Hanoi (VNA) – The real estate market incoastal Binh Thuan province's Phan Thiet district is set to boom thanks toupcoming transport upgrades, according to experts.

Important infrastructure such as Dau Giay-Phan Thiet Highway and Phan ThietAirport were seeing good progress after lengthy delays, said Savills Vietnam.

The Ministry of Transportation has announced the investment plan for Dau Giay-PhanThiet Highway, which will begin construction in 2020. This project will shortendriving time from HCM City from four hours to 2.5 hours.

Another important project is the Phan Thiet Airport, which is under finalplanning stages and is expected to be operational in 2022.

“The Dau Giay-Phan Thiet Highway will further increase visitors from HCM Cityand will grow the number of northern visitors, who are currently very limitedin Binh Thuan,” Troy Griffiths, Deputy Managing Director Savills Vietnam said.

“Holiday home products will be attractive to wealthy HCM City and Hanoi buyers.These potential buyers have shown great interest in holiday home products asthey offer a combination of lifestyle and long-term investment.”

The Long Thanh International Airport is in the final planning stage and itsfirst phase is expected to be ready in 2025 with a capacity of 25 millionpassengers annually. Located 130 km from Binh Thuan, the international airportis expected to service many foreign visitors. This will be a major advantagefor province, as foreign visitors tend to spend more than local visitors.

“Both the hospitality and holiday home markets will benefit from the highvolume of foreign tourists. While the hotel segment can secure higher rents andoccupancy, holiday home projects can expect to boost buyer confidence in termof returns and capital gain,” Griffiths said.

Tran Nguyen Minh Hai, real estate expert of the Banking University in HCM City,was quoted by vneconomy.vn as saying that this year, the three largest resortreal estate markets in Vietnam, Da Nang, Nha Trang and Phu Quoc, have levelledoff. Therefore, investment would shift from these markets to emerging marketssuch as Quy Nhon and Phan Thiet.

"Phan Thiet is an ideal place to attract capital from HCM City investorsthanks to its geographical advantages," he said.

On the other hand, in the first six months of 2018, investment focused on Vietnam’sthree mooted special economic zones, namely Van Don in the northern province ofQuang Ninh, Bac Van Phong in the central province of Khanh Hoa and Phu QuocIsland in the southern province of Kien Giang. However, Vietnam does not haveyet a law for special zones so the investors in the zones have moved theirinvestment to markets like Phan Thiet, according to Hai.

At present, Phan Thiet resorts have a very soft price against other marketsbecause this real estate market is in the stage of building infrastructure.

The price is expected to increase when infrastructure is completed and peak in2020 when the Phan Thiet Airport comes into operation, according to him.

Griffiths said the majority of holiday home products in Binh Thuan launchedbefore 2013 with low selling prices; after this period, the market suffered adownturn in line with the global economic crisis.

After the recovery of the economy, low real estate investment in Phan Thietresulted in limited new supply and a bearish market with low achievable prices.Limited diversification and limited supply made the city less competitivecompared to Da Nang and Nha Trang, according to Savills Vietnam. Binh Thuan hasnumerous approved projects by local developers, but many have been withdrawnbecause of delays.

Now, however, Rang Dong JSC is a major developer in Binh Thuan with thedevelopment of the large-scale Sea Links City. Novaland launched a holiday villaproject in Mui Ne. Other local developers, such as TTC, FLC and TMS, areplanning to launch projects in the near future. The progress of supportinginfrastructure and the high price of major coastal cities has directedinvestment towards emerging markets like Phan Thiet.

Savills Vietnam reported Phan Thiet possesses ideal conditions for tourismdevelopment such as sunny weather, proximity to HCM City and beautiful beaches.Meanwhile, the holiday home market has not developed to its full potential andhas not kept up with other coastal cities such as Nha Trang and Da Nang.

Many large-scale projects have had approval but delays continue due to the lackof supporting infrastructure and limited efforts by authorities to improvetourism products.

While other coastal cities have diversified tourism projects, the main productin Phan Thiet and Binh Thuan are mostly land plots, targeting speculators.-VNA