Vietnam's property market to attract more foreign investment

Vietnam's real estate industry is expected to attract more foreign investment, even though the domestic economy is forecast to face challenges this year, Vietnam News daily reported Saturday.

In 2013, foreign direct investment (FDI) increased 54 percent year-on-year to 21.6 billion U.S. dollars, of which 1 billion dollars was from 25 real estate development projects.

In January 2014, the domestic property market continued to attract foreign investors and recorded the second-largest FDI of 176 million dollars, accounting for 45 percent of total flow of FDI to the country.

Vietnam expects to benefit from property development projects worth billions of U.S. dollars in 2014, according to the online Investment Forum (BizLIVE) newspaper.

For example, Texhong Group from China planned to build an industrial zone in northeastern Quang Ninh province with a total registered capital of 950 million U.S. dollars. Quang Ninh also expects Amata Group from Thailand to develop a high-tech urban region with a total estimated capital of 2 billion dollars.

The U.S. Rose Rock Group, which specializes in management, investment and development of luxury properties, has signed a memorandum of understanding to help build a tourism and resort complex in Vung Ro Gulf in central Phu Yen province, with potential capital of 2.5 billion dollars.

According to Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Tran Nam, the trend of selling part or whole of property project will be boosted in 2014 to attract more investment to the property industry, which is in need of more investment to recover from the prolonged crisis.

Moreover, a part of the stable remittance could be put into property projects in 2014.

The overseas remittances to Vietnam reached 11 billion U.S. dollars in 2013, a marginal increase from the previous year, according to the State Bank of Vietnam.