Mass and high-end homes make CapitaLand’s wings

The company currently has three apartment projects available for sale in the country – the high-end Vista and mass housing ParcSpring in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 2, and high-end Mulberry Lane in Hanoi’s Ha Dong district. The Vista has 750 residential units and 100 serviced apartments, ParcSpring has 972 apartments. Meanwhile, Mulberry Lane includes 1,478 apartments.

ParcSpring was originally owned by a Vietnamese developer and then transferred to CapitaLand. After the deal, CapitaLand decided to convert two apartments into a gym and swimming pool, and added other facilities like children’s playgrounds and flower gardens.  

CapitaLand’s South Vietnam general manager Lim Hua Tiong said the Vietnamese property market had been challenging in recent years but CapitaLand believed there were opportunities for the group. He added the Vista had few units left for sale and that 22 per cent of ParcSpring’s units had already been sold. This year, CapitaLand has about 500-600 apartments from Mulberry Lane and ParcSpring up for sale, including some 300 mass housing units. 

Meanwhile, CapitaLand plans to launch another high-end apartment project in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 2 in the second half this year. 

“We see that local buyers are looking for good quality homes that they can afford, therefore we are developing both segments. In Vietnam buying a home is often a life decision and we’re here to provide good quality products to home buyers. In addition to our own quality control teams, we have a separate team that works as if they are real home buyers. When they find anything not like in our house samples, we have to fix it before delivery,” Lim added.

 Lim also believed the amended property law could open new opportunities as foreigners were given greater rights to buy homes.

CapitaLand’s flagship The Vista project in Ho Chi Minh City

 “Opening the market wider is necessary to support the economy. However, the government has to track foreign money sources coming into Vietnam to prevent negative effects on the mass housing segment.”

 ParcSpring is CapitaLand’s first mass housing project in Vietnam. Lim said the company was focusing its investment on a 70-30 ratio  based on high-end and mass housing segments.

“I don’t think foreigners will buy mass housing apartments as they target the high-end segment. 

However, in terms of human resources, the ratio is equal. “We concentrate equally on both segments as we want to maintain our quality and good reputation,” said Lim. 

Another way to support

CapitaLand’s long term business in Vietnam is to replace foreign staff with Vietnamese. When it started operations in Vietnam in 2006, a year before the group launched The Vista as a symbol of its Vietnam business drive, 35 per cent of its staff were foreigners. This has since plunged to just 5 per cent now, according to Lim. “Today, 70 per cent of section heads here are Vietnamese,” he added.

The Singapore-backed developer also has a spotless corporate social responsibility agenda, with CapitaLand devoted 0.5 per cent of the group’s profits to its philanthropic CapitaLand Hope Foundation which focuses on education development in Vietnam. This charitable funding is used to upgrade schools nationwide.