Leasing houses in US, lucrative work for Vietnamese

16:59′ 04/09/2008 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – Purchasing houses in the US and leasing the houses has become a new way for many Viet Kieu and Vietnamese people to earn their living. Earning money in the US, spending money in Vietnam A house on sale in the US When returning to Vietnam to visit family and relatives, Nguyen Huyen said that house and land prices in the US are now at record lows, which proves to be a golden opportunity for many Vietnamese people to own houses in the US. Huyen himself has purchased a house worth $320,000, for which he had to pay $100,000 in advance. The remaining sum of $220,000 he will pay over 20 years ($1,100 per month) at the interest rate of 5.8% per annum. The house is located in Seattle in Washington state, covering an area of 80 x 40 feet (12 x 24 m). Now Huyen is leasing the house, getting $1,000-1,500 while he lives in another house in Alaska. A lot of Viet Kieu have decided to return to the homeland after many years of living in the US. Thien Pham said that before returning to Vietnam to settle down, he sold an apartment in California worth $1mil, and then purchased five houses in Houston for $170-200,000 each. Currently, he is leasing three of the five houses at $1,800 a month, while is offering to sell the other two to get money to buy an apartment in San Jose. He said that the leasing fee is higher there, at $2,500/month. With house leasing, he can pocket a lot of money after paying $2,000-3,000 in land tax for each house. Thien Pham said that now in Vietnam he and his wife still go to work, but ‘just for joy’, not for earning money. P.D, a musician, said that nearly all overseas musicians now want to return to settle in Vietnam. They are leading good lives in Vietnam with the money they get from leasing houses in the US. P.D said that he is now living in a leased house in Vietnam; however, the leasing fee is just equal to 1/10 of the money he can earn from leasing houses in the US. Thien related that a lot of his friends in Vietnam are planning to purchase houses in the US for leasing. A cousin of his has just purchased an apartment with 3 bedrooms in Westminster at $480,000, and an apartment in California at $400,000 with payment by instalments. If the cousin leases the two apartments, he will get $2,800 a month from each. US people sell, Vietnamese purchase Tran Huy Phuong, Director of Selection Realty & Mortgage in San Jose, said that it is now easier than previously to fly to the US to visit relatives. Therefore, a lot of Vietnamese people are eyeing houses and land in the US. Previously, only very rich people could make the investments, but now, as land prices have decreased sharply, a lot of Vietnamese businessmen have jumped on the bandwagon. That explains why Lan Nguyen, 32, is not trying to sell her apartment in the suburbs of Houston city in Texas through advertisements in the US, but asked Huyen to introduce the house to his relatives in Vietnam. In general, after successfully selling a house worth $600-700,000, sellers will have to pay $20,000 to an agent. As a matter of course, a lot of Viet Kieu have become real estate brokers. Phuong from Selection Realty & Mortgage said that leasing houses proves to be a cushy job; it can bring fat profit much higher than the initial investment. However, he said, sometimes inexperienced investors do not get the money they want, while suffering heavy debts from instalment payments. (Source: NLD)

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GuocoLand taking bite out of Vietnamese housing development pie

By Priyia Paramajothi, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 25 October 2006 2030 hrs Photos 1 of 1 Ho Chi Minh City   SINGAPORE: Singapore-listed GuocoLand is aiming for a slice of the lucrative housing development pie in Vietnam. The property developer was recently awarded an investment licence to build a mixed development project, located within the Singapore Vietnam Industrial Park in Binh Duong Province. The housing development sector in Vietnam is booming. According to IE Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City will need an additional 32 million square metres of housing over the next 5 years, to meet the needs of its growing population. GuocoLand, which is well known in Singapore for its luxury housing projects, like Leonie Studios in prestigious District 9, also has a wide regional footprint in China and Malaysia. It has now set its sights on Vietnam where the residential market is at a very early stage of development. Trina Loh, Managing Director of GuocoLand Singapore, says: “Especially with the big population of 82 million and when the population is very young, with the average age of 25 years, I think there will be a lot of household formation and this will lead to high demand for housing.” “Our target market would be the mid to high-range of the residential market,” she says. The Binh Duong integrated Hub will be the company’s second investment in Vietnam. GuocoLand’s first venture in the country was in the mid 1990’s with the Guoman Hanoi Hotel. But with a 17.5 hectare site and US$58m investment, the Binh Duong integrated project is in a different league. Loh says that they intend to have residential apartments, shopping centres, sports and entertainment facilities, as well as a hotel that will cater to the businessmen in the region. The development is the first of its kind in the economic zone 17 kilometres north of Ho Chi Minh. It will be built on prime land within the Singapore Vietnam Industrial Park. Phase one is scheduled to be completed by 2009. With a booming economy, Vietnam’s property sector appears bright. Peter Lee, Assistant Director of Southeast Asia, Int’l Operations Group at IE Singapore, says: “The Vietnam economy has been growing at 7 percent rate for the last 5 years.” “With such a growing economy and rising affluence, there is a need for better housing and the Vietnamese government is also encouraging high-rise housing in the city centres,” he adds. Besides property developers, IE Singapore says there are also opportunities for companies engaged in master planning, architecture, construction and estate management. – CNA/so

