Japan’s Tokyu sells first Binh Duong residences

About 60 people showed an interest to buy the first houses in the Sora Gardens I segment of the project, Sora sales manager Oh Dongkun said at the opening ceremony in Binh Duong on April 19.   Becamex Tokyu Co., the venture between Vietnam’s Becamex IDC and Tokyu, started selling at the ceremony the first 400 flats among 1,500 residences of Sora Gardens, which would also house commercial facilities, said Becamex Tokyu CEO Toshiyuki Hoshino. The prices start at almost VND1.3 billion ($62.400)  

He added the Tokyu Binh Duong Garden City would cover 1,000 hectares in Binh Duong New City that would become the province’s new administration hub. The township will include three quarters -- Gate City, Core City and Gardens City. Sora Gardens I is part of Gardens City, the largest of the three quarters.   

The development of Binh Duong New City, about 30 kilometres north of Ho Chi Minh City, is set for completion by 2020. Hoshino added by that year, Binh Duong New City would become a city under the central government’s management, like Ho Chi Minh City now.   

Both Japanese and Vietnamese came to see the model houses. Akihito Nakayasu, director of Ho Chi Minh City-based Oryza Vietnam Corp., told  VIR that he came to cover the event for his firm’s Japanese-language publications such as Sketch, Heritage and At.  

Vietcombank, Vietinbank and Eximbank of Vietnam are financing the buyers of Sora Gardens residences. Hoshino said all the Vietnamese three banks had Japanese major banks as their strategic partners, and Tokyu Corp. had close relations with the Japanese banks.  

Becamex Tokyu expected to make Sora Gardens residences available in 2014 and planned to sell villas and low-rise houses after selling the residences. It hopes to make an operating profit after the third quarter of 2014, according to Hoshino.   The joint venture hopes both Japanese and Vietnamese from Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong province to come to buy houses and residences in the new township.   

For the Sora Gardens project, the concept design architect is Tokyu Architects & Engineers Inc., and the architect is Australian firm PTW. French company Apave is the tender consultant and third party, while CBRE is the leading sales agency. 

The $1.2 billion township was the biggest foreign-invested project licenced Binh Duong in 2012. Becamex Tokyu is 65 per cent owned by Tokyu and 35 per cent by Becamex.