Occupying a prime location in the central area of Ho Chi Minh City, small retail premises of about 100m2 or less were once sought after by many people because of their reasonable prices and convenience for service business in a busy area with a large traffic flow. However, since the pandemic, many factors have affected the business ability of this area, including consumer shopping trends and the recovery of the tourism industry.
Specifically, according to a survey of the needs of more than 9,000 consumers in 25 countries and territories, including Vietnam, conducted by PwC, up to 63% of global consumers have increased online shopping, while 42% have reduced shopping in stores.
Many consumers are not hesitant to change their shopping behavior. More than a third (37%) of consumers said they would visit different stores to make purchases or switch to online shopping. Nearly a third (29%) of online shoppers said they would switch to retail stores to find products, and 40% would use comparison sites to check out products.
In addition, the fact that the tourism industry has not fully recovered compared to the pre-pandemic period has also caused the number of customers shopping in the central area of Ho Chi Minh City to decrease sharply. According to statistics from the Ho Chi Minh City tourism industry, in the first 9 months of 2023, the total number of international visitors reached nearly 3.6 million, domestic visitors nearly 27 million. Meanwhile, in 2019, Ho Chi Minh City tourism welcomed over 8.6 million international visitors and 32.77 million domestic tourists.
For the same reasons, many small retail spaces with short-term leases in the central area of Ho Chi Minh City have been vacant for many months without finding tenants. Especially on "golden" streets such as Dong Khoi, Le Loi, Hai Ba Trung, Mac Thi Buoi...
Below are the records of the Journalists and Public Opinion newspaper on some streets of Ho Chi Minh City:
Many small premises on Dong Khoi Street have signs hanging up saying they are for rent or have been vacant for a long time.
These small premises were once sought after by many people, but due to the sharp decrease in the number of customers in the central area, affecting business, they are now vacant.
Neighboring streets such as Mac Thi Buoi and Ngo Duc Ke also have many premises in similar situations.
Especially on Le Loi street, which used to be an expensive, bustling commercial area attracting many tourists, has also fallen into a state of desolation.
Many small premises on Le Loi Street have been closed for many months and have signs for rent.
It is difficult to recognize the appearance of the once bustling Le Loi street because of the series of closed houses with messy facades.
According to research, some landlords are still offering rentals at the old price, even though they have not been able to find tenants for a long time. For example, a 100m2 house on Le Loi Street is being offered for rent at 180 million VND/month.
Some other premises on this road with smaller areas, about 80m2, are also for rent at prices of about 60 - 120 million VND/month, depending on the location and quality of the premises.
Nearby, on Hai Ba Trung street with a huge daily traffic volume, there are still many vacant and abandoned premises.
Some large premises have had "for rent" signs hanging for a long time but have not found new customers.
Large areas of land in beautiful locations on Hai Ba Trung Street are still being offered for rent at prices ranging from hundreds of millions to 1-2 billion VND/month.
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