Realty developers and individual investors once rushed to build villas in Mang Den, a mountainous town of the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum, before the wave subsided years ago, leaving a ‘ghost town’ of deserted edifices.  

Mang Den, the heart of Kon Plong District, is considered the second Da Lat, a beloved resort town in the neighboring province of Lam Dong, because of its year-round cool climate.

Back in 2006 and 2007 people from Gia Lai, another Central Highlands province, Da Nang City and Quang Ngai Province in the central region as well as from as far away as Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi scrambled to purchase more than 200 land plots meant to build villas on.   

An attempt was made to usher in an influx of tourists to Mang Den then.

Beyond Mang Den Tourism Area along Highway 24, one can see gorgeous-looking, yet marooned villas behind towering pine trees spanning more than a dozen kilometers.

The adjacent edifices, many of which remain unfinished, have been left untended.

Most of the villas adopt French colonial architecture and boast three or four floors.

Each floor has three to four bedrooms and space to receive guests.

The rooms all have windows facing the pine forest.

Those in disrepair had moss on the walls and have sustained cracks to broken, leaking roofs.

The insides are riddled with rubble, while rotten wooden beams have bent or split under the weight of the heavy roofs.

Hoa, who has run a drink shop in the neighborhood for several years, said that around 10 years ago, when Mang Den remained desolate, dozens of cars from many provinces would comb the area every day.

The car owners would meet in her shop to discuss contracts and construction plans.

The area was also teeming with fleets of trucks carrying construction materials to the sites where the villas were being built.

“Only one year later, dozens of hectares of age-old pine forests gave way to mushrooming concrete foundations lining Highway 24 and neighboring areas,” Hoa said.

“Everyone expected the town to grow into a ‘tourism paradise’ which would quickly lure influxes of visitors in no time,” she added.

Losing steam

However, the rush quietened down in 2008 and 2009, and Mang Den relapsed into its original serenity.

“The villa owners were believed to be in financial straits as a result of an economic crisis, which deterred them from making further investment in the property,” one resident said.

“Hotels which had been put into operation earlier have poor occupancy rates, so why bother to build more?” the same resident pondered. 

According to H., a businessman in Ho Chi Minh City who built four mansions in Mang Den, the provincial and district administrations adopted incentive investment policies to woo property developers back in 2007.

“I soon regretted my decision to invest in the area, which is plagued by rugged terrain, poor access and a sparse population, so I stopped construction halfway through,” he said.

Construction activities resumed in 2011 as H. could not stand seeing his investment go to waste.

Construction of his four villas was completed at a total cost of more than VND10 billion (US$442,478) one year later.

Villas are left unfinished and untended in Mang Den. Photo: Tuoi Tre

H. said he now has to spend more money on finishing touches to the mansions before seeking experts working in the area as potential tenants.

Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reporters observed an area that was almost empty of tourists during their stay, aside from a few groups of travelers from neighboring provinces on weekends.

Sale signs were hung on many houses but few buyers had showed interest.

Among them, M. from Ho Chi Minh City, has put her 190m², three-floor French-style villa up for sale at VND1.5 billion ($66,371) and is willing to negotiate on price.

One construction contractor revealed that excluding land cost, which averages dozens of millions of dong each plot (VND1 million is equivalent to $44), the cost of building the villas in Mang Den is around VND3 billion ($132,743) each. 

Gloomy prospect

According to Do Van Khanh, of the Kon Plong District Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Mang Den was zoned to become the province’s ecotourism resort town.

Thanks to its incentivized investment policies and relaxed procedures in applying for construction permits, the province attracted many investors, most of whom never envisioned such a gloomy future.

Le Xuan Long, head of the district’s Economic Infrastructure Department, said the department has repeatedly requested the property developers resume construction and bring their work to completion, all to little avail.

Statistics provided by the district’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment revealed that the district had sold and handed over 204 villa land plots to investors.

Among them, 60 plots have yet to see any construction or have their foundations completed, while many remain unfinished.

The administration has stipulated that only villas whose construction has been more than fifty percent completed are eligible for land use right certificates.

Khanh noted that the district had dispatched teams to Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Da Nang to work directly with the villa owners and help solve their problems.

Owners who have yet to start work on their plots must make commitments regarding when to turn the first sod and will have their land confiscated if they fail to meet the deadline.

The district will also introduce potential tenants or partners to owners of plots on which construction remains unfinished so that they can put the edifices into operation for tourism purposes soon.

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