Vietnam's luxury property market has flipped 180 degrees from last year's glut and tumbling prices. The country started 2007 with a shortage of luxury homes, plenty of available land, a new real estate law and membership of the World Trade Organisation.
This climate has prompted foreign investors to take a bullish stance towards the country's upmarket real estate development projects.
CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) reports that demand will continue to outstrip supply in the short term, as only 1per cent of city centre luxury accommodation is vacant, and the number of new projects has declined.
'Vietnam is a long way from being overbuilt,' says Marc Townsend, CBRE's managing director for Vietnam. 'If anything, there is too much money chasing too little stock. For the next two years, capital values for condos, town houses and villas will go up.'
A recent CBRE survey reveals high-end condo projects in Ho Chi Minh City are now fetching between US$1,000 and US$3,400 per square metre, depending on location. One is River Garden, a high-quality residential project, for which CBRE has been appointed sole marketing and management agent. The 210-apartment high-rise consists of two-bedroom to four-bedroom units overlooking the Saigon River in An Phu, District1.
In nearby An Phu, District2 sits the Villa Riviera, an exclusive collection of 101 villas developed by the Keppel Group and slated for completion in July. The four-bedroom to five-bedroom homes come in eight design layouts, with prices starting at US$400,000, and were sold out by January this year, mostly to local Vietnamese.
