Real estate market sees breakthrough investment

Investment in the real estate sector in 2007 saw a breakthrough with a total committed capital of 5 billion USD, making up 24.6 percent of the foreign investment in the country.

As a result, the sector’s investment rose to the second place after that in industrial production which stood at about 9 billion USD.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Department for Foreign Investment, real estate projects chiefly concentrate on Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City , where dwellers have increasing demands for housing and offices.

Trieu Dinh Phuc, Director of the Ha Noi Planning and Investment Department, said nearly 2 billion USD was invested in projects to build hotels and trade centres in Ha Noi in 2007.

They included the 1 billion USD Hanoi Landmark Tower project of the Keangnam group of the Republic of Korea (RoK), the 500 million USD project to build a luxury hotel of Japan’s Riviera group, and the 80 million USD project to build a five-star hotel of the RoK’s Charmrvit group. Moreover, the project to upgrade Yen So park of the Gamuda Land of Malaysia has been expanded with an estimated investment capital of nearly 2 billion USD.

In Ho Chi Minh City , several giant projects like Asiana Plaza , Avalon Saigon Apartments, Ben Thanh AA Residential, Binh Phuoc Apartments Complex, Hung Vuong Plaza , and Indochine Park Tower have restarted or started.

Viet Nam ’s enticing real estate market was highly appreciated by foreign enterprises from the US , the RoK, Australia , China and Singapore , including enterprises well-known for other fields. India ’s giant information technology TATA group plans to develop properties for office leasing in Thu Thiem district, Ho Chi Minh City , is an example.

General Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association Do Thi Loan explained that as Viet Nam has been in the initial period of urbanisation, major cities have their populations increased rapidly, demanding huge amount of housing, office, trade centres, hotels and entertainment facilities.

Sharing the same view with Ms Loan, CEO of the Capital Land Group Chen Lian Pang said that there would be a new wave of investment not only from Singapore , but also from many other countries, into Viet Nam .

In this situation, the Prime Minister has assigned the Construction Ministry to set up a business group on urban and housing development with a view to taking part in regulating the real estate market.

The Government also asked relevant agencies to keep their work abreast of the market and speed up the implementation of projects and examine investors’ commitments to ensure the balance between supply and demand in the market.