Multi-million dollar villas have arisen on Phu Quoc Island, and the land fund for project development is now fully taken.

Phu Quoc is a beautiful island with 62 percent of its total area covered by primitive forest, and another large area is reserved for the national defence purposes. With a 150 kilometer long of coastline, Phu Quoc is an ideal place for developing resorts and tourism.

A report of the Phu Quoc Island Management and Development Board shows that 202 investment projects, covering the total area of 8,000 hectares on the island, have been licensed. Investors have committed to pour VND144 trillion, or $6.3 billion, to develop the projects.

In fact, the investors’ race for Phu Quoc began some years ago. 

Vingroup, the “big shark” in the real estate sector owned by the first Vietnamese dollar billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong, was a pioneer on Phu Quoc. It took the group 10 months only to fulfill the first phase of the Vinpearl Phu Quoc resort.

The resort covers a vast area of 304 hectares, capitalized at VND17 trillion.

While Vingroup tries to develop a resort in the northern part of the island, CEO Group is gathering its strength to develop a resort on the sea surface, just several kilometers from Duong Dong Town and a five-minute drive from Phu Quoc International Airport.

Doan Van Binh, president of CEO Group, said at a recent shareholders’ meeting that Phu Quoc will be the CEO Group’s focus in 2015, because “the Phu Quoc real estate market is developing very strongly”.

Sonasea Resort & Villas, covering an area of 80 hectares, is just one of three projects CEO plans to develop on Phu Quoc.

It has completed the construction of infrastructure items for the project, finished the execution of a seven-hectare resort comprising a 5-storey Novotel hotel complex, a 350-room conference center, restaurants and 46 villas facing the seaside.

CEO hopes the resort would be put into operation by the end of the year.

Many other huge projects are also expected to arise on the island. However, most of them either remain on paper or have just been kicked off because of the investors’ limited financial capability.

Binh of CEO said with 350 hectares of land on Phu Quoc, CEO has a land fund large enough to implement huge projects. However, it will be a major problem to raise funds for the projects. Sonasea Villas and Resort alone cost VND4.5 trillion. Therefore, the group plans to transfer part of the projects to get money to develop projects of its own.

According to Binh, the investment rate in Phu Quoc is 15-20 percent higher than in Hanoi and HCM City.

Dat Viet