Iwatani noted that apartments in the large cities of Hanoi and HCM are the choice of many investors.

The investors who follow a long-term development strategy and prefer safe investments focus on office and hotel projects.

According to Iwatani, foreign investors are having difficulties in Indonesia, while the Singaporean market is too small and Malaysian market is stable.

Meanwhile, Vietnam, with nearly 100 million population, stable economic development and rapid urbanization, has high demand for accommodations.

Phan Huu Thang, former director of the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA), noted that all five real estate segments, including housing, office, industrial zone, shopping center and hotel and resorts, in Vietnam are very attractive to foreign investors. 

Thang added that current conditions are favorable for investors to pour money into Vietnam, citing high and stable economic growth, strong FDI, rapid development of enterprises and the increase in number of tourists.

Thang added that current conditions are favorable for investors to pour money into Vietnam, citing high and stable economic growth, strong FDI, rapid development of enterprises and the increase in number of tourists.

Asked about the nationalities of foreign investors, Thang said South Korea and Japan have the highest numbers of investors in Vietnam. There are also investors from Singapore and Hong Kong.

He also noted that many foreign investment funds have shown interest in Vietnam, pouring large amounts of money into real estate projects in recent years.

Than Thanh Vu, head of the organizing board of VINA-M&A 2020, an international forum on real estate investments, to be organized in late March, noted that there are more concerned investors this year.

“We have invited large private corporations which have investment activities in Vietnam and investors from Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, UAE, Australia, the US and EU,” he said. “The capitalization value of the enterprises exceeds $500 billion."

Luu Thi Thanh Mau, CEO of Phuc Khang Group, a large real estate firm of Vietnam, said M&A deals are necessary to create a market with high transparency and plentiful capital.

Mau believes that the opportunities for Vietnamese realtors to call for foreign investment are great, especially realtors with large ‘clean’ land banks and transparent legal status. It is easier to raise funds for projects which have approval from appropriate agencies.

Saigon Securities Incorporated (SSI) reported that VND178.732 trillion worth of bonds were issued in the first 10 months of 2019, and real estate firms were the biggest issuers.

Thanh Mai 

Resort real estate market to prosper as tourism develops

Vietnam received 13 million foreign travelers in 2018 and the figure increased by 10.8 percent in the first 9 months of 2019.

With new barrier, real estate credit expected to flow more slowly

With Circular 22, which took effect on January 1, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has laid a new block to restrict capital flow to the property sector.