Mountain town Sapa sees 5-star resort boom

Sa Pa, a quiet mountain town with beautiful landscapes in the northern province of Lao Cai, is expected to become a new ‘resort paradise’ with many 5-star resorts under construction.

With natural beauty, cool & fresh climate and unique culture, Sa Pa is becoming a promising land for ambitious real estate developers.

A market survey conducted by a real estate firm found there are 126 legal entities which provide accommodation services in Sa Pa with 1,950 rooms and 3,660 beds offered. These include five 2-star hotels, two 3-star and one 4-star hotels. The others are mostly privately run guest rooms.

Also according to the firm, the number of travelers to Sa Pa has been increasing steadily by 20 percent, leading to increasingly high demand for 4-5-star hotels. Meanwhile, the supply in Sa Pa is limited. This is exactly the reason for big real estate developers to pour capital into projects there.

In fact, the developers began eyeing Sa Pa a long time ago, when the construction of the 245 kilometer Hanoi-Lao Cai Highway worth $1.46 billion kicked off in 2008.

Bitexco was the pioneer when it started the construction of an ecological urban area – The Manor Eco Lao Cai – in 2011 with the investment capital of VND1.5 trillion. Located in the city of Lao Cai, the urban area comprises 500 high-end apartments, 441 villas, 300 houses and an office – shopping mall – restaurant complex.

In late 2012, Truong Giang SaPa JSC, which was a new name among real estate developers, introduced to investors a high-end resort project - Mercure Sa Pa Resort & Spa (now Sa Pa Jade Hill) – with 15 villas and 181 houses.

The race to Sa Pa had been hotter recently. Sungroup kicked off the construction of Fansipan Sapa cable car in November 2013 with two world records. The cable car, put into operation in February, has helped attract more travelers to Sa Pa. It is expected that 1.6 million travelers will come to Sa Pa this year.

Sungroup, after spending VND4.4 trillion on the first phase of the project, is going to complete a 5-star hotel complex. Meanwhile, it also started construction of MGallary, a 5-star hotel in Sa Pa, in June 2016.

Sa Pa has also been eyed by Vingroup. The biggest player in the real estate market has built Vincom Lao Cai, a shopping mall, and Shophouse Lao Cai, while it is planning to develop a high-technology agricultural project VinEco-Sa Pa, expected to cover an area of 452 hectares.

Sungroup and Vingroup have been followed by other large conglomerates. Hose Sen Group, known as a big steel manufacturer, is pouring trillions of dong into the real estate sector.

Mai Chi / vietnamnet