306,771-SF Office Tower On Market

By Natalie Dolce

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Centre Point Office Tower

HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM-The Centre Point Office Tower, a building that is considered to be the first grade A office building to be sold on the open market in Vietnam is on the market. It is one of the only buildings in Ho Chi Minh City built to an Australian Green Star Environment rating.

Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. is marketing the 306,771-square-foot building comprised of 15 levels of offices and two levels of retail space and points out that being sold in the open market presents investors with a prime opportunity to acquire a high quality asset via a formal campaign. “It is a very high yielding investment relative to other parts of Asia and is expected to sell at a low price in comparison to other markets in the region,” says JLL. The company tells GlobeSt.com that the price for the Vietnam office black is $60 million and interested investors so far are “all Asian based groups—two from Singapore; one from Hong Kong; and one from Japan.”

David Lyons, managing director, for JLL Vietnam says that “Vietnam has good domestic economic prospects based on rising fixed investment and falling dependency rates. Ho Chi Minh is particular is expected to benefit from these factors with a growing number of major multinational corporations looking to base themselves in the city.”

He adds that “Vietnam is expected to increase its real growth trends from 7.5% to slightly over 8% over the next five year period. Demand for Grade A space is closely linked to GDP growth and this year demand increased at the first quarter as foreign companies continued to look for space in the city.”

Completed in June 2009 by developer Refico, a Vietnamese property company, the building has recorded 75% occupancy over a nine month period since construction completed to a combination of multinational and strong local corporate groups, according to the marketing brochure. Projected fully leased net income (i.e. at 100% occupancy) is $6.98 million per annum. The building—located at 106 Nguyen Van Troi St. in the Phu Nhuan district—was designed with flexible floor plates, which can be split into multiple tenancies.

Megan Walters, head of research for Asia Pacific Capital Markets said, “Vietnam’s financial system has been largely unscathed by global financial crisis, the sharp rebound in global trade will in the long term benefit  the exports of coffee, electronics garments and rubber. Trade has been a source of instability at the start of 2010 with imports exceeding exports; however April’s figures showed a 33% year on year growth.”

Walters adds that improvements in government policy and lessons learned coupled with further investment and production, should lead to a lower level of inflation in the next five years. “An economy which has a rising share of fixed investment, builds capacity to have greater growth in the future.”

Fixed investment continues to rise and is expected to reach 42% by 2015, Walters adds, “putting Vietnam on a par with India and close to China’s 45% share of GDP spent on investment. This rate of investment should build productive capacity and keep high growth rates beyond 2015.”

Categories: International, Office, Acquisitions/Dispositions, Asia