VietNamNet Bridge – Singaporean real estate investors have been present and reaping fruits in Vietnam over the last many years. Their money has been poured into all the segments of the property market.

Infrastructure development proves to be the first investment field chosen by Singaporean investors. SembCorp has been cited as the representative of the investment movement with the green industrial zone model.

The first construction work of SembCorp in Vietnam was the Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park No. 1 (VSIP 1), which kicked off in 1996 in Thuan An district of Binh Duong province.

After that, three other industrial zone projects were carried out in succession, including VSIP II in Binh Duong City, VSIP III in Bac Ninh province, VSIP IV in Hai Phong City in the north, and VSIP in Quang Ngai province in the near future.

After successfully developing VSIP 1 which is purely an industrial zone, SembCorp made a wise decision when integrating urban areas into the other industrial zones VSIP II, VSIP III and VSIP IV. Fully exploiting the clients from the projects in the industrial zones, the accommodation projects of the investor always enjoy large custom, despite the ups and downs in the real estate market.

While SembCorp is considered the typical example of the first generation of Singaporean investors in Vietnam, CapitaLand could be the representative of the second generation, according to Dau tu.

Another eminent Singaporean real estate developer – Keppel Land – has also reaped fruits on the Vietnamese market when developing a series of accommodation projects, including Riviera Point in district 7 in HCM City, Saigon Center building in district 1, Estella high end apartment bloc in district 2.

To date, Keppel Land has run 18 projects in Vietnam with the total registered investment capital of nearly two billion dollars, mostly in the housing and high end apartment market segment.

Meanwhile, at a recent working session with the leaders of the Ministry of Construction, President of Keppel Land Singapore Lee Boon Yang expressed his intention to develop the projects on building residential quarters for low income earners in the next 5-10 years.

After the successes in the infrastructure and urban area development sector, Banyan Tree Group has recently decided to jump into the resort real estate sector, when announcing the development of the Laguna ecotourism complex at Lang Co Bay in Thua Thien-Hue province. The developer hopes to turn the land into a Phuket in Vietnam.

Dien dan doanh nghiep quoted Phan Huu Thang, now Director of the Foreign Investment Studies Center as saying that Singapore has always been one of the biggest foreign investors in Vietnam. Since 1990s, Singaporean investors have invested over 5 billion dollars in the real estate sector in Vietnam.

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