Vietnam has over 3,000 kilometres of coastline, including 125 small and big beaches. Vietnam is also home to many world famous natural landscapes and valuable cultural relics. Experts said if these advantages are fully tapped, Vietnam can build a tourism property market meeting international standards.
Despite big potentials for tourism property, Vietnam has not many senior experts in planning and building strategies for the sector’s development. This is the major cause to hold back the development of related services of entertainment and community connection.
In addition to weaknesses in human resources, administrative barriers are biggest barriers for developing the tourism property industry. Economist Le Dang Doanh said: “The policy to develop the tourism property sector is unclear and while land prices remain high, which are main reasons to explain why investors still hesitate to pour their money into the sector.
The national economy is expected to recover better next year, which is the favourable condition for the tourism property industry. Vietnam needs to deal with investment difficulties related land and housing stabilisation policies. This will be an effective channel to mobilise foreign capital for the tourism property projects. Doanh also added that although Thailand’s Phuket is famous for strong development of tourism property, Vietnam has more advantages than Phuket. Thailand’s house ownership mechanism is valid for 30 years, but the time in Vietnam is 50- 70 years. Vietnam’s land costs are lower than Thailand and construction costs are the same with the country.
A Singaporean economist said, with the aviable strengths, and the future sci-tech development and human resources’ enhanced capacity, Vietnam will catch up with regional countries in tourism property development. In spite of not owning powerful financial capacity like other nations, Vietnam has its own advantages, particularly natural landscapes and land funds to develop the tourism property industry in the future.
Currently, the Vietnamese tourism property market has started becoming operational with a series of projects nationwide, particularly in the central region where is home to many beautiful beaches ranging from Quang Binh to Ninh Thuan. However, experts said next year will see the strong development of tourism property sector. Therefore, Vietnam should work out a synchronous development strategy for tourism property. Furthermore, the country should set up a simple management policy and remove complicated administrative procedures to offer more investment incentives.
In the long term, to gain the sustainable development of the tourism property sector, Vietnamese policy makers need to fully develop the country’s advantages in all regions.
Vietnam Business Forum introduces ideas of experts about this issue:
“Apartment and Hotel Projects Remain Attractive,” Marc Townsend – Director of CB Richard Ellis Vietnam (CBRE)
With great potentials for tourism property development, Vietnam remains an attractive destination for long-term investors, particularly apartment and hotel projects. The positive signs from projects in Phan Thiet - Mui Ne, Phu Quoc, Ha Long, Ho Tram, Lang Co, Nha Trang and Quang Nam will be the foundation for developing tourism property projects in the coming time.
In the time to come, Asian investors will come back the Vietnamese realty market and next year will be the landmark for its strong development. However, Vietnam needs to simplify tax and investment procedure policies to ensure that the country is a safe destination for investors thanks to its political and financial stability.
“More investment needed for infrastructure,” Neil Macgrgor – Deputy Director of Savills Vietnam
Developing the Vietnamese tourism property market should be attached to protecting natural beauty of tourism sites and the development of infrastructure system which connects famous tourism sites in the region.
Vietnam should focus on training high-quality human resources to develop the tourism property market. The government needs to carry out administrative reform, develop infrastructure, increase transparency of biding and speed up site clearance process. These are top factors to lure more foreign investors to Vietnam.
“Efficiency of tourism promotion campaigns should be boosted,” Don Lam – General Director of VinaCapital
It is needed to have more careful consideration to study and invest in Vietnamese realty market. However, in the recent years, Vietnam has still lacked campaigns for effective tourism promotion.
The most important factor for foreign investors is seeking a native partner to help them deal with administrative problems during the investment process. Basically, the Vietnamese legal framework on foreign investment has been basically completed. Nevertheless, the state needs to improve procedures from site clearance to licensing and staring construction of projects.
“Shortening time for investment licensing,” Ken Atkinson –Director of Grant Thornton Vietnam
Vietnam now allows wholly foreign-invested companies to operate in the country. But currently, they still face many difficulties during the implementation process due to problems related to land fund and site clearance. Therefore, many companies still consider cooperation with local partners as a priority for tourism property projects.
Foreign investors want to join the tourism property market need to study it carefully to avoid investment in areas with underdeveloped infrastructure. The Vietnamese government should create more favourable conditions for investors to shorten licensing time for projects and speed up the ground-breaking time of projects. This will affect potentials of Vietnam’s tourism property industry.
Luong Tuan
Vietnamese
