HCM City (VNA) –꧅ The industrial real estate market, particularly in the southern region, held steady in the first months of this year, which experts said was mainly thanks to rebounding imports and exports, and increasing influx of foreign investment.

The average land rent price in the tier-1 market in the southern region was 189 USD per sq.m, up 2.4% year-on-year, according to property consulting firm CBRE Vietnam. Experts said apart from electronics, automobile and spare part manufacturers, tenants from new industries in the high-tech field such as electric vehicle manufacturing, semiconductors, and green materials have expressed their interest in Vietnam. Localities' orientation for new business and increasing interest in high-tech industries are expected to create a boom in this sector in the future. Pham Thi Mien, deputy head of Market Research and Investment Promotion Consulting from the Vietnam Association of Realtors (VARS), forecast that the industrial real estate segment will maintain the pace throughout the year, noting many investment projects in this regard have received in-principle approval and kept moving. Experts explained that along with the stable socioeconomic situation, the improved investment environment, and incentives to foreign investors, Vietnam has paid attention to infrastructure construction. Assoc. Professor, Dr. Dinh Trong Thinh, from the Academy of Finance, stressed the need for Vietnam to have a clean land fund, and sketch out a national master plan, and schemes for localities and sectors in order to roll out appropriate incentives. The VARS said Vietnam plans to zone off an additional 115,000 hectares of land for industrial parks in the next decade, with about 558 IPs across the country, nearly 1.5 times the current number. VARS Chairman Nguyen Van Dinh said that Vietnam will continue attracting many foreign investors, adding the FDI influx in industrial parks and economic zones will account for about 45% of the total additional registered FDI in the country this year./.