hanoi capital city, many half-done real estate projects and newly-established urban areas are now left unused, becoming rendezvouses for cattle.
Forty-seven housing and new urban area development projects, which cover a combined area of some 1,800 hectares, have been licensed to be implemented in the city's Me Linh rural district, but a dozen of them have been half-done after nearly a decade of implementation, according to the district's authorities on Monday.
Near the district's office is the new urban area of Thanh Lam-Dai Thinh 2, developed by a local corporation under the Construction Ministry, whose construction started nearly 10 years ago, but now it consists of a small building of the project's management board and some roads. Not far from the new urban area is a realty project named Spring Hill City which currently comprises vacant villas and entrances full of grass, luring a lot of buffalos and cows.
Similar situations are seen in many other districts, including Dan Phuong, Hoai Duc and Thach That. Because of its deserted scenery for years, the new urban area of Kim Chung-Di Trach in Hoai Duc district is called "the ghost urban area."
Major reasons for the deserted projects include the breaking of real estate bubbles years ago, the difficulty in mobilizing capital and handling site clearance, and shortcomings in relevant infrastructure, the Vietnam Association of Real Estate Professionals said on Monday.
Some villa and semi-detached house projects have yet to complete electricity, road, school and healthcare facilities, so customers cannot reside there, while others have infrastructure completed, but have not had such conveniences such as recreational zones and shopping malls, the association said.
Another contributing factor is the fact that many people have already bought villas or semi-detached houses, but they do not move in, just visiting them at weekends or only living in them after they retire, and that some owners wait for another realty fever to resell their properties for quick profits, Hai Phat Real Estates Company told Xinhua recently.
According to many local experts, Vietnam's realty market demand this year will be mainly in the average and affordable price segments.
