More and more high income earners are moving to the outskirts of the capital and this has led to increased investment in luxury real estate projects.

While real estate projects on the central coastal are busy launching promotions and offering discounts to attract buyers, investors in small-scale eco-projects are also quietly raising their selling prices.

The latest survey by CBRE shows that investors are more likely to invest in new communities on the outskirts of big cities than in tourism projects in the central coastal cities. And this trend is particularly true for Hanoi .

Dang Duc Thanh, a member of the Ecological Tourism Real Estate Association said he was no longer interested in tourism real estate any more due to high financing costs and slow returns.

Although he loves the sea and see profit in such projects, the October decision by the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to impose stricter controls on tourism real estate projects has made him to rethink.

Small real estate projects on the outskirts of cities would be his choice, Thanh said.

Dang Hung Vo, former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, said that demand for resorts had come with country's economy growth. Now people artn’t just looking for short-term travel options. Many wealthy people could afford to buy a "second home" for holidays and weekends away.

Typical examples of these new projects include Top Hills Villas in Luong Son of Hoa Binh province, and Queen Villas and Tan Vien resort in Ba Vi district, around 60 km west of Hanoi.

Nguyen Thanh Trung, director of Vietnam Archi Land said he believes that with the growing demand, his company will sell out all villas in the Green Villas 4 project.

Trung said the increase in price of his villas is a daring move as other investors are offering great promotions and discounts. He added that the rise in prices is based on the real value of his projects./.