Foreign capital pours into real estate in HCM City

The Sun Avenue appartment project in Ho Chi Minh City (Photo:VNA)

Foreign firms have pumped hundreds of millions of US dollars into numerous real estate projects in Ho Chi Minh City as of late, attributed to an upswing in the real estate market after a long period of hibernation.

On July 26, the Japanese Creed Group Fund announced its intent to pour 200 million USD into the local An Gia Real Estate Investment and Development JSC (An Gia Investment) to purchase stocks and run housing investment projects to supply Japanese-quality products in HCM City.

Founder and Managing Director of the Creed Group Toshihiko Muneyoshi said 200 million USD is just an initial step in the cooperation between the two countries, adding that if the real estate market in Vietnam develops, the group will continue to pump into hundreds of millions of US dollars into the market.

He added that since 2011, the Creed Group has shifted its investments to Asia with about 5,000 apartments worth over 300 million USD. Considering the real estate in HCM City in particular to be a promising market, the group set up an office in 2014 and decided to invest in the southern metropolis after a year of evaluation, he revealed.

Additionally, Vietnam has a young population, dynamic economy and high demand for accommodations, he said, adding that the Vietnamese Government is removing barriers to well integrate into the global economy.

Particularly, the number of active foreign investors in Vietnam is increasing since the Law on Housing and Law on Real Estate Business now allows foreigners to buy, possess and lend houses, which also helps empower the real estate market, he noted.

The US Global Emerging Market (GEM), for example, has poured 20 million USD into Hoang Quan Group, a leading corporation in real estate trading investment in Vietnam.

In June 2015, the municipal People’s Committee granted investment licences to Empire City – a joint venture between several local firms and the Denver Power Ltd. from the UK – to implement a project worth 1.2 billion USD including a trade centre, five-star hotel, office building, apartment building and underground parking lot inside the city’s new Thu Thiem urban area.

The municipal People’s Committee unveiled that the city welcomed 30 domestic and foreign investors to study planning and cooperation opportunities in the Thu Thiem new urban area in the first half of this year.

As of July 15, 2015, the city had granted investment licences to 284 foreign direct investment projects with capital totalling 2.02 billion USD, including 1.3 billion USD from real estate.-VNA