Vietnam’s real-estate developers issued roughly VND149.5 trillion (about US$5.9 billion) in corporate bonds in the first nine months of 2026, up 126% year-on-year, according to VIS Rating, a Vietnamese credit rating agency affiliated with Moody’s. The jump is concentrated in a handful of large groups: Vinhomes alone raised VND31 trillion, while Hung Long Real Estate Development and Hung Phat Invest Ha Noi — both entities linked to Masterise Group — raised VND14 trillion and VND9.3 trillion respectively. The average issuance coupon rose to about 11.4%, up roughly 110 basis points from a year earlier.
The rebound is financing-side, not demand-side. Over the same period, bank credit growth to real estate slowed to 8.6% in the first half of 2026, from 15% a year earlier, as the central bank moved to cool an overheated market, and developer equity issuance fell 86% year-on-year. With both of those channels tightening, developers turned to bonds instead — at a higher cost. Housing demand kept weakening in parallel: nationwide transactions fell 36% year-on-year, average mortgage rates sat at 14–16%, and new-launch absorption in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City dropped to 73% in the second quarter, from 95% in 2025, even as new supply kept rising.
That split matters most for anyone who has bought, or is weighing a purchase of, a pre-sale unit from a Vietnamese developer. The bond total is not a broad sign of sector-wide financial health: VIS Rating attributes most of the growth to Vingroup and Masterise-linked entities, which it says can refinance more easily given track records of handing over completed projects and established bank relationships. Developers outside that tier are facing the same high borrowing costs against falling sales — a combination VIS Rating has flagged as higher liquidity risk, particularly for developers whose projects are stalled by legal problems.
VIS Rating expects bond issuance to stay elevated into the fourth quarter of 2026 and through 2027, as developers refinance roughly VND167 trillion of bonds maturing in that window. The agency also expects developer credit profiles to diverge further through the second half of 2026 — weakening for smaller developers and those with unresolved legal issues, while larger groups with stronger delivery records stay better placed to keep borrowing.
References
Tạp chí Kinh tế – Tài chính – Doanh nghiệp bất động sản phát hành gần 150.000 tỷ đồng trái phiếu / Việt Nam News – Real estate bonds heat up, rates hit 12–13% / Việt Nam News – Property developers ramp up bond issuance as bank credit tightens
