Banyan Tree enjoys fruit from its Laguna Lang Co development

The Singaporean developer has done very well out of the second home market

Laguna Lang Co, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Banyan Tree in Vietnam, announced recently that it had sold 80 per cent of its first Laguna Park townhome block at a soft launch event on September 6.

The Laguna Lang Co project spans 280 hectares in Lang Co Bay in Thua Thien-Hue province. Banyan Tree plans to develop the project along the same lines as its famous Laguna Phuket in Thailand.

The Laguna Park residential component is the newest addition to Laguna Lang Co’s portfolio of luxury second homes after its Banyan Tree and Angsana Residences. Consisting of seven blocks, the area has a total 70 two-bedroom townhomes (195.6 square metres each). The project also features the award-winning championship course Laguna Lang Co Golf Club.

The first ten units of Block 1 opened for sale at the soft launch event with a special early bird price of $265,000. Construction on the first block recently started and will be soon followed by the opening of Block 2.

“Not one of the home buyers was Vietnamese,” exclaimed Phan Y Nhi, director of sales and marketing of property at Laguna Lang Co.

As well as the Laguna Park townhomes, Nhi also said the project had welcomed buyers of its $1 million luxury villas under the Banyan Tree brand, all of whom were foreigners. More than ten villas have been sold since the company opened the Laguna Lang Co Resort last year.

“No Vietnamese has ever bought a second-home at our integrated resort,” Nhi noted. In other words, she said, the Singaporean developer had not yet focused on marketing the offer of a second-home lifestyle to the Vietnamese market. Instead, the marketing campaign is focused on international markets, via Banyan Tree’s channels throughout Asia.

“Banyan Tree is a famous brand in Asia. We have our own customers from Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. So many foreign home buyers already know who we are and how they can benefit from our project,” Nhi added.

What Laguna Lang Co does is different from other second-home developers in the central region, who mainly rely on demand from domestic buyers.

Vietnam’s second-home market boomed in 2006-2009, when dozens of projects popped up along the coast of Danang and Hoi An, including the Hyatt Regency Danang, Ocean Villas, Vinpearl, Sun Villas, and The Dune.

But when the economy - and particularly the real estate market - fell on hard times, domestic demand for second homes plummeted. Meanwhile, developers also struggled to sell the villas to foreigners.

According to the latest report from property consultancy CBRE, the current unsold stock of second-home villas in Danang for example is nearly 400 units. No new projects have been launched in the city since the first quarter 2013 because of unsold stocks.

Nhi said the launching of Laguna Park townhomes at this time was a result of Banyan Tree’s confidence in the Vietnam market. “We are not seeing the risk that others are, we are still experiencing growing demand from foreign home buyers,” said Nhi.