International investors hunt high and low for land in HCM City Foreign investment funds and real estate developers have been looking for cleared land to purchase as the property market is expected to heat up in 2015.   A Luxembourg-based investment fund, for example, has been looking for land plots in districts 8, 9, Thu Duc, Binh Tan, Tan Phu and Nha Be. Its Vietnamese partners said the investor wants land plots with an area of between 3,000 and 30,000 square meters where it would develop apartments with reasonable prices, valued at VND1 billion or more. It is also seeking Vietnamese partners financially capable of joining their real estate development projects in HCM City. In the report about the HCM City real estate market released in early January, CBRE Vietnam, a real estate service provider, mentioned the deals of Keppel Land buying project land from Tien Phuoc Company, Tung Shin buying Movenpick Saigon Hotel and Lemongrass Master Fund buying Indochine Park Tower. In the first week of 2015, Kevin Green, a real estate millionaire, who owns over 800 real estate pieces in the UK, paid a working visit to HCM City, showing his interest in the Vietnamese market. President of Khai Hoan Land Nguyen Khai Hoan, who had a meeting with the millionaire, said many of the groups’ foreign partners have shown their intention to join the domestic property market. In late 2014, Creed Group, an investment fund from Japan, announced a plan to buy stakes in three real estate projects developed by Nam Bay Bay JSC. City Gate, one of the three projects, got restarted in early 2015 with the foreign capital funneled. President of Dat Xanh Group Luong Tri Thin noted that HCM City in particular and Vietnam in general have caught special attention from international investors over the last six to 12 months. The investors not only are familiar names from Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, but also investors from Europe and the US. “The amended Investment Law, Housing Law and Real Estate Business Law with new open provisions will surely heat up the market and attract foreign investors,” he said. “Therefore, a lot of deals will be made in 2015, because investors need to prepare their land funds and build houses before launching the products on the market,” he noted. CBRE Vietnam’s managing director Marc Townsend said the foreign investors’ interest in the Vietnamese market is very high, especially in HCM City and major urban areas. The latest report from the Foreign Investment Agency showed the return of foreign capital flow into the real estate sector with $1.2 billion worth of foreign direct investment capital by the end of November 2014. Kim Chi, VietNamNet Bridge