Le Vu Dung, General Director of Song Hong Real Estate Company, said between jest and earnest that real estate firms, while giving Tet bonuses to their staffs, still worry about bankruptcy as products remain unsalable.

Giving Tet bonuses and… worrying about bankruptcy

Dung said that Song Hong has two projects in Bac Ninh province which have been frozen as secondary investors are meeting difficulties as they cannot borrow capital from banks.

However, Song Hong will still give Tet bonuses to its staffs this year, VND1.8mil at the lowest, while heads of divisions get VND6-7mil each.

In previous years, besides the 13th month salary, the company also gave additional bonuses based on the efficiency of staffs’ work. Some employers got VND10-15mil. However, Dung said his staffs get no additional bonuses this year.

A staff of a real estate company said that in 2008, a lot of real estate developers suffered because of speculators.

He said that when the market was hot, speculators tried to purchase as many houses and apartments as possible. Even when they only had money to buy one house, they still tried to buy five houses by borrowing money from banks.

As a result, when the financial market fell into trouble, the speculators had to bargain the houses away to get money to pay bank debts. Therefore, buyers delayed their purchase plans, hoping that prices would go down further.

Pham Thanh Hung, Deputy General Director of CEN Group, said his staffs have got VND5mil on average for a Tet bonus this year, a decrease of 20% from last year.

While staffs of domestic real estate firms are not satisfied by their Tet bonuses, staffs of foreign-invested companies are still pocketing big sums of money.

A manager of 100% foreign-owned Savills in Hanoi said that he has got a 13th month salary for Tet bonus. The Tet bonus for the manager is not less than $2,000 – the dream of many other real estate firms’ staffs.

“Other staffs in the company get more than me, because their monthly salaries are higher than mine,” he said.

The manager said that foreign-invested enterprises have high financial capability and wide operation networks. The decrease in the turnover of one or another market can be offset by turnover increases in other markets.

In fact, domestic real estate brokers still can get large Tet bonuses. Some companies have reported to the Hanoi and HCM City Departments of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs the high bonuses of VND40-50mil for each broker of their companies.

“The high bonuses are being given to encourage brokers to become more dynamic to get more contracts for the company,” said a leader of Hanoi-based real estate company, who added that it is very difficult to negotiate for a successful transaction at this sensitive moment. (Dan tri)