Japan’s Kajima to Make Inroads into Vietnam’s Real Estate Market

Japan’s Kajima is planning to develop real estate in Vietnam to tap the local burgeoning market.


Vietnam's burgeoning real estate market has driven huge attention of foreign players. Photo: saigoneer.com

Kajima has been the latest Japanese company to unveil a plan to mark its presence in Vietnam’s fast-growing real estate market by forming a joint venture with Hanoi-based Indochina Capital, according to Nikkei Asian Review.

The new joint venture, ICC-Kajima Development, will focus on such operations as real estate development and investment in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang. It will offer services ranging from planning and design to contracting.

The company will target midsize projects, worth between $19.5 million and $97.7 million each. They would consist mainly of midrise buildings such as hotels for the middle class, apartments with services, and office buildings.

Kajima has been present in Vietnam business via contract work since it constructed a hotel in 1994. It established Kajima Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City this April, in anticipation of rising demand for factory construction.

Japanese companies have boosted their foothold in Vietnam’s realty market, the backbone of country’s economy, to tap the demand for home as the rapidly-growing economy has turned a large part of the population into middle class.

Sanyo Homes Corporation in May entered a partnership with Tien Phat Corp., a subsidiary of Hoa Binh Construction & Real Estate Corporation (HBC), to develop a $25-million project in Ho Chi Minh City.

Before Sanyo Homes, Creed Group and Vietnamese partners An Gia Investment Company and Phat Dat Corp. poured $500 million into a residential project in HCM City’s District 7.

A number of Japanese investors participated in property projects or acquired shares in some projects owned by listed companies, aiming to develop middle-end products, Su Ngoc Khuong, associate director of investment at Savills Vietnam, told BizLIVE.

Besides the $1.2 billion Tokyo project in Binh Duong province, the middle-end segment has been the major target of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals that have involved Japanese investors over the past two years.

This approach to the Vietnamese real estate market shows that they do not only aim at Japanese clients, but also Vietnamese ones, Khuong noted.

Tuan Minh / BizLIVE