Foreign investors cautiously optimistic about real estate market
17-03-2015 15:37:07+07:00
Foreign investors cautiously optimistic about real estate market
Though many foreign investors have announced investments in new apartment projects, they are unsure about the sustainable recovery of the property market.
Hugh Simon, a senior executive at Hamon Developments, said this is the group’s third project in Vietnam in the last 15 years.
Hamon is best known for Nguyen Du Villa Park in district 1. It has not been involved in any project for a long time.
Analysts noted that it was now the right time for foreign investors to return to the market.
Doan Anh Hung, general director of the Singaporean Keppel Land Vietnam, said that 2015 is the right time for the company to implement the second phase of The Estella, a high-end 800-apartment project in district 2.
The analysts said the land market in district 9 would heat up thanks to the presence of Samsung Group at SHTP (Saigon High-Tech Park). The South Korean group has received the investment license for the $1.4 billion Samsung CE Complex project.
This information, plus the city authorities’ decision to build the East Belt connecting SHTP and Cat Lai Port, has caused more property developers to pour money into projects there to satisfy expats’ housing demand.
The foreign direct investment into real estate in Vietnam has been continuously increasing since 2012 both in number of project and capital investment.
According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Foreign Investment Agency, in the first 11 and a half months of 2014, real estate was the second most popular investment sector, with 35 projects worth $2.54 billion.
The Ban Viet Securities Company, in its market analysis report, noted that foreign investors “have come back”, predicting that the Vietnamese property market in 2015 would depend on foreign activities.
However, they have been cautious with their investment decisions.
The stagnancy in the real estate market has “eaten up” investors’ profits. Several foreign investment funds left Vietnam, while others are still her but have kept quiet, waiting for new opportunities.
Meanwhile, Le Hoang Chau, chair of the HCM City Real Estate Association, said surveys showed that expats prefer leasing houses to buying.
As a result, foreign investors will target Vietnamese customers, not foreign, when developing new projects.
Hugh Simon from Hamon Developments, an investment fund with total assets of $1 billion, said that Gateway Thao Dien would be the only project Hamon develops in Vietnam in 2015.
