Ho Chi Minh City office tenants looking for green buildings

HO CHI MINH CITY: Tenants in Ho Chi Minh City are increasingly looking for green offices with good amenities that provide a clean working environment for their employees, according to Savills Vietnam.

To meet this need, developers have built many green, environmentally friendly office buildings.

Vietnam is considered a potential destination in the flexible office trend, and has a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises and startups who prioritise renting green offices.

Owners of these businesses often do not use traditional offices, and so co-working spaces have been widely developed.

Employees too now prioritise working for businesses with flexible workspaces.

Vietnam has committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, which will influence the trend of leasing office space that meets green standards such as LEED and Green Mark in future.

Considered a top project in Ho Chi Minh City that can meet the strict evaluation criteria of Singapore’s Green Mark standard, the UOA Tower office building in District 7 provides tenants with a green space with a sustainable and user-friendly design.

It has 23 floors and four basements with a total usable area of up to 28,464 sq m, with units of 150 to 1,000 sq m to meet all rental needs.

According to Savills, Vietnam is achieving progress in green building certification, and currently has 20 LEED or Green Mark-certified office buildings, 17 in Ho Chi Minh City and three in Hanoi.

Elke Kornalijnslijper, head of sustainability consulting, the Asia-Pacific, said 87% of real estate occupiers surveyed across the Asia-Pacific are targeting 100% green certified portfolios by 2030.

Experts said that today, leasing offices in green-certified buildings is gradually becoming normal and even a must-have criterion for most tenants in Asia-Pacific.

Many businesses’ net-zero emissions targets are now driving decarbonisation strategies across Asia-Pacific office rental portfolios. — Viet Nam News/ANN