More than 40 of the 62 property businesses listed on the stock market, or 75 percent of the total, reported profits in the first quarter of the year.

Of these, 21 percent of enterprises had profits of several hundreds of millions of Vietnamese dong, 50 percent had profit of 1 to 20 billion VND (47,600 USD-952,000 USD) and 4 percent earned profits between 20 billion VND and 1 trillion VND (47.6 million USD), said Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of the HCM City Real Estate Association.

The figures showed that the real estate market has become warmer due to the recovery of the macro-economy, Chau said.

The demand for housing has risen, especially the market segment for low and middle income groups.
Vingroup tops the list of property enterprises with high revenue of 6.17 trillion VND (293.8 million USD), which was six times higher than the same period last year.

Its after-tax profit rose four times to 1.06 trillion VND.

Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group posted after-tax revenue of 398 billion VND (18.9 million USD), posting a 33 percent growth rate. Its total turnover in January-March period rose 28 percent to 925 billion VND (44 million USD).

Several real estate firms such as FLC Group and FIT Investment Company also reported profits in the first quarter, which was equal to the whole of last year.

According to FLC Group's consolidated financial report, its turnover in the period reached 360 billion VND (17.1 million USD), up 69 percent in comparison with the same period last year. After-tax profit rose 32 times to 39.4 billion VND (1.8 million USD).

However, Chau noted that there were some other property firms who had registered profits from their associated companies or subsidiaries in other sectors.

He added that the figures in financial reports have not given the accurate picture of property firms. This year companies could continue to face difficulties.

However, he said that the property market could see improvements in the future as the National Assembly is expected to approve the law on housing, real estate trading and construction, which is expected to make changes in the market. Of these, the segment of small and medium sized apartments would draw the interest of home buyers.-VNA