At the end of 2016, the giant property developer, Phu My Hung Development Corporation unveiled a new complex called Phu My Hung Midtown.

Being developed on an area of over 56,000sq.m, Phu My Hung Midtown is inspired by major urban areas around the world like Tokyo Midtown and Midtown Manhattan with four proposed housing projects, The Grande, The Symphony, The Signature, and The Peak.

Two years since it was launched, the project is nearing completion with the last project, The Peak, representing the motto of saving the best for last.

It announced that the key investor of the project was Phu Hung Thai Development Joint Stock Company, a joint venture between it and three prestigious Japanese real-estate developers: Daiwa House Group, Nomura Real Estate Group and Sumitomo Forestry Group.

According to Phu My Hung, the three partners are all giant developers with a combined 50 per cent share of the Japanese property market. Besides, they also have a presence in many other countries around the world.

The representatives of the joint venture spoke about the Vietnamese property market, the projects they are developing in the country and their tie-up.

What is your view of the Vietnamese real estate market in 2018? How do you see the market in the near future?

Masaya Hirao from Nomura Real Estate Group: Two years have passed since we began to develop the Midtown project.

The Grande and The Symphony were launched in 2017, and The Signature in 2018. Seeing the situation here, we felt tremendous excitement and energy that we had never experienced in Japan.

At the same time, we were amazed that there was a great real estate market existing in Viet Nam.

From what we observed of the market in 2018 we think the Vietnamese real estate market is growing more and more.

As for the market development in the near future, we think the real estate market follows GDP and population growth.

Backed by growth in these, local people’s aspirations for a better and more wonderful life and such people’s interest in the Midtown project will boost the market further, I believe.

Why did your companies choose to collaborate with each other?

Kazuya Sawamoto from Daiwa House Group: I still remember Viet Nam from when I came here for the first time in 1995.

Many years later I have come back to talk business with the Phu My Hung Development Corporation. We, Daiwa House Group, Sumitomo Forestry Group, and Nomura Real Estate Group, discussed with various people at Phu My Hung Development Corporation.

The biggest reason why we choose to collaborate with Phu My Hung Development Corporation was the same philosophy as Japanese companies as well as the philosophy we have developed in Japan.

The philosophy, reflected in the words of Lawrence S. Ting, Phu My Hung’s founding chairman, “Wherever we invest, we ask not what we can take away but what we can leave behind”, impressed us deeply and made us want to work together with the Phu My Hung Development Corporation.

Truong Quoc Hung, Vice President of Phu My Hung Development Corporation: During over 25 years of operations in Viet Nam, we have received many invitations from foreign companies to set up partnerships. I think all these have been good opportunities for the Phu My Hung Development Corporation as they are all giant developers with strong capacities.

In fact, Phu My Hung is capable of singly developing Phu My Hung Midtown. However, in our opinion, the co-operation will surely bring more benefits to our residents.

That is why we were careful when selecting the partners.

In the case of the Phu My Hung Midtown project, we chose the three Japanese developers as they were all giant companies in Japan with a market share of 50 per cent. We have seen many things from these three developers that we can learn.

What specifically have the three companies contributed to ensure the highest quality for Phu My Hung Midtown?

Masaya Hirao from Nomura Real Estate Group: The three Japanese companies engaged in the Phu My Hung Midtown project each has a long history of more than half a century. Sumitomo Forestry has been operating for over 300 years.

To continue doing business for a long time in Japan we need to not only pursue profits and companies’ growth but also focus on contributions to the place we are developing and consider what kind of value we can offer to the people living there.

Making these efforts persistently is the key to do business for long and grow a company, I believe.

From the three companies, specialists are dispatched to this project.

Each specialist has a different skill such as in architecture, marketing, procurement. We are stationing such specialists for this project.

After considering what the Vietnamese people want and what we should do to make this project better, we will continue to contribute a lot to this project.

What does Phu Hung Thai Development Joint Stock Company pay the most attention to in the execution of the project?

Kazuya Sawamoto from Daiwa House Group:

When we choose a city or place to live in, we place great importance on what kind of life we can lead or what kind of place our children can play or study in. The Phu My Hung Development Corporation has developed this beautiful and marvelous city with great effort.

Phu My Hung City Centre has schools, vast blue skies, green spaces and water bodies. Of course, people can enjoy shopping. Not only we Japanese but also people from various other countries want to live in such a wonderful place, I think.