In its Hotel Investment Highlights report, property consultancy JLL said that transactions in Vietnam in the first six months of 2016 reached $237.6 million, fourth for the Asia-Pacific region following Japan, Australia and mainland China. Notably, Vietnam’s numbers were ahead of those from Taiwan and Thailand.
A $74.9 million deal for InterContinental Asiana Saigon in Ho Chi Minh City was among the top deals during the period. Total transactions in the region grew 13.2 percent to $3.8 billion from a year ago. More than half of these, or $2.1 billion, came from the Japan market, which is expected to continue to dominate investment volume for the remainder of the year.
Vietnam’s visitor arrivals grew 21 percent in first half of the year, and the country hopes to reach its goal of attracting 8.5 million foreign visitors by the end of the year—a 7-percent increase from 2015.
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The purchase comes less than a month after Singaporean developer Low Keng Huat Ltd. sold the Duxton Hotel Saigon in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to an undisclosed investor for $49 million. The sale was the fourth reported hotel acquisition in Vietnam this year.
Last month, South Korean carrier Asiana Airlines reportedly sold a 50-percent stake in Kumho Asiana Plaza, a serviced apartment and hotel complex, to Saigon Boulevard Holdings (a subsidiary of Singaporean developer Mapletree Investments) for $107.5 million.
In April, Que Huong Liberty Corporation, which owns several hotels in Ho Chi Minh City, sold the Novotel Saigon Centre in the downtown area to a Vietnamese investor for $46.7 million.
In Hanoi, local hotel company BRG Group recently bought the Sedona Suites Hanoi from Singapore's Keppel Land Vietnam at $31.5 million.