VietNamNet Bridge – The lack of investment capital and gloomy domestic market have brought golden opportunities to foreign investors to buy real estate projects for knock-down prices.

Park City in Ha Dong district in Hanoi, Splendora in Hoai Duc district and AIC urban area in Me Linh are the three out of tens of real estate projects Vietnamese developers have transferred to foreign investors.

The involved parties in the transfer deals declined to reveal the value of the projects, but the sums of money Vietnamese developers got from the deals were much lower than the money they had to pay to obtain the right to develop the projects.

In 2007, when the real estate market was in its golden age, South Korean Keangnam Group had to register a $1.05 billion project, pay VND1 trillion dong for the land use right and donor $5 million for social and charity activities of the city in order to obtain the 4 hectare land plot on the Pham Hung Road. Here on the land area, the group has developed Keangnam Landmark Tower, the highest tower ever in Vietnam.

However, things seem to be much easier for investors now to jump into the Vietnamese real estate market. As for Park City project, Malaysian Perdana Park City bought 100 percent of stakes from VIDC, a joint venture between Perdana Park City (Singapore) and Vinaconex Hoang Thanh, to get the right to develop the project.

The value of the deal has not been made public. Both Perdana Park City Malaysia (the buyer) and Perdana Park City Singapore (the seller) are the subsidiaries of Samling Group, the biggest wood group in Malaysia.

Park City project is expected to cover an area of 77 hectares in Ha Dong district. It has been listed in the investor’s business strategy by 2019. The representative of Perdana Park City has affirmed that the investor has sufficient financial capability to implement the project, and will not let the project stay on… paper like the joint venture in the past.

As for Splendora urban area project, Vinaconex, the investor, has been seeking domestic and foreign investors who want to buy its stakes in An Khanh JVC, the investor of the project. Vinaconex contributed 50 percent of An Khanh JVC’s chartered capital, $42.5 million. The urban area is expected to cover an area of 240 hectares.

The announcement on transferring stakes in An Khanh JVC was made in late 2012. A senior executive of Vinaconex said some foreign investors have sent words intimating that they want to buy the stakes, but no official agreement has been made so far.

The owner of AIC urban area project in Me Linh project many feel regret the deal of transferring 70 percent of stakes to a Malaysian partner. However, this proves to be the best choice for AIC Company, the developer, because it does not have capital to implement the project, though it kicked off the implementation in late 2009 already.

AIC urban area covers an area of 100 hectares, where the investor planned to build high rise apartment blocks, villas and houses. The problem is that the investor has not made anything with the project so far, even though it has mobilized capital from secondary investors. The project had been left untouched over the last many years until January 27, 2013, when its construction was resumed after an anonymous foreign investor agreed to provide capital.

Compiled by C. V