Lion state investors roar into Vietnam’s lucrative real estate

Singaporean-backed real estate projects helped change Vietnam’s urban landscape, Photo: Le Toan

The island state’s SLP International Consultant and Investment Group recently met with the Real Estate Association in Vietnam seeking investment opportunities.

According to Tricia Teo, managing director of SLP, Singaporean investors see great opportunities in the Vietnamese real estate market thanks to the country’s stable economy and policies, as well as the increasing demand for housing.

“Vietnam is considered a very attractive destination among Singaporean investors, and we have the investment sources and private funds required for real estate projects as well as a clear strategy and experienced human resources,” Teo said during her visit.

If a proposed policy allowing foreigners greater rights to buy houses in Vietnam was passed, Teo added, Singaporean investors would be even more keen on the market.

According to experts, over the last several years the number of Singaporean investors entering Vietnam’s real estate market has risen considerably.

Many large-scale Singaporean developers are already present and have had great success. They include Keppel Land, CapitaLand, VSIP, Sembcorp, Ascott, Mapletree, and many others. Several have recently announced new developments.

Keppel Land, one of Vietnam’s largest foreign real estate investors with a diverse portfolio of properties in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai and Vung Tau, recently announced they were joining the Hanoi Westgate urban development project, with a total investment of $140 million.

With 19 licensed projects, Keppel Land has built nearly 22,000 homes in Vietnam.

According to Linson Lim, Keppel Land’s president for Vietnam, the firm was confident about the long-term growth potential of Vietnam’s property market due to the country’s young population and growing middle class.

“We are confident in the long-term growth potential of Vietnam’s property market. It has a young and dynamic population and a growing middle class with strong aspirations for home ownership. The city’s high urbanisation rate, improving infrastructure, and declining interest rates will also support the demand for housing. We are confident that the subsequent phases of the development will enjoy the same positive demand from homebuyers and investors seeking quality properties with strong attributes and value offerings,” Lim said in a recent statement.

CapitaLand, another Singaporean developer, entered Vietnam in 1994 and has thus far built five projects in the country for a total $1.2 billion. It has introduced more than 5,500 units to the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City markets and plans to expand its portfolio with a second residential project in Hanoi.

SUTL Corporation, which is also active in the Vietnamese market, recently announced it would expand its investment in the country via the construction of Vung Ro Bay yacht club, in the central coastal province of Phu Yen. The club is one of four sections of the Vung Ro Bay resort owned by Vung Ro Petroleum, with an estimated capital of $2.5 billion.

Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) is one of the most successful Singaporean projects in the country, with 6 industrial parks in Binh Duong, Haiphong, Bac Ninh, and Quang Ngai province, attracting nearly 500 projects and more than $6.4 billion in registered capital.

Mapletree, another leading real estate developer from Singapore, is focused on developing real estate projects throughout Asia. The firm, a member of Temasek Holding, has a wide range of projects in Vietnam such as logistics centres in Binh Duong and Bac Ninh provinces, the Pacific Place building in Hanoi and SC VivoCity in Ho Chi Minh City, with a total investment in the country of $1 billion.

As of July 2014, Singapore was Vietnam’s third biggest foreign investor with 1,294 projects and total registered capital of nearly $30.6 billion, of which one third belonged to the real estate sector.

Managing director of Savills Vietnam Neil Alexander MacGregor said his firm believed that Singaporean investors, together with those from Japan and Korea, would continue to have considerable interest in Vietnam’s real estate market. “Vietnam’s real estate market is at an attractive phase in its development, having recently bottomed out, and is showing some encouraging signs of recovery,” MacGregor said at the recent Singaporean Business Forum held in Vietnam.

“Whilst Vietnam is at the bottom of its real estate cycle, many other Asian markets are at the top of their cycles and may be set for a downturn over the next few years. Vietnam is therefore attractively positioned for investors to take advantage of market recovery while other markets begin to cool,” he said.

“We believe Vietnam is still a key destination for real estate investment in the Southeast Asia region and we will continue to see demand from a variety of investment locales such as Japan, Singapore, Korea and elsewhere,” MacGregor said, adding that he saw increasing investment from Singaporean investors and anticipated this to rise over the coming months and years.