High buildings in the capital city. Real estate experts have seen a rising demand for office and retail space after the country joined the ASEAN Economic Community this year. — VNA/ VNS Photo Trong Dat

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Experts said that the formation of Asean Economic Community (AEC) would bring a lot of opportunities for commercial properties, especially office and retail space for lease.

The demand for office and retail space would soar due to an anticipated increase in the number of businesses entering the Vietnamese market after the country achieves international integration with the formation of the AEC this year.

According to Nguyen Van Duc, director of Dat Lanh Real Estate Company, the rising demand would help free stockpiles of office and retail space.

Desmond Sim, head of CBRE Research for Singapore and Southeast Asia, was quoted by Viet Nam News Agency as saying that AEC played a key role in liberalising the investment markets in ASEAN to pave the way for foreign investments within individual member countries.

Foreign investors were also eyeing property markets within AEC. Sim said that opportune investments could be sourced from emerging markets such as Viet Nam.

A recent survey by Alternaty, a property consultancy firm, found that the Viet Nam property market was offering the most attractive investment opportunities in the region with its potential and promising profits. In addition, the Vietnamese economy was on its way to a solid recovery and the legal system of investment and real estate business had improved.

The latest figures of the Foreign Investment Agency revealed that businesses from ASEAN member countries poured a total of more than US$16.9 billion into 97 property projects in Viet Nam as of October 20.

A recent CBRE report, "AEC – A boost to South East Asia's Real Estate Market", said that AEC would lift the industrial market, which would in turn result in some positive spill-over for the office and retail markets as more companies entered the regions and existing ones expanded.

The report said that more foreign retailers were also projected to venture into ASEAN. However, Viet Nam needed to improve the management of office and retail spaces to prevent volatility in retail rents.

Tourism property also offered great investment opportunities as tourism was a bright spot for ASEAN member countries, with the AEC blueprint focussing on enhancing air and land transport infrastructure and regional co-operation to attract more visitors to the region, the report said. — VNS