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The springtime of real estate trading floors
Last year, the real estate trading floor was an unfamiliar concept to Hanoians. However, the situation is quite different this year as a series of new trading floors have been established recently.
It is really a surprise that many big real estate trading floors belong to corporations which do not specialise in real estate. The floors run by Viglacera, a glass and construction pottery corporation, Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), and VP Bank are some of the well-known ones.
All the trading floors have their own advantages and follow their own development strategies.
Having abundant capital, Viglacera’s real estate trading floor is equipped with a modern computer network which allows it to display information online, show information with associated images. It also uses multi-functional software to sort information into areas and groups of products.
Meanwhile, ACB’s real estate trading floor (ACBR) advertises products with lively commercial videos which allow buyers to visualise the products available. Moreover, big transactions worth several thousand taels of gold have also been made public to attract more clients.
Pham Van Hai, General Director of ACBR, believes that it is now the right time to open a real estate trading floor. When the real estate market recovers, the floor will serve as a bustling market where clients can find satisfactory commodities.
“We have found out that 40% of Hanoi-origin people go to the ACBR in HCM City to seek information about the market in the north. Therefore, we have decided to open a floor in the north to provide clients with more information, thus bringing more choices to them,” Hai said.
People hope that the establishment of a series of real estate trading floors will help make the market more bustling and professional. However, the goals have yet to be obtained.
In principle, trading floors are places where the commodities of many real estate developers are traded. However, in fact, the majority of these floors just serve the sales of the products of their parent companies.
According to Pham Trung Ha, General Director of Hoa Phat Land, this kind of work (selling products for parent companies) helps trading floors control distribution and determine sale prices. Meanwhile, trading floors belonging to banks can provide finance support services to clients with the advantages of the parent banks.
“Clients can benefit from this as they can seek support and consultancy as well on the floors,” Ha said.
However, people think that this should be seen as the biggest disadvantage of the trading floors. “Trading floors have to sell products of their parent companies. This also means that the commodities are not diversified, and clients do not have as many choices as they think,” said Pham Thanh Hung, Deputy General Director of Cen Group.
A lot of questions have been raised about the quality of commodities available at the floors, and the floors’ operation efficiency. Pham Sy Lien, Deputy Chairman of the Construction Federation, said that trading floors should be set up in big cities only and put under the state’s control.
Dao Dinh Thi, Director of Viglacera, said that real estate firms should think twice before setting up floors, and that only financially capable investors should think of setting up floors.
“I think real estate firms do not have to set up floors, while they can shake hands with big floors in order to minimise costs,” Thi said.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Minh Phong, Head of the Economics Analysis Division under the Hanoi Institute for Socio-Economic Development Studies, has warned about the risks of making investments in non-forte business fields.
VietNamNet, TBKTVN
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