InterContinental Hotels Group Plc, Europe’s second largest hotel company, is “very bullish” on the property market in Vietnam, said Karen Lai, director of development for southern Asia.
It signed an agreement this month with South Korea-based Keangnam Enterprises to develop InterContinental Hanoi Landmark, set to open in early 2011.
The chain is also developing six other hotels in Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang and Da Nang, Lai said.
The chain, which also runs hotels under the Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza brands, is betting the Southeast Asian nation would recover after inflation accelerated to the fastest in 16 years in May.
The central bank said last week it’s planning measures to keep credit growth below 30 percent this year.
“Overall, we’d like to see the situation as a bottle that’s half-full rather than half-empty, and it’s timely for people who are not yet invested to seize this opportunity now,” Lai said Wednesday at a real estate investment seminar in Singapore, calling Vietnam “the Paris of the East.’’