Business  » Property

Tamaki Yasuhiro, chairman of Tama Home Group - one of the leading property and construction companies in Japan, told VIR’s Thanh Thuy that the downturn in the current Vietnamese property market offered prime investment opportunities for financially strong foreign investors.

Why did Tama Home invest into Cambodia before Vietnam?

It’s true that we officially cooperated with local partners to carry out a new urban area project in Cambodia in November. However, it does not mean we decided to invest into Cambodia before Vietnam. In fact, we researched the Indochinese property market three years ago and clearly realised the strong potential of Vietnam’s property market.

We decided to wait for the market to bottom out as other developers are forced to delay projects or withdraw money. The crisis cannot last forever and we will soon enjoy the success after the market’s recovery.

That is why we immediately took an opportunity to enter the market by purchasing 20 per cent of Cotecland, a member of Cotec Group and becoming a strategic partner of the group in real estate investing.

Why did you choose to cooperate with Cotec Group?

Tama Home and Cotec Group have many similarities. We are a group with many members, mainly working in real estate and construction business. Thus, the tight cooperation will give us more investment opportunities, exploit all of our strengths and make us stronger.Especially, Cotec Group and its partners have a large empty land fund, that is the basis of helping us developing property projects branded Tama Home in Vietnam.

In the detail, following the agreement we signed with Cotec Group, we will transfer our new building management and construction technologies to save costs, enhance quality and narrow the progress of developing property projects developed on Cotec Group’s available land plots.

Which real estate segments will Tama Home invest in?

We prefer to focus on residential projects and target middle-class people, since they create real demand. However, we plan to invest in from middle to high-end residences and office buildings too, cooperating with Cotec Group.

Why will you invest into the segments even though the nation’s office and apartment markets are showing signals of oversupply and downturn?

We believed that there still is a high demand for high-quality offices for lease buildings and high-rise apartment blocks due to the nation’s economic growth. Our experiences in Japan will surely help Cotec Group and Cotec Land develop more attractive products to end-users even in the real estate recession.

Which countries in Asia does Tamahome intend to invest into besides Vietnam and Cambodia?
Besides Vietnam, Cambodia and some countries, we intend to expand our investment into Asian nations such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.