Vietnam’s real estate market a magnet for foreign investors
Two huge merger & acquisition (M&A) deals were made just in the first three months of the year. The foreign direct investment (FDI) flow into the real estate sector exceeded US$2 billion by the end of 2015.
In early March, Keppel Land Vietnam, a Singaporean investor, reached an agreement on a conditional investment deal to obtain 40% of stake in Empire City, the biggest foreign invested real estate developer in HCM City in 2015 which is developing a US$1.2 billion complex in the core area of the Thu Thiem new urban area in district 2.
Empire City is the joint venture of three investors, including Vietnamese Tien Phuoc JSC, the partner of Keppel Land Vietnam at The Estella project, Tran Thai JSC and the British Denver Power Ltd, a subsidiary of Gaw Capital Partners which manages the asset worth US$10 billion.
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Also in Nam Rach Chiec area, a Vietnamese real estate firm now joins hands with a veteran foreign investment fund in Vietnam to develop a housing project on an area of 30 hectares.
Most recently, An Gia Investment and its partner – Creed Group from Japan – wrapped up the signing of the three-party contract with Phat Dat JSC to run River City project in district 7.
The representative of Creed Group said the investment fund cannot say exactly how much capital it plans to pour into Vietnam in the time to come, but it would continue looking for new opportunities.
An analyst noted that in other markets, Creed Group has injected money into nearly all market segments, from house, resort real estate to office. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, it has only invested in middle-class housing projects. Therefore, he believes Creed Group would keep pouring capital into Vietnam.
The Vietnamese real estate market has been attracting both foreign indirect and direct investment.
According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), by the end of 2015, Vietnam had attracted US$22.7 billion worth of FDI, including US$2.39 billion worth of real estate projects, or 10.5% of total registered FDI capital.
According to StoxPlus, a finance information service provider, in 2015, real estate was the sector with the highest M&A value (US$2.14 billion for 48 M&A deals)
StoxPlus said that foreign investors showed their great interest in Vietnam’s real estate sector with 19 M&A deals worth US$1.6 billion, which accounted for 68% of the total value of the M&A deals foreign investors made in Vietnam in 2015.
The transactions were made mostly by investors from Asia, such as Hong Kong, Japan and the Republic of Korea.
