Vietnam's ugly building oversupply problem

Hello from Bangkok, where the rainy season has arrived. It has been a furnace in Southeast Asia, so I welcome the rain!

I was in Hoi An and Da Nang last week, where I was looking at some of the developments on the coast. I will have a trip report about Hoi An next week.

This week I also published my review of a big new urban area in Phan Thiet. This one took me longer to edit than I would have preferred because I was trying to write it without swearing. I was swearing a lot when visited, but thankfully there was no one around to hear me anyway.

This ties in with a few news stories listed below about Vietnam’s oversupply of buildings. Maybe “ugly” is subjective, but what is clear is that there is an oversupply of the wrong kind of building. Vietnam needs more affordable housing and fewer “luxury” villas.

Latest posts at Future Southeast Asia

• BRG Danang Beach Plaza

On my most recent trip to Hoi An/Da Nang, I saw another apartment development has started between the two cities. This is in the South Danang area, which is not an official name, but this is opposite the proposed South Beach Danang development. This new development is being built near the disastrous Cocobay project.

Dispatches from Southeast Asia

• Novaworld Phan Thiet review

The new coastal resort town on the South Central coast of Vietnam.

News

• Smoke and heat: breaking records in Southeast Asia

“The long-range forecasts paint a bleak, hot outlook, with suffocating heat and smoky air across Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.”

• China’s Asean engagement boils down to economic development, former officials in Southeast Asia say

• Belt and Roadblocks: More of China's borrowers fall into distress

🇰🇭 Cambodia

• Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport to officially open in October 2023 and trial flights by mid-May

• Cambodia to start construction of expressway to Vietnam

• Capital’s condo supply hits 48.6K units by March

• Housing demand declines sharply in last two years

🇮🇩 Indonesia

• Indonesia seeks debt relief on China-built fast rail project, by

• Nusantara authority invites world investors to support IKN development

🇱🇦 Laos

• Laos-Vietnam railway construction could begin by year end: developer

• Authorities to clear commercial area for tourism spot in Vang Vieng

• Laos welcomes first Chinese tourists arriving on cross-border train

• Laos farmers cling to a way of life that’s vanishing as developer drains marsh they rely on for water

"To Vientiane’s new middle class an artificial lake is a jewel; to farmers reliant on wetlands a Chinese developer drained to create it, it’s a curse."

This is one of the projects I am keeping watch on in Laos. Read more about the That Luang Lake SEZ.

• Nong Khang Airport sees its first successful aircraft landing

Where is Nong Khang? I hear you ask. Here is Nong Khang Airport on Google Maps.

• Vientiane buses to stop only at official bus stops from next month

🇲🇾 Malaysia

• Beyond Penang’s world heritage site, activists are fighting to save historic buildings

• Illegal renovations pose risk to George Town’s heritage listing, activist warns

• Reducing wildlife accidents and kills on ECRL

🇵🇭 Philippines

• Loan negotiations for Bataan-Cavite bridge to start in third quarter

• DPWH targets completion of P86-billion worth of bridges by 2028

• ADB to fund $19-B projects in PH in 2024

• Airport upgrades needed with sharp rise in passenger traffic expected by 2027

• LOOK: Youth climate activists slam government’s reclamation projects

🇸🇬 Singapore

• Uneven terrain, obstructed paths: This is how wheelchair users navigate public pavements in Singapore

🇹🇭 Thailand

• Thailand’s ‘durian’ train to China arrives in record time

• Gaysorn sets out Bangkok expansion plans 

“Property firm aims to make Amarin Plaza the next piece of its Ratchaprasong empire.”

• Navy moves to close luxury resort built on its land 

🇻🇳 Vietnam

• Hundreds of Vietnam property firms have shut as crisis drags

I’ve lost count of the amount of projects like Novaworld Phan Thiet I have seen in my travels around Vietnam. My usual reaction is “who the hell is going to buy all of these?” We are now finding out.

Not only are there too many properties, there are too many of the wrong properties. I am so sick of seeing these ugly cookie-cutter villas like these ones that are having trouble being sold in Hanoi.

Meanwhile, there is a shortage of affordable housing.

• Vietnamese Gov’t aims to approve North-South express railway project by 2025

• HCMC’s anti-flooding project going nowhere

• Sustainable Vietnam Part 1—Plastic, People, Power, by

• Vung Tau sweeps away beachside eateries

“Makeshift stores and eateries built illegally along Vung Tau’s Bai Sau (Back Beach) have been taken down to give back open space to beachgoers.”

• Illegal 12-floor Phu Quoc hotel to be dismantled