An artist’s impression of Aeon Shopping Center to be built in Celadon City project Photo: Courtesy of developer

Saigon Thuong Tin Tan Thang Investment Real Estate Joint Stock Company (TTJSC) on Saturday started marketing its large Celadon City project underway in HCMC’s Tan Phu District, over a year after the project got off the ground.

TTJSC, a joint venture between Gamuda Berhad’s property development arm Gamuda Land and Saigon Thuong Tin Real Estate Joint Stock Co. (Sacomreal), is offering apartments of the project’s Ruby precinct with a promotional package starting from VND19 million per square meter.

The developer woos buyers with a special payment method that requires a deposit equivalent to 30% of the total value of the apartment with the balance to be paid in the first quarter of 2013 upon the project’s completion. Homebuyers can also own a package of furniture worth up to VND60 million during the launch event.

“The official launch is considered the promising start to begin a new year with much more success for Celadon City,” Dang Hong Anh, TTJSC’s chairman said at the launching event of the township project.

The two partners have set aside some US$215 million to turn an 82-hectare site into a greenery township with some 7,000 apartments to accommodate some 25,000 people.

The project will also have offices for lease, shops and a supermarket, as well as amenities such as schools, area for children, and cultural and sport facilities.

The launch event saw TTJSC and Aeon, a leading retailer in the Asia Pacific region, signing a commercial section nestled in the Celadon City project. The Japanese retailer will invest US$100 million in Aeon Shopping Center to serve future residents in the township. This is the first project to be developed by Aeon in Vietnam.

Asked about the timing of the project launch, Chow Chee Fan, general director of TTJSC, said the local property market is still in difficulty but the company keeps investing to develop the project as a long term investment. “We are here for a long term investment, so whether the market is up and down we will continue the project development.”

The township project, he added, requires some seven years for the development; and with the launch, the company wants to compete with other developments.

Regardless of the gloomy market, Chow feels confident about the market, saying that there is a huge housing demand in Vietnam. The township offers not only apartments for accommodation but also a lifestyle, an environment living community.

Anh seconded his partner’ ideas, saying that although Celadon City was broken ground at a time of global economic downturn and tough local property market conditions, the township is being developed as planned.

Anh said Celadon City is being built based on Gamuda Land’s rich experience as an urban township developer and Sacomreal’s deep understanding about the local property market.

For Gamuda Land, Celadon City is the first township that the Malaysian company had invested in HCMC and the second big property project in Vietnam. In collaboration with Sacomreal, Gamuda Land owns 60% of the joint venture.

Around two years ago, Gamuda had its multi-million-dollar property project getting off the ground at Yen So Park in Hanoi’s Thanh Tri District. The project includes commercial and office centers, luxury houses, and recreational works among others.

Gamuda Land has developed six townships in Malaysia, and Vietnam is seen as the second market in Asia where the company had got involved in property development projects.