Vietnamese real-estate short of marketing strategies

08:53′ 18/10/2006 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – Coming up with effective marketing strategies is a problem for Vietnamese real estate traders at present.   At the 4th HCM City Real Estate Night held in late September, Paul Mason, General Director of the NAI Global group in Vietnam, pointed out typical errors in marketing real estate projects in Vietnam.   One of the most dangerous errors is marketing real estate projects to everybody. This mistake, according to Mr Mason, comes from the lack of a marketing strategy, and results in a waste of effort.   “If investors can’t define a potential market they will not be able to introduce their projects effectively,” he said.   Discussing this issue, Deputy General Director of the Hoang Quan Real Estate Company, Truong Thai Son, accepted that Vietnamese real estate traders often commit a popular error – marketing their projects too widely.   “High-grade houses and industrial zones are not the products that everybody needs. For example, it is ineffective if Hoang Quan advertises the Hoang Quan villa project in south Saigon to all customers because the price is too high. It is better to have a customer strategy for six months to one year,” Mr Son said.   Meanwhile, many real estate traders only introduce their projects through pamphlets. This method can help them save some money but the results are very poor.   According to Paul Mason, this way of marketing can only help real estate firms find potential clients. Information about projects that customers find out from pamphlets is extremely poor and it doesn’t convince customers to buy houses.   Director of the Dat Lanh Real Estate Co, Ltd Nguyen Van Duc said: “I’ve by chance made mistakes in marketing by delivering pamphlets and advertising in newspapers and waiting for the results. I believe that many other real estate companies have made the same mistake. This way of marketing is very simple. However, this is an objective problem because of shortage of funds”.   Small- and medium-sized enterprises, which lack experience, always accept the fact that they don’t have a marketing strategy. To survive, the only way is by taking care of their clients with their sincerity and prestige. It is called marketing by character, which is very popular in Vietnam and other countries in Southeast Asia, Mr Duc said.   “Marketing is a strange field in Vietnam, particularly real estate marketing. So far, the real estate market in Vietnam has operated under the latent mechanism, under which, those who have demands for houses and land will find information themselves. That’s why real estate companies don’t think much of marketing,” said Dang Thi Thu Thuy, Head of the Marketing Department of the Sacombank Real Estate Company (Sacomreal).   “However, as more and more real estate companies appear and land and house become more and more valuable, marketing is much more necessary for real estate traders. The real estate sector is now thirsty for marketing strategies more than ever on the threshold of the WTO,” she added.   (Source: Do Thi)

Overseas Vietnamese request full ownership of real estates

03:18′ 25/07/2006 (GMT+7)

VietnamNet – The Ho Chi Minh City’s Committee for Overseas Vietnamese recently submitted to the city authority a proposal asking to offer overseas Vietnamese full ownership of land and house, Vice Chairman of the Committee Nguyen Viet Thuan announced on July 24. The proposal said overseas Vietnamese who were allowed to purchase and possess houses must have full rights of ownership in accordance with the laws. Accordingly, they must be allowed to trade in real estates in their homeland, transfer land use rights, and sell or rent land or houses instead of being allowed to buy houses only for living as under the existing regulations. Currently, there are four groups of overseas Vietnamese allowed under the Land Law to purchase properties, effective since 2003. They are investors, who must obtain an investment license, scientists and experts, who must have invitations from Governmental agencies, and people having contributed to the country’s development, who must show certificates of merits signed by the Vietnamese Prime Minister. The law pointed out in item 1 of clause 121 that the Standing Committee of the National Assembly (NA) will release criteria under which other overseas Vietnamese would be allowed to buy housing. However, there has not been any directive from the NA regarding this matter yet. Thus, Mr. Thuan said that the proposal also included his request for a regulation from the NA that would allow other overseas Vietnamese individuals not included in these groups to purchase housing.