Foreign investment continues to rise into real-estate projects

Many foreign investors register for real estate projects, but left them fallow for years due to failure to mobilise capital from domestic sources.

Japan currently tops the list of 47 countries and territories investing in Viet Nam's real estate.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Viet Nam attracted a total of US$12.63 billion of FDI in the first eight months of this year, a rise of 19.5 per cent over the same period last year.

Among the 18 sectors that drew foreign investments, real estate ranked second with a total of $588.11 million, making up 4.7 per cent of the country's total FDI. Manufacturing and processing industries followed.

By August, about 400 FDI property deals were concluded, worth a total of $48.23 billion.

According to Savills Viet Nam, the increasing FDI into property market is due to recovery signs in the economy in the first half of the year, together with Government efforts to support the property market with tax incentives and preferential loans, according to the Dau Tu Chung Khoan newspaper.

Savills said that Japanese investors were showing greater interests in Vietnamese property, expecting that it will become a medium and long–term destination for their money.

Real estate company CBRE Viet Nam forecast that many huge foreign investors would seek business opportunities in the property market by the end of the year.

However, there are some concerns at the massive increase of FDI into the country's property market.

Reports say many foreign investors register for real estate projects, but left them fallow for years due to failure to mobilise capital from domestic sources.

A property expert, Nguyen Mai, said some investors in real estate projects with registered capital of up to billions of dollars only poured parts of the amount into construction, then sold the unfinished shells to rotate capitals.

He urged better management of FDI inflow into the country to ensure its efficiency.

The Government recently issued Resolution 103/NQ-CP, aiming to enhance the efficiency of FDI into the country, especially the use of land for FDI enterprises.

This means that localities are responsible for inspecting and classifying FDI projects that use land inefficiently.

Ministries and authorities have also been asked to complete regulations on land, housing, site clearance and compensation to ensure transparency in land management and encourage both foreign and domestic investors.