Source : The Strait Times, 22 August 07
HANOI - KEPPEL Land (KepLand) has received the official go-ahead - in, what observers say, is double-quick time - for the development of its latest residential project in Vietnam's booming property market.
The Estella is a 1,500-unit condominium in a residential area of Ho Chi Minh City and is set to go on sale in the next quarter.
KepLand said yesterday that it will invest US$17.6 million (S$26.8 million) in a joint-venture firm. The total project cost is set to be US$106 million, it said.
The official licence - handed over in a ceremony in the capital Hanoi before a Keppel Group- sponsored Vietnam-Singapore Friendship Concert at the Hanoi Opera House - is music to the ears of KepLand, which already has significant success in the market there.
The Estella is to be built near the firm's fully sold waterfront project Villa Riviera, about a 15-minute drive from the city centre. KepLand now has just over 20,000 units in Vietnam.
Up to a third of The Estella will be released in the first phase in the fourth quarter. It said a few hundred potential buyers have already expressed interest.
It said its unit Keppel Land Estate and established local developer Tien Phuoc have been awarded the investment licence for The Estella. This gives it the 'green light' to proceed with the launch, said KepLand managing director Kevin Wong.
The approval process in Vietnam can be time-consuming. Observers here say KepLand achieved quite a feat to obtain its investment licence in a relatively short period of several months.
'We have been here for a while and are able to leverage on that,' said KepLand's director of regional investments, Mr Ang Wee Gee. KepLand entered Vietnam about 13 years ago and is the largest foreign developer by number of projects.
The firm will take a 55 per cent stake valued at US$17.6 million in the total joint venture-registered capital of US$32 million. Tien Phuoc will take the rest. The Estella sits on a whopping 4.8ha site in An Phu Ward, which is close to major foreign schools.
While the Vietnamese property dream is villa ownership, the rapid rise of the city's condominium sector has been a major driver of its property market, said consultancy CB Richard Ellis.
The arrival of more and younger expatriates to Ho Chi Minh City has helped keep the condo market buoyant - evident from the full occupancy seen in the service apartment market, KepLand said. Its service apartments and Grade A office buildings in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi are also still in demand.
Apart from the two waterfront residential projects, KepLand is also building townships in Ho Chi Minh City.
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