The Saigon Times - Township near HCMC to get off ground soon

The first phase, from 2018 to 2023, will be implemented in a 165-hectare area with an investment of some VND6.9 trillion and is expected to generate an estimated VND10.7 trillion in revenue for its developer - Nam Long Investment Corporation (NLG).

Mega ecological residential area

Waterpoint is the township project that has taken NLG over 14 years preparing land. The planned township has three sides surrounded by the Vam Co Dong River, and the remaining edge stretches along Provincial Road 830 from Duc Hoa town to Saigon-Trung Luong expressway and National Highway 1 in Ben Luc Town. From Waterpoint, it takes only 30-40 minutes to reach Phu My Hung urban area in HCMC’s District 7 or HCMC downtown by taking Nguyen Van Linh Parkway or National Highway 1 and Vo Van Kiet Street.

NLG has up to now invested VND1.504 trillion in the Waterpoint project. Chairman of NLG Nguyen Xuan Quang said that the project has been planned and designed in line with international standards with partners from Australia and the Netherlands. Besides, with the foundation being three meters high, the project is not affected by flooding in at least 80 years regardless of any weather conditions.

The real estate ecology of Waterpoint comprises low-rise homes with townhouses/villas, high-rise condo buildings, office-shopping-service complex, hospital, preschool and primary school, college and sport facilities.

otably, the project features a central park covering 21 hectares with canals across the area. “Waterpoint is intended to be a small city that has all amenities included and close association with the nature. In addition, there is an emphasis on outdoor and sport activities to enhance connections among residents,” Quang shared.

HCMC’s real estate market no longer has much land available for new projects, especially large-scale ones. Even in neighboring areas of HCMC it is rare to find a large land site like Waterpoint. Therefore, the project is regarded as a prime land site, which promisingly creates a drive of development for surrounding areas when it is officially implemented.

As Thi truong Dia oc has researched, Long An Province, particularly areas bordering HCMC, is emerging as a hot spot for property developers. Big names in the field like Vingroup, Him Lam, Van Thinh Phat and T&T Group are grabbing land in these areas to develop their projects. In addition, inter-regional connectivity is growing fast in preparation for HCMC’s urban planning. There is still room for growth of Long An’s real estate market.

“That NLG is quick in launching such a large-scale project as Waterpoint in the area west of HCMC at this time will bring the investor many competitive advantages in attracting customers. It is because the need for estates in this area is big, but there is no project on the market that is comparable to Phu My Hung in the south of HCMC or Sala in the east,” the director of a real estate trading floor in District 7 said.

A bird's eye view of Waterpoint project

Chance of international cooperation

Quang said that besides NLD’s own capital, the Waterpoint project is arousing interest of many foreign property investors. “We are currently in talks with real estate firms from Japan and Malaysia. It is expected official information will be released very soon.”

According to a recent report, global real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield valued Waterpoint’s phase one with 165 hectares at roughly US$106.8 million, or some VND2.43 trillion. Meanwhile, the project’s entire 355 hectares was previously estimated by NLG at VND1.504 trillion.

The report of Cushman & Wakefield pointed out advantages of Waterpoint, which are the location at the point connecting HCMC and 13 southwestern localities, the site being ready, and land use fee payments done. Another advantage of the project concerns transport connections, including road, water transport and rail transport in the future.

Cushman & Wakefield had confidence that townhouses/villas will have the highest value among products of Waterpoint and the selling price may amount to US$371 per square meter of land.

Last year NLG offered nearly 3,000 products on the market. Its after-tax profit, after deducting shareholders’ benefits, was VND535 billion, a 55% increase against the previous year.

In terms of profitability, the firm recorded a gross margin of 41% and a net margin of 17%. Such results are quite good compared to the previous year and the average figures of real estate firms.

In addition to Waterpoint, this year NLG works on many other major projects such as Mizuki Park with 4,676 Flora apartments, 170 Valora townhouses/villas, EhomeS Saigon South with 1,726 apartments and Akari City with around 5,000 Flora apartments.