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| Few companies are interested in property investment. — Photo www.bantinnhadat.vn |
HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Fund management companies in Viet Nam show little interest in setting up real-estate investment funds under new Ministry of Finance regulations coming into force on July 1.
According to a study by Dau tu chung khoan magazine (Securities Investment), of the top 10 fund managers, none has yet developed specific plans to get involved.
This indifference does not reflect the high enthusiasm of fund managers after the introduction of Circular 183/2011/TT-BTC early last year guiding the establishment and management of open-ended funds.
VinaWealth Fund Management Joint Stock Company, backed by VinaCapital, one of the leading investment management and real estate development firms in Viet Nam, had been expected to soon take the lead in introducing a real-estate fund.
However, the head of Retail Sales at VinaWealth, Dang Vi Thanh, said his fund had no interest in setting up a real estate fund now as it was focusing on launching two new open-ended funds - a securities-investment fund and a money-market fund, which would come into operation in July and August.
Each type of fund (bonds, securities, real estate) has specific characteristics that require a lot of expertise as well as financial resources.
Financial asset managers are unlikely to invest in funds not included in their core products.
The lack of immediate interest in real-estate investment funds by fund managers has not helped property developers, who have been struggling to survive in a market frozen for the past three years.
Experts believe that the launching of a real estate fund now would have many advantages as property prices have plunged substantially.
They add that the more transparent policy and Government incentives will help reduce fund operating costs.
The head of a securities company told Dau tu chung khoan that his company was working with a fund manager to introduce a real estate trust by the end of this year or early next year.
He said the company was doing research on on-going real estate projects (legal status, quality and prices) and would securitise them to sell to investors. — VNS