Property speculators are having a bad time in Ho Chi Minh City with buyers choosing to buy apartments directly from developers who are offering low prices, insiders said.

Real estate developers in HCM City have shifted to build low-cost apartments with the sale prices of VND6-10mil/sq m to meet the increasingly high demand for low-cost accommodations.

The HCMC Department of Transport yesterday opened Nguyen Van Cu and Chu Y bridges to traffic, connecting the city's downtown area and southern districts.

Vietnam Railway has decided to invest VND30 billion to upgrade the railway though Hai Van Pass.

A draft house and land tax law will tighten Vietnam’s land crunch while leaving the real estate market in the hands of speculators, experts said Monday.

The construction sector must improve the quality of building work throughout Viet Nam, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said at a conference held by the Ministry of Construction yesterday.

Developers of housing projects for industrial zone workers will be exempted from land use fees and rentals as part of a decision recently signed by the Prime Minister to boost worker dorm development.

After a series of macro economic information aren’t as bad as forecasted, with some stimulus policies by Government, news of “housing fever” has begun to appear. However, according to some experts, increase in property prices brings more communicativeness.

Despite preparatory measures to deal with the economic downturn, the construction materials market has been hit harder than expected, industry insiders say.

Most HCMC infrastructure investment and realty companies are indifferent to worker dormitory projects due to the poor efficiency of the projects.

The Government has set a target that by 2015, 60 percent of students and 50 percent of industrial zone should have accommodation, Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Manh Ha said yesterday.