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Nation's tallest building to open in October
The country's tallest building, the Bitexco Financial Tower in HCM City, is set to open its doors in October.
Construction of 56 of the proposed 68 floors is complete, with a 40-metre-long helipad to be built on the 50th floor next month.
Vu Quang Hoi, Chairman of the Binh Minh Import Export Production and Trade Company (Bitexco), the building owner, said the lotus-shaped tower, which is set to cost more than US$270 million, would offer 38,000 sq. metres of grade A office space and 8,000sq.m of retail space.
The building, situated between Hai Trieu, Ngo Duc Ke and Ho Tung Mau streets in District 1, will also host an observation deck on the 47th floor, dining establishments on the 48th and 49th, and an Executive Club on the 50th.
Hoi said it would be the first building in Viet Nam to be equipped with double-deck elevators running at seven metres per second, the quickest in the city.
Peter Dining, General Director of property consultant Colliers International, the tower's leasing agent, said monthly rentals would start at $45 per square metre.
Marc Townsend, General Director of another property consultant, CBRE Viet Nam, expects the new building to have a high rate of retail occupancy.
Office demand rises
A CBRE survey of the HCM City retail market in the first quarter found demand continued to rise while there was no new supply.
Vacancy was low with shopping centres reporting a fall to 7.3 per cent from the previous quarter's 7.7 per cent.
"The market continues to strengthen as retailers are forced to compete for the few prime locations that are available," Townsend said.
He expected the trend to continue though Vincom Centre on Ly Tu Trong, Dong Khoi and Le Thanh Ton streets will open this month with 58,000sq.m of retail space.
Rentals for some premium space in the building's ground floor could be as high as $250 per square metre, compared to an average $109 in the central business district.
Vincom Centre will put 80,000sq.m of Grade A office space in the market. It and the Bitexco Financial Tower will be the major suppliers of Grade A space in the next 12 months.
Rent for Grade A space continued to soften in the first quarter to $39.6 per sq.m, a quarter-on-quarter fall of 2 per cent and 31 per cent down year-on-year.
As a result, vacancies declined to 15.6 per cent from the previous quarter's 19.9 per cent.
vietnamnews
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