Many giant housing real-estate developers in HCM City are flocking to the hospitality segment by developing or distributing new projects in tourism areas.

Kien A Corporation, a real-estate developer with over 25 years of operation, is developing Le Meridien Cam Ranh Bay Resort and Spa.

The company told Viet Nam News that its project would be completed by the end of this year. With an area of 46,800sq.m, it will have 220 rooms and be developed on Bai Dai (Dai Beach) with a total development value of US$450 million.

Novaland Group, a giant company being famous for housing projects in HCM City, has launched many hospitality projects in tourism areas, heating up the market.

For more than a year, the company has been selecting many places to develop tourism projects. For instance, a project in Can Tho, called Azerai Can Tho, has been put into operation, while many other projects are under construction like Novahills Mui Ne Resort and Villas.

Others are going to be built in the coming time, such as NovaWorld complex in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province and Phan Thiet City in Binh Thuan Province.

With the launch of a series of tourism property projects, Novaland has surprised the market as the group used to develop housing projects in HCM City.

Novaland said the company is currently targeting hospitality projects in its new development period and that more hospitality projects would be developed in tourism areas.

Another developer, Phu Long Real Estate Company, recently announced that it would develop a new hospitality site in Khanh Hoa Province, starting next month.

Covering an area of 29ha, the project will be located on Bai Dai (Dai Beach) with villas as the main product.

Following this project, Phu Long said it would develop a 100ha-hospitality project on Phu Quoc Island in the southern province of Kien Giang in the third quarter of this year.

These will be the first two projects that Phu Long has developed in the tourism sector. Previously, the company focused on housing projects, including condos, villas and houses.

Cenland Group is also charting its own way to join the property sector. Speaking with Viet Nam News, a representative of Cenland Group said that it had become the sole distributor of Crystal Holidays’ Cam Ranh Riviera project, which will be developed by Crystal Bay.

The project, which is about a 20-minute drive from Cam Ranh International Airport, contains 544 condotels in a 25-storey building developed on an area of over 99,000sq.m. The project will be officially marketed next month.

Speaking about the trend of investing in hospitality projects outside HCM City, the HCM City Real Estate Association said the city’s real-estate developers faced difficulties due to a slowdown in administrative procedures.

Nguyen Van Dat, chairman of Phat Dat Real Estate Joint-Stock company, agreed with the association’s assessment, saying that his company is targeting tourism property projects in Quang Nam Province.

Dat was quoted in Viet Nam Investment Review as saying developers are shifting their investments to a new segment because real estate faced challenges in HCM City.

An expert who wanted to remain anonymous said that tourism project development was an opportunity for real-estate developers to thrive in a challenging time. However, developers said tourism property projects was just a temporary strategy during the current difficult period.

Housing projects will remain the main business, they said.

Novaland, Phat Dat and other companies said they would continue to develop housing as their main segment and would return to do so at a later date. – VNS