After Authentic in Hanoi, the Japanese Corporation Haseko eyes a large scale condo project in the South

Haseko Corporation, one of the biggest real estate development group in Japan with a total asset up to $5.6 billion, chose Hanoi as a region to expand their experience by cooperating with Him Lam on the Authentic project in Long Bien district.

The Authentic is the first condominium project upholding Japanese standards that Haseko finished in the Southeast Asia and utilized both Japanese professionals and businessmen in Hanoi.

After a long process of researching, in 2018 Haseko has decided to explore the market with a large scale condominium project in Ho Chi Minh city, where the real estate industry is extremely dynamic.

Haseko’s main strategy is to either buy land from local estate agency or collaborate with them to utilize their appealing land fund, to initiate their own project as Haseko wants to carry out all the steps by themselves, from design, construction to management, in order to ensure the quality and standards of the project.

Even when they are obliged to collaborate with Vietnamese businessmen, Haseko still wants to be involved from start to finish of the project.

TheLEADER had an exclusive interview with Akihiko Iwatani, senior manager and chief representative of Haseko Corporation in Hanoi, to learn more about the business strategy of Haseko in Vietnam in the future.

After six years of research, what is your view on the housing market in Vietnam in the past few years and at the present time?

Akihiko Iwatani: In 2012, when Haseko entered the Vietnamese market, the housing market declined significantly, however, it has been increasing gradually in the recent time.

The main reason for this change is the increase of the young population (from the age of 30 to the age of 40), as well as the growth in GDP per capita. 

As a result, in 10 to 15 years, the apartment in the medium range segment will be well-developed for this particular group.

Currently, there are some views stating that the housing market in Vietnam is overheating and exposing to the risk of housing bubble bursting, what is your view on this?

Akihiko Iwatani: In my opinion, even when the housing bubble in Vietnam is bursting, it will be due to the same cause as Japan, which is overspending on investment property rather than residential property.

In the past there were 70 percent of investment property, whilst there were only 30 percent of residential property.

Things has changed recently towards the opposite direction. Due to the increase in the young population in Vietnam, their demand for accomodation has increased tremendously.Therefore, from what I can see the market is fixing itself nicely.

After six years of entering in Vietnam market, why does Haseko choose this particular period to invest in Ho Chi Minh city?

Akihiko Iwatani: For us six years of researching and familiarising ourselves with the Vietnam market is fairly enough. After finishing the first project, we would like to continue with other projects.

I am confident that Haseko will be successful in Vietnam. Especially, we were able to excel in such difficult market in Hanoi, there is no reason that we cannot do the same thing in Ho Chi Minh city. Comparing to Hanoi, the business environment in Ho Chi Minh city is much more favourable.

Considering several activities of Haseko including consultation - design - investment - management, what area will be the priority of Haseko in Vietnam?

Akihiko Iwatani: In the short term, we would like to focus on the condominium segment for branding and in the medium term, we will focus all of our resources on medium range segment.

In the near future, we want to focus on being an investor that way we can control overall quality, uphold our standards and thus, preserving our core values.

In the long term, when the project demand increases, Haseko will fully utilise our resources to diversify our activities.

What do you expect from Vietnam market? Can you reveal the total capital investment in Vietnam in 2018 and in the next five years?

Akihiko Iwatani: Firstly, we would like to raise the construction standard as well as the management of apartment in Vietnam to be the same standard as Japan.

Secondly, we would like to gain more profit. Thirdly, Haseko want to become the number one enterprise in the line of apartment. In particular, when Vietnamese think about apartment, I want them to immediately think of Haseko.

This year, Haseko will perform two projects, one in Ho Chi Minh city and the other one in Hanoi. Depending on the land fund and the scale of the project, we will then decide the total capital investment.

However, if we have to specify the details, we estimate the investment to be from $100 million to $200 million for both projects.

Thank you very much!