Foreign investors, mainly from South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Thailand, showed an increasing interest in property projects in Vietnam in the first half of this year, according to a newly-released report by the Vietnam Association of Realtors (VARS).

The VARS report on the Vietnamese property market showed that merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions were busy in the market in the first half of this year.

Foreign investors are quietly acquiring many large land lots as well as apartment, industrial real estate, and office projects across Vietnam.

They preferred projects with completed legal procedures.

Prominent foreign firms in M&A deals included Keppel Land, Frasers, WHA, and Central Retail.

They have been seeking M&A opportunities in commercial, housing, and industrial property projects.

Over the past few months, local enterprises have planned to transfer part of or their entire projects to foreign partners due to their obstacles in accessing capital and investment procedures.

The solution has helped enterprises earn money to pay debts and execute other projects, while avoiding bankruptcy, according to VARS.

VARS informed that most foreign enterprises had conducted the initial stage of M&A transactions—seeking and surveying projects—as of the end of last quarter.

They have yet to negotiate and enter into transactions.

Nguyen Van Dinh, vice-chairman of the Vietnam National Real Estate Association, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that M&A activities would remain busy in the local real estate sector this quarter.

Investors which completed surveying projects last quarter will conduct negotiations this quarter.

The market is expected to see several successful M&A deals in the last quarter of the year.

However, the number of successful deals will be modest and these deals involve small projects with completed legal procedures.

Negotiations on medium and large projects will go on until the last quarter of this year or even the second quarter of next year, Dinh noted.

Amid the current M&A wave in the property market, if domestic firms do not take advantage of opportunities, foreign investors will take over good projects, said VARS vice-chairman Nguyen Chi Thanh.

VARS proposed management agencies work out policies to support M&A activities while controlling foreign investors’ acquisitions.

The association also urged localities to study plans to acquire projects slowed by obstacles, remove the obstacles, and put them up for auction to recover capital.

In addition to M&A transactions, foreign investors have purchased shares from local real estate giants, such as Novaland and Hung Thinh Land.

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