Regarding the Nhơn Đức – Phước Kiển New Urban Area project (commercial name: ZeitGeist City Nhà Bè), the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City has recently announced its invitation for consulting firms to appraise the land value of this project.
The ZeitGeist City Nhà Bè project is located in Phước Kiển and Nhơn Đức communes, Nhà Bè district, covering an area of 350ha and developed by GS Nhà Bè Development Company Limited, a subsidiary of GS E&C Group (South Korea).
 An overview of the ZeitGeist City Nhà Bè project. (Photo: Trần Chung) |
According to the plan, the ZeitGeist City Nhà Bè project includes 228ha of residential land and 121ha of non-residential land. Within the 228ha of residential land, there are 155ha of grouped residential areas, including 14,000 apartments, 2,480 villas, and 2,678 mixed-use houses.
This is the 7th time that the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City has invited consulting firms to re-evaluate the land value of this project. The valuation period was determined in December 2013.
After nearly 4 years, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment has not been able to re-evaluate the land value of this project as instructed by the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City.
Being the second largest urban area in South Saigon, the ZeitGeist City Nhà Bè project was launched at the end of 2019. So far, many residential products in some zones of the project have been handed over to customers. However, the financial obligations related to land of the project owner have not been clearly determined.
As reported by VietNamNet, in December 2014, the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City approved the land use rights value for the ZeitGeist City Nhà Bè project at 3,214 billion VND. In April 2017, the State Audit proposed that the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City re-evaluate the land value of this project.
Based on that, in March 2020, the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City directed the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to lead and coordinate with relevant units to decide the land value of the project.
During a dialogue conference between the leaders of the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City and Korean businesses in March 2023, Mr. Cho Sung Yol, CEO of GS E&C Group in Vietnam, expressed his opinion on Ho Chi Minh City re-evaluating the land value of the ZeitGeist City Nhà Bè project.
According to Cho Sung Yol, in 2007, the company advanced the costs for the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee to carry out compensation and site clearance work for the project. According to the agreement, these costs will be deducted from the land use fees that the project owner must pay when determined.
The representative of the Korean company complained that if Ho Chi Minh City unilaterally re-evaluates the land value of the project and demands additional payments from the project owner, it will negatively affect the stability and trust of FDI businesses in general, including GS E&C Group.
By Anh Phương
