The combined inventories of over 100 listed real estate developers topped VND531 trillion (US$20.15 billion), marking an 11% increase from the beginning of the year.

Novaland topped the list with inventories of VND150 trillion, its highest ever.

Of this 95% consisted of land and projects under construction, such as Aqua City in the southern province of Dong Nai, Novaworld Ho Tram and The Grand Manhattan in HCMC.

The rest comprised of completed properties including those awaiting handover to buyers.

Buildings in Ho Chi Minh City, February 2024. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

Vingroup, Vietnam’s largest private company, was second in the list with inventories exceeding VND98.6 trillion.

Nguyen Trong Dinh Tam, deputy director of analysis at ASEAN Securities, said properties under construction typically account for the largest share of developer’s inventories.

Vo Hong Thang, investment director at property service firm DKRA Group, said the large inventory levels reflect companies’ readiness to bring products to market and their access to funding for project execution.

Between 2022 and 2024 having large inventories were risky due to hurdles in administrative approvals he said.

But this year authorities resolved bottlenecks enabling many projects to proceed, boosting supply, he said.

In the first half of this year HCMC authorities assessed the problems faced by 571 stalled projects, and a report said they were resolved at 63 projects involving 923 hectares of land and VND86.8 trillion.

Tam said the large inventories coincide with low mortgage interest rates of 6.38% on average, down from almost 7% in late 2024, which benefits both buyers and developers.

He said high demand means the large inventories are no longer a risk.

SSI Securities reported a 129.6% surge in second quarter net profits for listed property developers.

Legal reforms, the revival of stalled projects and new approvals, including social housing, drove supply growth this year, it said.